Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification guide
AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification is the entry point to the Microsoft Azure certification portfolio — the credential that says you understand what the cloud is, what Azure offers, and how it is governed and paid for. It is designed for candidates just beginning to work with cloud-based solutions or new to Azure specifically: developers coming from other clouds, business stakeholders and project managers who sit next to Azure teams, students, and IT professionals building toward the associate exams like AZ-104 (Administrator), AZ-204 (Developer), and AZ-305 (Solutions Architect).
Unlike Azure’s associate and expert credentials, AZ-900 does not expire and does not require annual renewal — pass once and the badge stays valid for life. The exam does not require prior Azure experience, though general technology familiarity helps you move faster through the vocabulary-heavy scenarios.
Level · Fundamentals Questions · ~40–60 Time · 45–60 min Pass · 700/1000 Cost · $99 USD Renewal · Never expires
The exam is organized into three domains covering cloud concepts, Azure’s core architecture and services, and Azure management and governance. The two heavier domains — architecture and services, and management and governance — together account for roughly two-thirds of the exam, so they deserve the most preparation time. Cloud concepts is a smaller but foundational block: get the shared responsibility model, the deployment models, and the service types right, and the rest of the exam falls into place.
Describe cloud concepts
Domain 1 · 25–30%Cloud computing definitions and benefits — high availability, scalability, elasticity, reliability, security, manageability, and agility. The shared responsibility model across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Deployment models (public, private, hybrid, community) and their use cases. The consumption-based OpEx model versus traditional CapEx. Service types (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, serverless) and how to pick the right one for a scenario.
Describe Azure architecture and services
Domain 2 · 35–40%Azure’s physical and logical architecture — regions, region pairs, sovereign regions, availability zones, and datacenters, plus the management hierarchy of tenants, management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, and resources. Core compute (Virtual Machines, VM Scale Sets, App Service, Functions, Container Instances, AKS, Azure Virtual Desktop) and networking services (VNets, subnets, peering, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, DNS). Storage services and tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive), redundancy options (LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS), account types, and data-movement tools (AzCopy, Storage Explorer, Data Box). Identity, access, and security — Microsoft Entra ID, MFA, Conditional Access, RBAC, B2B and B2C, Zero Trust, defense-in-depth, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Describe Azure management and governance
Domain 3 · 30–35%Cost management — the factors that drive Azure spend, the Pricing Calculator (future estimates), the TCO Calculator (on-prem versus cloud), Microsoft Cost Management (actual spend and budgets), and the role of tags in reporting. Governance and compliance — Azure Policy, resource locks (CanNotDelete and ReadOnly), and Microsoft Purview for data governance. Management and deployment tools — the Azure portal, Cloud Shell (Bash and PowerShell), Azure Arc for extending management to on-premises and other clouds, and ARM templates and Bicep for infrastructure as code. Monitoring — Azure Advisor for recommendations, Service Health for Microsoft-side incidents, and Azure Monitor with Log Analytics and Application Insights for your own resources.
Our practice bank mirrors the official blueprint weights across ten sets. Each set is a 60-question full-length exam with a 60-minute timer and a 70% cut score — a slightly generous approximation of Microsoft’s scaled 700/1000. Sets rotate through industry verticals so the same underlying topics show up in different scenario dressings: generic enterprise, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, government, retail, SaaS, higher education, energy, and a mixed-vertical simulator. Questions are original — no exam-dump content — and every explanation names the near-miss distractor so you build the discrimination that AZ-900’s vocabulary questions actually reward.
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals - Practice Exam
Question bank for Microsoft AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals, spanning all three domains: Cloud concepts, Azure architecture and services, and Azure management and governance. Each attempt draws a…
Subscribe to startIf you can hit 42 out of 60 comfortably on a fresh set, you are in the safe zone for exam day. The domains interlock — securing a storage account touches storage, networking, and identity all at once — so use the mixed-vertical Set J late in your prep to test whether the vocabulary really landed.
Frequently asked questions about AZ-900
What is the AZ-900 exam?
AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is the entry point to the Microsoft Azure certification portfolio. It validates that you understand what the cloud is, what Azure offers, and how Azure is governed and paid for. It is aimed at candidates just beginning to work with cloud-based solutions or new to Azure specifically — developers coming from other clouds, business stakeholders and project managers who sit next to Azure teams, students, and IT professionals building toward the associate exams.
How many questions are on the AZ-900 exam and how long is it?
AZ-900 delivers roughly 40 to 60 questions in a 45 to 60 minute window. It is a Fundamentals-level exam, so the item pool leans on vocabulary and concept recognition rather than the long multi-service scenarios you meet at associate and expert level.
What is the passing score for AZ-900?
700 out of 1000 on Microsoft’s scaled scoring system. The scaled score is not a raw percentage — Microsoft adjusts for item difficulty across exam forms — so the practical target is to be scoring comfortably above 70% on full-length practice sets before you book.
How much does the AZ-900 exam cost?
$99 USD. That is the lowest price point in the Azure certification portfolio, which is part of why AZ-900 is such a common first credential for people moving into cloud roles.
Are there prerequisites for AZ-900?
No. The exam does not require prior Azure experience and there is no prerequisite certification. General technology familiarity helps you move faster through the vocabulary-heavy scenarios, but the exam is written for candidates who are new to Azure.
How hard is the AZ-900 exam?
AZ-900 is the Fundamentals tier of the Azure path, so it is the least demanding Azure exam in terms of hands-on depth. The difficulty is breadth and vocabulary: the exam expects you to distinguish closely related terms and services quickly. Get the shared responsibility model, the deployment models, and the service types right and most of the rest of the exam falls into place.
What domains does AZ-900 cover and how are they weighted?
Three domains: Describe cloud concepts (25–30%), Describe Azure architecture and services (35–40%), and Describe Azure management and governance (30–35%). Architecture and services plus management and governance together account for roughly two-thirds of the exam, so they deserve the most preparation time.
Does the AZ-900 certification expire?
No. Unlike Azure’s associate and expert credentials, AZ-900 does not expire and does not require annual renewal — pass once and the badge stays valid for life.
How should I prepare for AZ-900?
Work the blueprint domain by domain and then drill full-length timed sets. Certifym’s practice bank mirrors the official blueprint weights across ten sets, each a 60-question exam with a 60-minute timer and a 70% cut score — a slightly generous approximation of Microsoft’s scaled 700/1000. Sets rotate through industry verticals, so the same underlying topics appear in different scenario dressings. If you can hit 42 out of 60 comfortably on a fresh set, you are in the safe zone for exam day.
What is the difference between AZ-900 and AZ-104?
AZ-900 is the Fundamentals credential — conceptual coverage of what Azure is, what it offers, and how it is governed and billed, with no prior experience assumed. AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) is one of the associate exams AZ-900 candidates build toward, and it tests hands-on administration rather than vocabulary. AZ-900 is a common first step before AZ-104, AZ-204 (Developer), or AZ-305 (Solutions Architect).
Trademark notice & independence. Certifym.net is operated by Certifym Exam Services, LLC and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft, Azure, Microsoft Entra, and AZ-900 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The AZ-900 exam objectives are the property of Microsoft; candidates should always confirm the current exam skills outline, weightings, pricing, and logistics directly on the Microsoft Learn credentials website before scheduling.
All practice questions and explanations on this site are original content authored by Certifym Exam Services, LLC. We do not reproduce, redistribute, or paraphrase content from Microsoft’s official exam item bank, exam guide, or licensed training partner materials. Our questions are written from the publicly available exam skill outline and represent our independent interpretation of the domain topics for study purposes only. Passing our practice exams does not guarantee a passing score on the actual Microsoft exam.