Last updated: July 2026. Exam readiness for AZ-104 means preparing against current Microsoft Azure administration requirements while Azure services, exam pages, and certification policies continue to change, so candidates should verify details on Microsoft Learn before booking.
Azure administration is changing as Microsoft places more emphasis on identity, governance, automation, monitoring, and task-based administration rather than simple portal familiarity. Passing AZ-104 now depends less on memorising screens and more on being able to choose the right administrative action under time pressure.
AZ-104 is the exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification. It is aimed at administrators who implement, manage, and monitor Azure environments, including identity, storage, compute, virtual networking, and governance across cloud resources.
What AZ-104 tests now
The exam is built around the work expected of an Azure administrator. A candidate should be able to configure Microsoft Entra identities, assign role-based access control, deploy and manage virtual machines, configure storage accounts, design practical virtual networking, and monitor resources using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, and backup tools.
Microsoft has also reintroduced performance-based task items in its certification exams. These items feel different from multiple-choice questions because the candidate may need to complete an administrative action in a live or simulated environment. Ethical preparation means practising the underlying tasks in Azure and using Microsoft’s Exam Sandbox to understand the interface, rather than relying on leaked questions or brain dumps.
Older AZ-104 advice often overstates storage and virtual machines while underplaying governance and monitoring. In practice, many weak attempts come from candidates who can create a VM but cannot diagnose an NSG rule conflict, explain why a user lacks access despite being in the right group, or decide whether Azure Policy, RBAC, a lock, or a management group is the correct control.
Who should take AZ-104
AZ-104 is a good fit for systems administrators, infrastructure engineers, support engineers, and cloud administrators who already understand basic networking, identity, operating systems, and resilience. Experience with on-premises virtualisation, DNS, VPNs, firewalls, Active Directory concepts, backup, and restore operations provides a useful base because Azure uses many of the same principles in a different control plane.
AZ-900 is not required before AZ-104. A practical rule is simple: candidates who are new to cloud concepts, subscriptions, shared responsibility, pricing models, and high-level Azure services may benefit from the AZ-900 Fundamentals course first, while administrators who already work with infrastructure can usually move straight into AZ-104 preparation. Readers comparing the broader Microsoft path can still use Microsoft certification paths as a starting point.
It is also worth correcting another outdated progression point. AZ-400 no longer depends on passing AZ-104 or AZ-204 first, although Azure administration knowledge remains useful for DevOps work. Candidates moving toward development can review the Azure Developer course, while those pursuing DevOps can consider the Azure DevOps Engineer course when the role fit is right.
Use the official pages, but study through real tasks
The current Microsoft Learn exam page is the source of truth for skills measured, scheduling, and policy changes. The older Microsoft documentation site and the archived AZ-104 administrator prerequisites path still point candidates toward Microsoft learning material, but candidates should verify current exam details directly on Microsoft Learn before relying on any older page.
The skills measured for AZ-104 are easier to retain when each domain is translated into administrator work. Identity and governance means creating groups, assigning RBAC at the right scope, applying Policy, and understanding what to do when permissions do not behave as expected. Storage means configuring redundancy, lifecycle management, access tiers, shared access signatures, Azure Files, and recovery options. Compute means deploying and managing virtual machines, scale sets, app services, templates, and backup. Networking means building VNets, subnets, peering, private DNS, route tables, VPN concepts, and NSGs. Monitoring means collecting logs, building alerts, reading metrics, and using diagnostic settings to make resources observable.
A useful practice scenario is an RBAC misconfiguration. A support engineer has been added to a group but still cannot restart a virtual machine. The right investigation is not to keep adding broader roles. It is to check the assignment scope, group membership propagation, inherited deny conditions, management group structure, and whether the action is covered by the assigned role. AZ-104 often rewards that kind of administrative reasoning.
Another common scenario is NSG troubleshooting. A VM appears healthy, but application traffic fails. The administrator should inspect effective security rules, subnet and NIC-level NSGs, route tables, service endpoints or private endpoints, and whether the issue is name resolution rather than packet filtering. Practising this workflow builds the type of pattern recognition that multiple-choice study alone rarely develops.
A realistic 6-week AZ-104 study plan
Six weeks is a practical timeline for candidates who already have infrastructure fundamentals and can study consistently. The plan below assumes regular hands-on practice, not passive video watching. Candidates with less Azure exposure should extend the lab weeks rather than compressing the domains.
- Week 1: Set up the lab subscription, review Azure administration basics, and practise Microsoft Entra users, groups, RBAC scopes, subscriptions, management groups, and Azure Policy.
- Week 2: Work through storage tasks, including storage accounts, redundancy options, containers, file shares, access control, lifecycle rules, snapshots, backup, and restore testing.
- Week 3: Build and manage compute resources, including virtual machines, availability options, extensions, images, app services, ARM or Bicep deployment concepts, and recovery operations.
- Week 4: Focus on virtual networking by creating VNets, subnets, NSGs, peering, DNS configurations, route tables, load balancing concepts, and connectivity troubleshooting scenarios.
- Week 5: Practise monitoring and maintenance with Azure Monitor, metrics, diagnostic settings, Log Analytics queries, alerts, backup reports, update management concepts, and cost visibility.
- Week 6: Review weak areas, repeat labs without step-by-step instructions, use the Microsoft Exam Sandbox, complete practice questions ethically, and rehearse exam-day time management.
An instructor-led option can help candidates who need structured labs, accountability, and guided review rather than building an entire plan alone. The AZ-104 instructor-led course is most useful when paired with independent practice before and after the class, because the exam expects fluency rather than recognition.
Build a lab environment that resembles real administration
AZ-104 preparation should use a safe Azure subscription where mistakes are affordable and visible. A free or low-cost lab setup should include a budget, cost alerts, resource groups by topic, naming conventions, and a habit of deleting resources after each study session. Candidates should also create activity log alerts for important administrative actions so they learn where Azure records operational changes.
Governance should be part of the lab from the beginning. Applying resource locks, testing Policy assignments, limiting allowed regions, and assigning RBAC at different scopes makes the practice environment closer to real work. It also prevents a common exam weakness: knowing how to deploy resources but not knowing how organisations control them.
Command-line practice matters as well. The Azure portal is useful for learning resource relationships, but AZ-104 candidates should also practise with Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell for tasks such as listing resources, checking effective permissions, deploying templates, and reviewing diagnostic settings. Skipping the command line leaves candidates vulnerable when a question describes automation, repeatability, or deployment at scale.
How to handle exam timing and question strategy
Microsoft exam appointments distinguish between total appointment time and the time available for scored exam content. Candidates should read the current scheduling page carefully because tutorial time, agreements, surveys, breaks, and scored sections may be described separately. Treating the whole appointment as answer time can lead to poor pacing.
A sensible approach is to move steadily through the first pass, answer questions that are clear, flag uncertain items, and avoid spending too long on one complex case study or multi-step item. The review screen is valuable because it allows candidates to return to marked questions and prioritise items where a small amount of extra thought is likely to change the answer.
Performance-based items require particular discipline. Candidates should read the task carefully, complete only what is requested, and verify the result in the environment before moving on. Over-configuring a resource can waste time and may introduce errors that were not part of the original task.
Exam-day preparation
Remote and test-centre delivery both require preparation. Candidates testing online should check identity documents, room rules, camera, microphone, internet stability, and permitted equipment before exam day. Those using a test centre should still arrive with enough time for check-in and should expect administrative steps before the scored exam begins.
Before launching the exam, candidates should use the tutorial and sandbox features if offered. This is not study time for Azure concepts; it is a chance to understand navigation, flagging, review screens, item types, and how interactive tasks behave. That small investment can reduce friction once the scored section begins.
Retake rules, rescheduling rules, and accommodations are Microsoft policies, not training-provider policies. Candidates who need accommodations should request them through the official process before booking or well ahead of the appointment, rather than assuming changes can be made during check-in.
Common reasons candidates miss the mark
The most common preparation mistake is narrow study. A candidate may spend many hours creating virtual machines and storage accounts but never practise management groups, Policy remediation, diagnostic settings, or Log Analytics. AZ-104 expects administrators to maintain and govern environments, not merely deploy resources.
Another weak area is troubleshooting. Candidates should practise reading the symptoms of a problem before reaching for a fix. For example, a failed connection to a VM could involve NSGs, routes, DNS, public IP configuration, private endpoint behaviour, guest firewall settings, or application binding. The exam often tests the ability to choose the most likely administrative cause from a constrained set of facts.
Finally, some candidates rely too heavily on practice tests. Good practice questions can reveal gaps, but repeated question memorisation produces fragile confidence. A better signal is whether the candidate can rebuild a lab from memory, explain why each control exists, and troubleshoot a deliberately broken configuration without step-by-step notes.
What to do after AZ-104
After passing AZ-104, the right next step depends on the role direction. Administrators moving toward architecture often progress toward AZ-305-style design skills, network-focused administrators may look toward advanced Azure networking, and security-focused administrators may move into Microsoft security certifications. DevOps-oriented candidates may choose AZ-400 when they are ready to connect infrastructure, automation, CI/CD, and operational practices.
The important point is to avoid collecting exams without a role plan. AZ-104 is strongest when it becomes a foundation for administering real subscriptions, improving governance, tightening monitoring, and supporting application teams more effectively.
Putting the study plan into practice
Passing AZ-104 requires a blend of official study, repeated lab work, and calm exam execution. Candidates should verify current Microsoft policy, practise the actual administrative tasks behind each domain, and treat governance, monitoring, networking, and troubleshooting as core topics rather than secondary details.
A practical next step is to build the lab environment, schedule the first two weeks of study, and decide whether self-study is enough or whether structured training would reduce uncertainty. Readynez can support candidates who want instructor-led AZ-104 preparation, but the foundation remains the same: hands-on practice, current Microsoft guidance, and disciplined review.
