AZURE: Solutions Architect Certification Guide (With hand written notes)
Microsoft AZURE has emerged as a very strong cloud competitor in this fast emerging field and is here to stay. With all the professional software offerings and industry leading integrations of dominant software and providers, Azure is going to be very big. I started with my first Azure project around a year back in Oct 2019.
Microsoft has aligned their certifications around roles which is more logical way in today’s environment. You can target your role and study that path to become one in terms of raw knowledge. If you have a working project it’s best but if not no need to get disappointed this is still a new field and everyone is learning, just do the labs and exercises :)
Azure Solutions Architect Expert is one of the most sought after certifications and not an easy one to achieve. I recently got mine:
Take a look at full MS Azure Certification board here:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/
Azure Solutions Architect Expert can be achieved after passing three exams:
- Azure Fundamentals
- AZ- 303
- AZ- 304
Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/roles/solutions-architect
AZ 303 is new exam version from Oct 1st 2020 which was AZ- 300 and similarly AZ 304 is what was AZ- 301. So if you have passed any one exam AZ-300 or AZ-301 you can just give one more newer version of exam and get the Azure Solutions Architect Expert badge.
The syllabus for AZ-303 and AZ-304 is on the certification dashboard when you navigate towards a particular exam. Each topic has been mentioned and you are expected to understand as well as have hands on for them as there would be lab exercises in the exam.
The two exams are quite lengthy each having a duration of around 3 hours. The questions may be just 45–50 in count but the length and content is heavy and will require you to think. The options are meant to be confusing and there could be more than one solution.
Suggested prep timeline:
Set aside 8 weeks or two months. First 4 weeks go through all the coursework, labs and documents and try to learn the concepts. Next 2 weeks focus on tests and questions and jot down all the points and topics you couldn’t answer. Those need to go through again. Next each week schedule and give exams and in between the 5–6 days give a practice test daily and analyze the answers why one is incorrect which you thought to be right.
Resources:
Create a personal Azure subscription if you already don’t have one as you will need on even if you have a corporate Azure account as the coursework requires hands on with a lot of Azure Active Directory and it’s services which users usually don’t have in corporate environment.
To begin with basics I completed the following courses on Udemy with all the exercises being done independently by me.
UDEMY COURSEWORK and EXAMS:
Scott Duffy’s AZ — 300/303 course and AZ — 301/304 course complete with all modules and practice tests and labs.
Microsoft’s own learning portal is best. It gives you Azure sandbox environment almost for whole day and your daily quota get’s refreshed each day :)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn
I have forked an amazing detailed guide from a kind person:
For AZ 300/303- https://github.com/anandbright/az-300-prep-kit
For AZ 301/304- https://github.com/anandbright/az-301-prep-kit
Azure ARM Teamplates: https://github.com/anandbright/AzureStack-QuickStart-Templates
From the certification dashboard choose online free way to prepare and follow the path they suggest in the certification dashboard.
Apart from that you will need to refer a lot of docs from MS Azure Documentation too:
App Gateway: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/how-application-gateway-works
AAD Health agent: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-health-agent-install
App service app restrictions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-ip-restrictions
Azure N/W limits: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/blob/master/includes/azure-virtual-network-limits.md
Azure subscription limits: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits
Azure Virtual Networks FAQ: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-networks-faq
SSL Certificate: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/configure-ssl-certificate
Service Bus Queues: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/service-bus-dead-letter-queues
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/service-bus-messaging-overview
Storage accounts: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-overview
MISC:
Networking CIDR basics: https://www.dnsstuff.com/subnet-ip-subnetting-guide
Azure RBAC Lab: https://azurecitadel.com/infra/vdc/lab5/
Choosing right Azure Load Balancer DevBlog: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/premier-developer/azure-load-balancing-solutions-a-guide-to-help-you-choose-the-correct-option/
https://www.concurrency.com/blog/w/azure-traffic-manager-vs-azure-load-balancer
Kubernetes components: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/components/
https://quizlet.com/ for fun Azure concepts flashcards
Sample tests and questions:
UDEMY:
AZ-300/303 Microsoft Azure Architect Practice Exam Questions (2 tests)
AZ-301/304 Azure Architect Design Practice Test (2 tests)
Testprep https://www.testpreptraining.com/ (I used for more practice tests and topic wise test)
https://www.mindhub.com/az-303-microsoft-azure-architect-technologies-microsoft-official-practice-test/p/MU-AZ-303 (official practice tests)
Going a step further I have also scanned and uploaded my hand written notes which you can refer after practice tests.
How to use the notes:
- They are not exhaustive nor complete as it contains primarily those things which I was revising or reading. For e.g. there is nothing for monitoring as I did monitoring for my own Azure project
- Take the point and go to Microsoft docs or try on Azure portal
- They are just few guiding points.
AZ 303 — https://github.com/anandbright/Docs-and-Links/blob/master/AZURE/Hand%20Notes%20AZ-303.pdf
AZ 304 — https://github.com/anandbright/Docs-and-Links/blob/master/AZURE/Hand%20Notes%20AZ-304.pdf
Additional points — https://github.com/anandbright/Docs-and-Links/blob/master/AZURE/Hand%20Notes%20Focus%20Points.pdf
Exam:
Scheduling- Schedule the exams in MS Certification page and choose a day for yourself where you could give a full day.
Before the Exam — Do a system check on the same laptop where you would write the exam.
During the exam- Stay calm and take your time to read those big questions blocks. There is plenty of time to answer each question.
GOODLUCK!!!
After the certification read these worthy articles and be updated as an architect:
Sample codes for Azure: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/browse/?products=azure
Cloud Design Patterns: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/patterns/
Prebuilt Azure Architectures: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/browse/#compute
