How to prepare and take Azure Data Fundamentals certification test, for free?

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As everything in IT industry is moving towards cloud, so should you. If you are a Data Engineer, a Cloud Engineer, a Data Scientist or just simply starting on cloud or wishing to start, then the DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals is a basic certification which will help you with the first steps on cloud journey.

“This exam is intended for candidates beginning to work with data in the cloud” — Microsoft.

The Test:
The test is of 1000 marks, and you need to get at least 700 to pass it. It is of about 60 minutes, and number of question are around 40–60. It consists of MCQs(mostly),a few drag-drop questions, few select correct option questions and some yes-no questions.

This certification costs 3696 Rupees in India, or 99$ in US, and so on; varies country to country. But you can take this for free. For that you just need to attend free Microsoft virtual training for the same, and at the end they send you a coupon, using which you can take the test free of cost. So it’s like cherry on the top of already free cake.

You can register for this free virtual training from this link. The training is of around 3 hours, for two days. And everything is virtual, so you don’t need to go anywhere.

And if the next training date is after many days(though normally it is within a month), and you don’t want to wait that long, then you can also get the test fees reimbursed if you work in an IT company, as most of them have such certification reimbursement policies for their employees. So you can check with your employer for details. But this may not be possible for everyone, so in that case first option is your friend.

Preparation:
For preparation for the test, below are the two best free resources.

1. The Microsoft learn resource. Here you will get the study material for the exact Microsoft tests you want to take. Since we are talking about Azure Data Fundamentals test, you can refer this link for the corresponding resources. This covers all the topics you need to go through for this test. It has 4 parts, and in my case I covered one per day, but the speed totally depends on you and your time. My advice would be to prepare a short note for yourself while you go through this, it will be very helpful to revise on the day of the test.
2. The virtual training. The next best resource is the virtual training itself, for which you are going to register to get the free coupon. It is also very precise and informative. So you can learn from there too.

In my case I had made use of both the resources. And on day of the test, I just revised from my notes.

Sample questions:
Below are some sample Azure Data Fundamentals questions, based on my experience of this test, which I took a week ago(and passed! and so will you!!).

I would recommend you to first go through the above mentioned resources, and then give these below questions a try. So that you can evaluate yourself.

1. What are Azure Data Studio, SQL Server Management Studio, Azure Data Explorer, etc. And when should those be used.
2. Type of NoSQL databases to be used in a particular use case. Or which Cosmo DB API to be used in which case.
3. What is ETL and its components. What is DWH, and its corresponding service in Azure.
4. What is ADF, its parts, and what activities can be done using it.
5. Power BI components.
6. What is PaaS, and what responsibilities are taken care by user vs Azure in any PaaS.
7. What is ACL and where is it used.
8. When a database is created by a user, then who always has access to it, in any situation.
9. Which Azure service should be used for logging events in real time.
10. Which Azure service should be used for connection between a VM and a database, such that the database is not exposed to internet.
11. Pipelines in ADF.
12. What is JSON, and its structure.
13. What is Gremlin or Graph API.
14. What is Synapse Link used for.
15. In a partition, is partition key same for all rows.
16. When should ‘sqlcmd’ be used.
17. Type of replications.
18. Simple SQL query and its parts. Aggregate function examples.
19. What is Databricks. When and what is it used for.
20. Azure components like subscriptions, accounts, resources, containers, etc.

To sum it up, just follow the above steps and go through the mentioned resources, it is more than enough for the test. And this is just a fundamental Azure test, so questions are simple. But don’t take it too lightly either. Keep a balance.

As Thanos says, “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Too much to one side and the other…”.

P.S.: The coupon you may not get immediately after the training, it may take a few days, and will come in your email. So don’t worry about that, and keep doing your preparation. All the best!!