Which Azure Exam Should I Take? Understanding Azure Certification

Deciding which Microsoft Azure certification exam to take depends on several factors, including your prior knowledge, experience, and career goals. Azure is a robust cloud computing platform that offers more than 200 products and services [1]. Whether you work—or aspire to work—in information technology (IT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data, or software development, building your Azure skills can show potential employers that you’re ready to work in a hybrid or cloud infrastructure. 

Earning an Azure certification can be valuable, regardless of which one you choose. According to Microsoft, 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Azure [1]. Showcasing your skills in this popular cloud computing platform may enhance your profile as you apply for jobs.

Learn more about various Azure certification paths, including requirements, cost, and exam content, to decide which certification is best for you.

What is the Azure certification?

Microsoft’s Azure certifications are professional credentials that validate your knowledge of Azure, a cloud-based platform delivering various services to businesses worldwide. These certifications offer you the opportunity to develop your technical skills related to working in the cloud. Discover beginner- and intermediate-level certifications focusing on database administration, security, AI, and more. 

Which Azure exam should I take? 

Deciding which Azure exam to take depends on your experience and career goals. If you’re new to Azure or the tech world, you may want to start with an Azure Fundamentals certification. However, if you’re a systems administrator, developer, data analyst, or AI expert, you can choose from intermediate-level exams that build on your existing knowledge in the field. Consider the following certifications to level up your knowledge of Microsoft Azure:

Azure Administrator Associate

If you’re interested in earning the Azure Administrator Associate certification, you’ll need to have experience in implementing and managing an organization’s Azure environment, whether that’s using Azure’s virtual networks or managing security or governance. You’ll also want to have experience working with PowerShell, Azure CLI, and Azure Resource Manager templates to excel on this exam. More broadly, professional experience working with operating systems, networking, and servers is also essential. This intermediate-level certification is ideal for you if you’re hoping to work as an Azure administrator for your organization. Requirements: Subject matter expertise working in the implementation, management, and maintenance of an Azure environment

Cost: $165 [2]

What’s on the exam: Exam topics include managing Azure identities and governance, implementing and managing storage, deploying and managing Azure compute resources, implementing and managing virtual networking, and monitoring and maintaining Azure resources.

Azure Security Engineer Associate

To earn the Azure Security Engineer Associate certification, you’ll typically need experience working with Azure administration and knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID. This certification is useful if you’re interested in working as an Azure security engineer, a position that involves overseeing your organization’s security and identifying any vulnerabilities. As a security engineer, you’ll work to stop data breaches by instituting threat protection and ensuring Azure regulatory compliance.

Requirements: Experience working with Azure administration and Microsoft Entra ID

Cost: $165 [3]

What’s on the exam: Exam topics include creating secure identity and access, networking, compute, storage, and databases, as well as using Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Sentinel.

Azure Developer Associate

The Azure Developer Associate certification suits individuals with experience in all phases of Azure development, including design, development, security, and monitoring. You’ll need to have experience working with various Azure elements, such as data connections and data storage, app authentication and authorization, and compute and container deployment. This certification is ideal for you if you are—or want to become—an Azure developer and have previous development experience working alongside cloud solution architects, a DevOps team, and infrastructure administrators.

Requirements: At least two years of programming experience and proficiency in Azure Software Development Kits (SDKs), Azure Command-Line-Interface (CLI), and Azure PowerShell

Cost: $165 [4]

What’s on the exam: Exam questions test your knowledge of the development of Azure compute and storage solutions; implementation of Azure security measures; monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization of Azure solutions; and connection of Azure services to third-party services.

Azure Data Fundamentals

The Azure Data Fundamentals certification requires a basic understanding of core data concepts and Azure’s data services. Azure Data Fundamentals may work well as a beginner-level certification if you’re an aspiring data engineer or hope to advance to other Azure certifications, including Database Administrator Associate or Data Engineer Associate. As a data engineer, you’ll work to extract and transform data so that it’s accessible to other members of the data team, such as data scientists.

Requirements: Basic knowledge of relational and non-relational data and transactional and analytical workloads

Cost: $99 [5]

What’s on the exam: This exam tests you on Azure’s core data concepts, considerations for working with relational and non-relational data, and Azure analytics workloads.

Power BI Data Analyst Associate

Using software and apps, Power BI helps you collect data and interpret and visualize it to provide key business insights. Power BI is an embedded resource in Azure, so a Power BI certification can help you maximize Azure functionality. The Power BI Data Analyst Associate certificate is an intermediate-level certification designed to help you demonstrate the best practices in modeling and visualizing data using Power BI. As a result, this certificate is ideal for data analysts with some experience using Power BI. You may be a good candidate for this certification if you work in data analysis, alongside data engineers, to acquire data and develop data visualizations.

Requirements: Proficiency in Power Query and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)

Cost: $165 [6]

What’s on the exam: Exam topics include how to prepare and model data with Power BI, build Power BI visualizations and reports, and manage workspaces and semantic models in Power BI.

How to prepare for Azure certification exams

Most Azure certifications require you to have some experience in the field. Therefore, you should be entering your exam with foundational knowledge in your chosen Azure topic area. You can also implement other strategies to ensure you’re well prepared to succeed on your certification exam. Consider the following options:

• Self-guided preparation: Microsoft offers study guides for exams, which can be a helpful resource to guide your preparation. These study guides include a breakdown of exam topics and the percentage of questions dedicated to each topic. You’ll also find a list of links with additional study resources, which you can work through at your own pace. 

• Exam videos: Search the Exam Readiness Zone on Microsoft’s website to find expert-led videos reviewing essential knowledge and offering tips and tricks for Azure certification exams.

• Practice assessments: Complete practice assessments on Microsoft’s website to give yourself a feel for the exam. The outcome of a practice assessment can help you determine whether you’re ready to take the exam or if you need to study more.

• Instructor-led training: If you prefer studying under the guidance of an instructor, sign up for one of Microsoft’s instructor-led courses. Available in both a traditional classroom setting and virtual environment, these courses highlight Azure fundamentals to help prepare you for the exam.

• Online courses: Prepare for your Azure exam from the comfort of your home on a schedule that works for you with online courses. Microsoft offers several exam prep Professional Certificates on Coursera, including the Microsoft Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) Exam Prep Professional Certificate and the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Exam Prep Specialization.

Azure certification path

Azure is a popular choice for organizations worldwide, representing 20 percent of the cloud infrastructure market share in the fourth quarter of 2024, ranking behind only Amazon Web Services (AWS) [7]. As a result, Azure-experienced professionals are in demand. Choosing your Microsoft Azure certification depends on your experience, current job, and future career goals. Consider the following job roles and the Azure certification that best suits them:

• Systems administrators and IT professionals: The Azure Administrator Associate certification suits cloud administrators, while the Azure Security Engineer Associate certification works well for security-minded professionals working in threat protection for their organization.

• Developers: If you’re a developer, you can benefit from the Azure Developer Associate certification, which helps you learn how to build, test, and maintain various cloud applications and services in Azure.

• Data experts: If you work with data, you can choose from several certifications, including the Azure Data Engineer Associate, Data Analyst Associate, and Data Scientist Associate. Depending on the certification you choose, you can develop your skills in managing cloud-based and on-site databases or improving data analysis and visualization techniques.

• All professions: Systems administrators, IT pros, developers, and data experts can all benefit from the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification, which introduces you to such topics as machine learning, natural language processing, and AI. The Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification aims to help prepare you to develop end-to-end solutions in Azure.

Prepare for Azure certification with Coursera

Industry-recognized Azure certifications may help you build your skill set and demonstrate your skills to potential employers. Pair your choice of Azure certification with additional learning opportunities on Coursera. The Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate on Coursera offers you the opportunity to learn how to use Power BI to connect to data sources and transform them into meaningful insights, as well as how to prepare Excel data for analysis in Power BI using the most common formulas and functions in a worksheet. Get started today.