1.2. Understanding the AZ-204 Exam: Purpose & Audience
The AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure exam assesses your ability to design, build, test, and maintain cloud applications and services on Azure. Its scope covers the full lifecycle of Azure development, including compute, storage, security, monitoring, and integration with third-party services.
What It Is: The "AZ-204 exam" is an associate-level certification specifically for developers. It evaluates your practical ability to implement and manage Azure solutions from a code-centric perspective.
Exam Format:
- Duration: ~120 minutes
- Number of questions: 40ā60
- Types: "Multiple-choice", "multi-response", "drag-and-drop", "case studies", "scenario-based", and potentially "hands-on labs" (though less common recently).
- Passing score: 700/1000
- Delivery: "Online" or "test center"
Exam Objectives: The exam domains include:
- Developing Azure compute solutions (e.g., App Services, Functions, Containers)
- Implementing Azure security (e.g., Key Vault, Managed Identities, Entra ID authentication)
- Integrating storage and caching (e.g., Blob Storage, Cosmos DB, Redis Cache)
- Monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimizing solutions (e.g., Azure Monitor, Application Insights)
- Connecting to Azure and third-party services (e.g., API Management, Event Hubs, Service Bus)
Visual: "AZ-204 Exam Domain Weightage"
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Alignment with Official Documentation: Effective preparation requires close alignment with the official Microsoft Learn documentation and the published exam skills outline. These resources are authoritative, regularly updated, and reflect the current scope and best practices for Azure development. Always consult the latest official materials to ensure your study is relevant and comprehensive.
Cognitive Level Expected: The AZ-204 exam targets "Application", "Analysis", and "Comprehension". You will need to:
- Apply knowledge to solve real-world problems (e.g., "Given this data, how would you store it in Azure?")
- Analyze scenarios to select optimal solutions (e.g., "Which compute service is best for this workload, and why?")
- Comprehend and interpret requirements in context (e.g., "What does this code snippet do, and how does it integrate with Azure?")
This guide is structured to help you build the practical skills and analytical mindset needed to succeed at these cognitive levels.
Scenario: You are a software developer with experience in traditional application development looking to specialize in building cloud-native solutions on Azure. You need to understand what the AZ-204 exam covers and how it validates the skills of an Azure Developer.
Reflection Question: How does the AZ-204 exam's focus on "designing, building, testing, and maintaining" Azure solutions across various domains (compute, storage, security, etc.) directly reflect the responsibilities of a cloud developer and influence your study approach?
š” Tip: Pay close attention to the wording in the exam questions. They often test your ability to choose the most appropriate solution given specific requirements (e.g., cost, performance, scalability, security).