AZ-104 exam guide: format, domains, preparation
Who the exam is for
AZ-104 is the exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification. It is aimed at administrators who implement, manage and monitor an Azure environment: identities and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitoring with backup and recovery.
The official study guide lists the skills measured as of April 17, 2026. It states that most questions cover features that are generally available, that questions on preview features may appear if those features are commonly used, and that related topics may be covered. No official in-scope or out-of-scope service list is published for AZ-104; the skill bullets in the study guide are the reference.
Exam format
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Exam code | AZ-104 |
| Duration | 100 minutes |
| Number of questions | Not published for AZ-104. Microsoft's general exam experience page says most of its certification exams contain between 40 and 60 questions, and that the number varies by exam. |
| Question types | The certification page says the exam may include interactive components. The general exam experience page describes types such as multiple choice, drag and drop, hot area and case studies. |
| Passing score | 700 or greater |
| Proctoring | Proctored exam |
| Languages | English, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), Italian |
| Skills outline version | Skills measured as of April 17, 2026 |
Domains and weights
The study guide gives each domain a weight range rather than a single figure.
| Domain | Weight | Main skill groups |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20–25 % | Microsoft Entra users and groups; access to Azure resources (built-in roles, scopes); subscriptions and governance (Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, costs, management groups) |
| Implement and manage storage | 15–20 % | Access to storage (firewalls, SAS tokens, stored access policies, access keys); storage accounts (redundancy, object replication, encryption, AzCopy); Azure Files and Blob Storage (tiers, soft delete, snapshots, lifecycle, versioning) |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20–25 % | ARM templates and Bicep files; virtual machines (sizes, disks, availability zones and sets, scale sets, encryption at host); containers (Container Registry, Container Instances, Container Apps); App Service |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15–20 % | Virtual networks, subnets, peering, public IP addresses, user-defined routes; NSGs and application security groups, Azure Bastion, service and private endpoints; Azure DNS and load balancing |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10–15 % | Azure Monitor (metrics, logs, alerts, insights), Network Watcher and Connection Monitor; Azure Backup, Recovery Services and Backup vaults, Azure Site Recovery |
What changed recently
The change log in the study guide compares the outline before and after April 17, 2026. It marks minor changes to the audience profile and to a few skill groups (Azure Files and Blob Storage, virtual machines, containers, monitoring resources). Read the change log in the study guide itself before your exam.
Several Azure products named in the skills have also been renamed or retired. Product documentation is the place to check their current status:
- Azure Active Directory has been renamed Microsoft Entra ID. New name for Azure AD
- Basic Load Balancer was retired on September 30, 2025; Standard is the upgrade path. Basic Load Balancer upgrade guidance
- Basic SKU public IP addresses were retired on September 30, 2025. Basic public IP upgrade guidance
- Unmanaged disks were fully retired on March 31, 2026. Unmanaged disks deprecation
- Azure Disk Encryption is scheduled for retirement on September 15, 2028; encryption at host is the documented alternative. Azure Disk Encryption overview
How to prepare
- Read the official certification page for scheduling, languages and exam policies.
- Go through the official study guide bullet by bullet. Each bullet is a task such as "Configure resource locks" or "Create and configure a backup policy"; check that you can describe how to do it and when it applies.
- Follow the Microsoft Learn AZ-104 learning path, then read the product documentation for the services each bullet names.
- Give more time to identities and governance and to compute, which carry the highest weight ranges, without neglecting monitoring and backup.
- Note the retired and renamed features above so that older tutorials do not mislead you.
- Practise with our AZ-104 practice exam under time pressure, then work through your weak areas in the free study mode.
Our practice questions are multiple choice and based on written documentation; they do not reproduce interactive components. Combine them with time in the Azure portal if you have access to a subscription.
Practice Exam AZ-104: Azure Administrator Associate
25 free questions with explanations, no account needed.