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AZ-400
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Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions
Last updated on: Jun 5, 2026
Author: Robt Hankison (Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) & DevOps Training Specialist)
The AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions exam validates your ability to combine people, processes, and technologies to deliver continuous value through DevOps practices. As the required exam for the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification, AZ-400 focuses on implementing secure, scalable, and automated software delivery solutions using Azure DevOps and GitHub.
This certification is intended for professionals who work across development and operations teams, enabling continuous integration, continuous delivery, infrastructure automation, security integration, monitoring, and collaboration. Success in AZ-400 requires both technical knowledge and practical experience with modern DevOps tools and workflows. This guide provides an overview of the official exam objectives, question formats, preparation strategies, and career opportunities associated with the certification.
The AZ-400 exam measures your ability to design, implement, and optimize DevOps practices across the software development lifecycle. Microsoft currently evaluates candidates across five primary skill domains.
This domain focuses on establishing effective collaboration, communication, and workflow management strategies. Candidates should understand how to design traceability solutions, implement work tracking processes, create dashboards and metrics, configure project documentation, and integrate Azure Boards, GitHub repositories, and collaboration platforms. The objective also covers designing feedback loops and improving visibility across development and operations teams.
Candidates must demonstrate knowledge of modern source control practices and repository management. This includes designing branching strategies such as trunk-based development, feature branching, and release branching. The domain also covers pull request workflows, branch protection rules, repository permissions, version control optimization, large file management, repository tagging, and recovery of source code using Git commands.
This is the largest section of the AZ-400 exam and focuses on continuous integration, continuous delivery, deployment automation, package management, testing strategies, infrastructure as code, and pipeline optimization. Candidates should understand Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, YAML-based automation, deployment strategies, approval workflows, release gates, infrastructure provisioning, artifact management, and maintaining efficient CI/CD processes. Knowledge of deployment patterns such as blue-green deployments, canary releases, feature flags, and rolling deployments is also important.
This objective evaluates your ability to secure DevOps environments and enforce governance requirements. Candidates should understand authentication and authorization methods, managed identities, service principals, secret management, Azure Key Vault integration, GitHub security controls, compliance automation, vulnerability scanning, dependency management, and DevSecOps practices. The domain also covers implementing security scanning and integrating security processes throughout the software development lifecycle.
This section focuses on monitoring, telemetry collection, and operational insights. Candidates should understand how to configure Azure Monitor, Application Insights, logging solutions, GitHub monitoring capabilities, alerting mechanisms, and performance analysis tools. The objective also includes analyzing telemetry data, reviewing application health metrics, investigating distributed tracing information, and querying operational logs to support continuous improvement initiatives.
The AZ-400 certification exam evaluates both conceptual understanding and practical decision-making skills through real-world DevOps scenarios. Candidates are expected to apply knowledge across software delivery, automation, security, monitoring, and collaboration processes.
Common question formats include:
Many questions involve selecting the most appropriate DevOps solution based on business requirements, security constraints, deployment objectives, and operational considerations rather than simply identifying definitions or features.
AZ-400 preparation is most effective when theoretical learning is combined with practical implementation. Because the exam heavily emphasizes pipeline design, automation, and deployment workflows, candidates should spend significant time working with Azure DevOps, GitHub, and Azure services in real-world scenarios.
Successful candidates often build hands-on projects that include source control integration, automated testing, deployment pipelines, infrastructure as code, and monitoring solutions. Understanding how different DevOps components interact throughout the software delivery lifecycle is critical for answering complex scenario-based questions.
Recommended preparation activities include:
Expert Dumps provides exam preparation resources designed to help candidates strengthen their understanding of AZ-400 objectives and DevOps implementation scenarios. These materials are structured around official Microsoft exam requirements and focus on practical, exam-oriented learning.
Available resources include:
These resources can be used alongside Microsoft Learn documentation and hands-on lab exercises to build a comprehensive preparation strategy.
Design and Implement Build and Release Pipelines is the largest domain and accounts for approximately 50–55% of the exam. Candidates should devote substantial preparation time to CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, testing strategies, infrastructure as code, and release management concepts.
Yes. Microsoft specifically expects candidates to have experience working with both GitHub and Azure DevOps solutions. Understanding how these platforms integrate into modern DevOps workflows is important for success in the exam.
The exam heavily emphasizes pipeline automation, deployment strategies, source control management, infrastructure as code, security integration, monitoring, and DevOps collaboration processes. Practical understanding of these concepts is essential for answering scenario-based questions effectively.
Many candidates focus exclusively on Azure DevOps while overlooking GitHub-related objectives. Others underestimate deployment strategies, security integration, YAML pipeline development, and infrastructure automation concepts. Insufficient hands-on practice is also a common challenge.
Use the final week to reinforce weak areas identified through practice testing. Focus on reviewing deployment workflows, security controls, source control strategies, and pipeline design concepts. Completing at least one full-length timed assessment can help improve confidence and exam pacing.
The Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification demonstrates advanced expertise in implementing DevOps practices across enterprise environments. Organizations increasingly seek professionals who can automate software delivery, improve operational efficiency, strengthen security practices, and accelerate innovation through modern DevOps methodologies.
Certified professionals commonly pursue roles such as DevOps Engineer, Senior DevOps Engineer, Cloud DevOps Specialist, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Platform Engineer, Release Manager, Infrastructure Automation Engineer, and Cloud Solutions Engineer. Demand remains strong across industries adopting cloud-native development and continuous delivery practices.
DevOps continues to play a central role in modern software engineering and cloud transformation initiatives. As organizations adopt cloud-native architectures, platform engineering practices, infrastructure automation, and AI-enhanced operational workflows, demand for DevOps expertise is expected to remain strong.
The AZ-400 certification provides a solid foundation for professionals seeking long-term career growth in cloud operations, software delivery, automation, and platform reliability. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into development pipelines, monitoring systems, and operational analytics, professionals with strong DevOps fundamentals will be well positioned to lead the next generation of software delivery and cloud innovation initiatives.
Select an option, then click Show Answer.
SIMULATION Task 1 Navigate to https://dev.azure.com, select Start Free, and specify the following credentials: * UserUsefl-42147509@ExamUsers.com * Password: eWrSalD2! Use the default setting to sign up for Azure DevOps and create an Azure DevOps organization. Once the organization is created. creates private project named Project1. You need to add an external user that has an email address of Usfrr2-42147S09@ExamUsers.com as a stakeholder of the User1 -42147509 Azure DevOps organization. The user must be added to the most restrictive Azure DevOps group. To complete this task, sign in to the Azure DevOps portal as Userl-42147509ExamUsers.com.
Correct Answer: A
Step 1: Sign Up for Azure DevOps
Navigate to Azure DevOps.
Click onStart Free.
Enter the credentials:
Email: UserUsefl-42147509@ExamUsers.com
Password: eWrSalD2!
Follow the prompts to complete the sign-up process using the default settings.
Step 2: Create an Azure DevOps Organization
Once signed in, you will be prompted to create a new organization.
Enter a name for your organization and select your region.
Click onContinueto create the organization.
Step 3: Create a Private Project
In your new organization, click onNew Project.
Name the projectProject1.
Set the visibility toPrivate.
Click onCreate.
Step 4: Add an External User as a Stakeholder
Go to theOrganization Settings.
UnderGeneral, selectUsers.
Click onAdd users.
Enter the email address: Usfrr2-42147S09@ExamUsers.com.
Set the access level toStakeholder.
Add the user to the most restrictive group, which is typically theReadersgroup.
Click onAddto complete the process.
Step 5: Verify the User Addition
Ensure that the external user has been added successfully by checking theUserslist.
Confirm that the user has theStakeholderaccess level and is part of theReadersgroup.
By following these steps, you should be able to complete the task successfully. If you encounter any issues, feel free to ask for further assistance!
SIMULATION Task 12 You need to create a personal access token (PAT) named Token! that has only the following capabilities * Read write, and manage code * Read and execute builds * Read releases Token1 must expire in 60 days.
Correct Answer: A
Step 1: Navigate to Personal Access Tokens
Sign in to Azure DevOps:
Go toAzure DevOpsand sign in with your credentials.
Access User Settings:
Click on your profile picture in the top right corner.
SelectUser settings.
Open Personal Access Tokens:
In the user settings menu, selectPersonal access tokens.
Step 2: Create a New Personal Access Token
Create a New Token:
Click on+ New Token.
Configure the Token:
Name: EnterToken1.
Organization: Select the organization where you want to use the token.
Expiration: Set the expiration to60 days.
Set Scopes:
Code: SelectRead, Write, & Manage.
Build: SelectRead & Execute.
Release: SelectRead.
Create the Token:
Click onCreate.
Step 3: Save the Token
Copy the Token:
Once the token is created, copy it immediately as it will not be displayed again.
Store the token in a secure location.
By following these steps, you will have successfully created a personal access token namedToken1with the specified capabilities and a 60-day expiration
You have an Azure subscription that contains an Azure Pipelines pipeline named Pipeline1 and a user named User1. Pipeline1 is used to build and test an app named Appl. User1 is assigned the Contributors role for Pipeline1. You plan to test App1 by using an Azure Deployment Environments environment. You need to ensure that User1 can provision the environment. The solution must follow the principle of least privilege. Which role should you assign to User1?
Correct Answer: B
SIMULATION Task 3 You need to ensure that an Azure Web App named az400-38443478-matn supports rolling upgrades The solution must ensure that only 10 percent of users who connect to az400-38443478 main use updated versions of the app. The solution must minimize administrative effort.
Correct Answer: A
To ensure that your Azure Web App named az400-38443478-main supports rolling upgrades and only 10 percent of users connect to the updated version of the app, you can use deployment slots with the following steps:
Create a Deployment Slot:
Navigate to the Azure Portal.
Go to your Web App az400-38443478-main.
Select Deployment slots in the menu.
Click on Add Slot.
Name the slot (e.g., staging) and if needed, clone settings from the production slot.
Configure the Traffic Percentage:
In the Deployment Slots menu, you will see a column for Traffic %.
Set the traffic percentage to 10% for the staging slot1.
This will route only 10% of the traffic to the updated version of the app in the staging slot.
Deploy the Updated App to the Staging Slot:
Deploy your updated application to the staging slot.
Test the application in the staging slot to ensure it’s working as expected.
Complete the Rolling Upgrade:
Once you’re satisfied with the performance and stability of the app in the staging slot, you can gradually increase the percentage of traffic until you’re ready to swap with the production slot.
To swap slots, go to the Deployment slots menu and click on Swap with the production slot.
By using deployment slots, you can achieve rolling upgrades with minimal administrative effort, as it allows you to test the new version on a subset of users before fully releasing it. Remember to adjust the traffic percentage and monitor the application’s performance throughout the process.
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