AZ-900 Exam Guide: Azure Fundamentals Explained

AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals) is Microsoft's entry-level cloud certification — the Azure equivalent of AWS Cloud Practitioner. Roughly 40–60 questions in about 45 minutes, $99 USD, passing score 700/1000. It validates foundational cloud vocabulary and Azure service awareness; no hands-on experience or technical background is required. It's the standard first step before role-based certs like AZ-104 (Administrator) or DP-900/AI-900 (data/AI fundamentals).

Exam format

• ~40–60 questions in about 45 minutes (budget ~60 min seat time including intro screens)
• $99 USD in the US (regional pricing applies)
• Passing score: 700 out of 1000
• Question types: multiple choice, multiple response, matching/drag-and-drop, and occasional case-study blocks
• Taken at a Pearson VUE test center or online proctored

The three domains

AZ-900 has three domains — fewer than AWS fundamentals exams, but deeper coverage of Azure's specific governance tooling:

• Describe cloud concepts (~25–30%): cloud models, shared responsibility, consumption pricing, cloud benefits
• Describe Azure architecture and services (~35–40%): regions/AZs, resource hierarchy, compute/networking/storage, identity & access
• Describe Azure management and governance (~30–35%): cost tools, Azure Policy, locks, monitoring, deployment options

Domain 1 — Cloud concepts

Vendor-neutral material that you may already know if you've studied any cloud: the difference between public/private/hybrid cloud, IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS with Azure examples, and the shared responsibility model — what Microsoft manages vs what remains yours in each service model. CapEx vs OpEx and the consumption-based ('pay-as-you-go') model are tested directly. Know the benefit vocabulary precisely: high availability ≠ scalability ≠ elasticity ≠ agility — the exam loves asking which benefit a scenario demonstrates.

Domain 2 — Architecture and services

The biggest domain and the most Azure-specific. Know the infrastructure hierarchy: region → availability zones (physically separate datacenters in a region) → region pairs for disaster recovery. Then the management hierarchy: management groups → subscriptions → resource groups → resources, and which governance constructs live at which level. Services to recognize by name: VMs vs App Service vs Functions vs AKS vs Container Instances; VNet, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Load Balancer, Front Door, CDN; Blob storage tiers and LRS/ZRS/GRS redundancy; and the identity stack — Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), MFA, SSO, RBAC, conditional access, and the Zero Trust principles.

Domain 3 — Management and governance

This is where AZ-900 differentiates from AWS exams — Azure's governance tooling is heavily tested. Learn the cost tools by purpose: Pricing Calculator (estimate before deployment), TCO Calculator (on-prem vs Azure comparison), Cost Management (analyze actual spend, budgets, alerts), and tags (organize for cost reporting). Governance: Azure Policy (enforce rules like allowed locations), resource locks (CanNotDelete/ReadOnly), Azure Blueprints concepts, and Microsoft Purview. Monitoring: Azure Monitor vs Advisor vs Service Health — the exam tests which tool answers which question. Plus deployment methods: portal, CLI, PowerShell, ARM templates, and Bicep.

AZ-900 vs AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)

• Both are foundational, vocabulary-driven, non-technical certs — either works as a first cloud credential
• AZ-900 has 3 domains vs CLF's 4, and devotes more weight to governance tooling (Policy, locks, Cost Management)
• CLF covers a much larger service catalog; AZ-900's service list is shorter but Microsoft-specific naming trips people up (Entra ID, not 'Azure AD' anymore)
• Cost: $99 (AZ-900) vs $100 (CLF); passing: 700/1000 vs 700/1000 — nearly identical logistics
• Choose by ecosystem: Azure if your org runs Microsoft 365/Entra/Windows-heavy stacks; AWS for the broader cloud market share

Who should take it

AZ-900 makes sense for anyone in a Microsoft-environment org, sales/PM/support roles who need Azure vocabulary, and engineers starting the Azure certification path toward AZ-104. If you're multicloud-curious after CLF-C02, AZ-900 is a fast second credential — the cloud-concepts domain overlaps significantly, so experienced candidates can prepare in a week.