This blog post will cover everything you need to know about the Microsoft Azure Solution Architect certification that consists of two exams, AZ-303 (earlier it was AZ-300) & AZ-304 (earlier it was AZ-301).
You must be having many questions like, why this certification is important? What domains does it cover? What are the eligibility criteria? How to prepare for it? you will get the answers to every question below.
New Update: AZ 303 and AZ 304 certification exams will retire on March 31, 2022. A new exam, Exam AZ-305, will be available in November 2021.
In this blog, I am going to cover:
- Prerequisites Of Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
- Learning path of Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
- Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
- Who This Exam Is For?
- How to Register?
- Exam Details of AZ-303
- Exam Topics of AZ-303
- Exam Details of AZ-304
- Exam Topics of AZ-304
- Hands-On Labs
- Azure Certification Benefits
- Azure Exam Retake Policy
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Tips for Azure Solution Architect Exam
Prerequisites Of Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
There are not such any prerequisites for taking this course. But it is good if you go first with AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification Exam.
Learning path of Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
The Microsoft Azure Solution Architect Certification is geared towards those who advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Solutions Architects have expertise in compute, network, storage, security.
Who This Exam Is For?
Anyone looking to gain the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification needs to complete this [AZ-304] Microsoft Azure Architect Design exam and the [AZ-303] Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies exam. An Azure Solution Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.
Read this: Everything You Need To Know about Azure Active Directory
How to Register?
Check our blog to know about the detailed steps for registering Azure certification exam.
Exam Details:
AZ-303
- Certification Name: [AZ-303] Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
- Prerequisites: There are not any prerequisites for taking this course. Microsoft recommends candidates to possess a minimum of six months of hands-on experience administering Azure.
- Exam Cost: USD 165.00
Also read: Complete Guide on AZ 103 Exam
AZ-303 Exam Topics
Candidates should have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance. This role requires managing how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. Candidates must be proficient in Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps, and have expert-level skills in a minimum of least one among those domains.
The important domains covered in the [AZ-303] Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies certification exam are:
1) Implement and monitor an Azure Infrastructure (50-55%)
- Implement cloud infrastructure monitoring
- Implement storage accounts
- Implement VMs for Windows and Linux
- Automate deployment and configuration of resources
- Implement virtual networking
- Implement Azure Active Directory
- Implement and manage hybrid identities
2) Implement Management and Security Solutions (25-30%)
- Manage workloads in Azure
- Implement load balancing and network security
- Implement and manage Azure governance solutions
- Manage security for applications
3) Implement Solutions for Apps (10-15%)
- Implement an application infrastructure
- Implement container-based applications
4) Implement and Manage Data Platforms (10-15%)
- Implement NoSQL databases
- Implement Azure SQL databases
Also read: All you need to know about AZ-300 VS AZ-303 Microsoft Certified Azure Architect Technologies
AZ-304
- Certification Name: [AZ-304] Microsoft Azure Architect Design
- Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for taking this course. Microsoft recommends candidates to have a minimum of six months of hands-on experience administering Azure.
- Exam Cost: USD 165.00
Also Check: How to Configure Azure Traffic Manager. Click here
AZ-304 Exam Topics
Candidates should have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance. This role requires managing how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. Candidates must be proficient in Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps, and have expert-level skills in at least one of those domains.
The important domains covered in the [AZ-304] Microsoft Azure Architect Design certification exam are:
1) Design monitoring (10-15%)
- Design for cost optimization
- Design a solution for logging and monitoring
2) Design identity and security (25-30%)
- Design authentication
- Design authorization
- Design governance
- Design security for applications
3) Design data storage (15-20%)
- Design a solution for databases
- Design data integration
- Select an appropriate storage account
4) Design business continuity (10-15%)
- Design a solution for backup and recovery
- Design for high availability
5) Design infrastructure (25-30%)
- Design a compute solution
- Design a network solution
- Design an application architecture
- Design migrations
Also Read: Our blog post on ARM Templates. Click here
Hands-On Labs
Check the blog which covers the Step-By-Step Activity Guides of [AZ-303] Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies & [AZ-304] Microsoft Azure Architect Design training program, which you must implement to become an Azure Solution Architect.
Here’s a list of activity guides which you will perform during your learning of AZ-303
- How to Register for a free Azure cloud account
- Create A Virtual Machine With Custom VM Images
- Deploy A Virtual Machine Scale Set
- Exploring Monitoring Capabilities In Azure
- Create and Deploy an ARM Template
- Encrypt A Virtual Machine
- Configuring VNET Peering
- Load Balancer And Traffic Manager In Azure
- Creating Storage Accounts and accessing them via Storage Explorer
- Create an Azure Bastion host
- Governance and compliance
- Virtual machine replication via ASR
- How to Implement Azure Functions
- Implementing Custom Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Create An Azure Kubernetes Service
- Deploy Database Instances In Azure
- Implementing Azure Logic Apps
- Role-Based Access Control In Azure
- Configuring a message-based integration architecture
- Implementing user-assigned managed identities for Azure resources
- Implementing an Azure App Service Web App with a Staging Slot
- Implementing Highly Available Azure IaaS Compute Architecture
- Implementing and Configuring Azure Storage File and Blob Services
- Protecting Hyper-V VMs by using Azure Site Recovery
Here’s a list of activity guides which you will perform during your learning of AZ-304
- Migrating Hyper-V VMs to Azure by using Azure Migrate
- Implementing Azure SQL Database-Based Applications
- Managing budgets and alerts in Azure Cost Management
- Implement Azure Logic Apps Integration with Azure Event Grid
- Creating and managing secrets in Azure Key Vault
- Creating a Virtual Network using Azure Portal & PowerShell
- VNet Peering Using Azure Portal
- VNet-VNet VPN Gateway Connection
- Load Balancer And Traffic Manager In Azure
- Implementing user-assigned managed identities for Azure resources
- Microsoft Azure Directory Synchronisation
- Network Watcher In Azure
- Virtual Machine Replication via Azure Site Recovery
Azure Certification Benefits
- As a result of the increase in demand for Azure, the need for Azure Architects is rapidly increasing along the lines. Hence, one CV with this gleaming certification will have an enormous advantage.
- In terms of job prospects and earning, a certification leads to a rampant increment in both.
- Almost 70% of people agree that certification has improved their earning and 84% of people have seen better job prospects after getting certified.
- Updating your LinkedIn profile with this certificate will boost your job profile and increase your chances of getting chosen.
Azure Exam Retake Policy
- If a candidate fails the exam in his/her’s first attempt, they have to wait for a period of 24 hours before reapplying for the exam.
- In case the candidate’s second attempt also fails they should re-access their training and retake the exam after a waiting period of 14 days.
- finally, a candidate has a maximum of 5 retakes allowed in a year.
Check Out: What is Azure Storage Account. Click here
Tips for Azure Solution Architect Exam
There are some tricks for the help of the candidates which will help them to clear the certification but it entirely depends on you to make use of them, they are definitely not a compulsion. You can check tips on our separate blogs where we have discussed the tips and tricks of both AZ 303 and AZ 304 certification exam in detail
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What exam should be given first AZ-303 or AZ-304?
Ans: AZ-303 Azure Architect Technologies is recommended by us for your first step to start the journey of Microsoft certified Azure Solution Architect but there is no compulsion you can choose both exams in any sequence, after that you can go with AZ-304 Azure Solution Architect Design or AZ-303 Azure Solution Architect Technologies depending on you what sequence you choose. The resultant of passing both exams will give you Microsoft Azure Solution Architect certification. Which is an expert level 3-Star certification.
Q2. I understand AZ-300 is getting expired I am planning to give an exam in the next few days should I give AZ-300 or AZ-303?
Ans: You can go with AZ-303 because it’s now released and latest. So we will suggest you revise the syllabus as there are some changes in AZ-303 and then go for the exam.
Q3. Which certification is best for me and How to choose?
Ans: In the below picture we mentioned how to choose and what to choose in graphical representation.
If you still confused which one you should pick and what is good for you, so send us your details like what you do? what is your background? what you want to become and learn. Reach us by filling this contact us form our team will help you.
Q4. What is the difference between AZ-300/303 and AZ-301/304?
Ans: AZ 303 and AZ 304 is the new version of AZ-300 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 300 Microsoft Azure Architect Design Respectively. For further details, You can click here for AZ-300 vs 303 and Everything about AZ-304
Related/References
- [Recap] Day 1: Azure Active Directory [Azure Solutions Architect]
- [Recap] Day 2: Implement and Manage Hybrid Identities & Virtual Networking: [Azure Solutions Architect]
- [Recap] Day 3: Implement VMs for Windows and Linux: [Azure Solutions Architect]
- Tips To Prepare Exam AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design
- Exam AZ-305: Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification
Next Task For You
Begin your journey toward Mastering Azure Cloud and landing high-paying jobs. Just click on the register now button on the below image to register for a Free Class on Mastering Azure Cloud: How to Build In-Demand Skills and Land High-Paying Jobs. This class will help you understand better, so you can choose the right career path and get a higher paying job.
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