What is AZ-204 and who should take it?
AZ-204 validates Azure developer skills: building solutions with App Service and Functions, using containers, working with Cosmos DB and Blob Storage, implementing Entra ID authentication and Key Vault secrets, and integrating via API Management and messaging/event services.
How many questions and what is the passing score?
The passing score is typically 700/1000 (scaled). Question count and exact formats vary (MCQ/MR, case studies, drag-and-drop). Expect scenario prompts that force you to pick the correct service and configuration.
Are there prerequisites?
No formal prerequisite exam is required. Practically, you should be comfortable with:
- at least one Azure SDK (C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or Python)
- deploying apps to App Service and/or Functions
- basic identity concepts (tokens, Entra app registrations)
How long should I study?
Pick a schedule you can sustain: AZ-204 Study Plan (30/60/90) →.
Most candidates land around 60–90 hours total unless they already build on Azure weekly.
Are labs required?
Hands-on practice helps a lot. You don’t need huge projects—just enough to make the core patterns feel automatic:
- Deploy a web API to App Service with a slot swap
- Build/push an image to ACR and deploy to Container Apps
- Write a Function with a trigger + binding and handle retries
- CRUD + query in Cosmos DB, and process change feed
- Secure secrets in Key Vault and access them via managed identity
- Publish an API in API Management and apply policies
What are the most common weak spots?
- Event selection: Event Grid vs Event Hubs vs Service Bus vs Storage Queues
- Auth choices: managed identity vs client secrets; delegated vs application permissions; Graph scopes
- SAS nuance: service vs user delegation SAS; least privilege + expiry
- Functions scaling/retries: poison messages, idempotency, concurrency
- App Service deployment safety: slots, config drift, and rollback thinking
- Observability: where to find failures in Application Insights and what to alert on
Any last-mile tips?
- Convert misses into rules (“Service Bus for ordering/DLQ”, “Prefer PaaS when ops simplicity matters”).
- Keep the Cheatsheet open during practice and star weak tables.
- In the final week, do 2 timed mocks, then re-drill your weakest tasks until misses stabilize.
Keep going