Azure Administrator Associate AZ-104 Study Plan

What Is the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate Exam?

The Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate certification is earned by passing exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator. The AZ-104 exam validates your ability to implement, manage and monitor an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.

In this guide we walk through the AZ-104 exam objectives, a practical AZ-104 study plan and how to use an AZ-104 question bank together with hands-on labs to prepare for the Azure Administrator Associate certification.

Skills Measured in the AZ-104 Exam

The official Microsoft AZ-104 skills outline includes the following high-level domains:

• Manage Azure identities and governance (15–20%).
• Implement and manage storage (10–15%).
• Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25–30%).
• Configure and manage virtual networking (30–35%).
• Monitor and back up Azure resources (10–15%).

A good AZ-104 exam guide or training course should map every module to these domains. Your AZ-104 practice questions and lab exercises should also be tagged by domain so that you can see, for example, if “virtual networking” or “storage” is your weakest area.

Who Should Take AZ-104?

The Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification targets administrators who manage cloud services covering compute, storage, network and security in Azure. Typical roles that benefit from AZ-104 include:

• Cloud administrators transitioning from on-premises infrastructure.
• System engineers supporting Azure IaaS and PaaS workloads.
• Network engineers who need to configure Azure virtual networking.
• IT professionals planning to progress towards Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305).

8–10 Week AZ-104 Study Plan

With regular study, many candidates can pass exam AZ-104 in about 8–10 weeks. Below is a sample AZ-104 study roadmap:

• Weeks 1–2: Azure identities, Azure AD, role-based access control (RBAC) and governance.
• Weeks 3–4: Storage accounts, blobs, file shares, Azure Backup and recovery services vaults.
• Weeks 5–6: Virtual machines, scale sets, availability sets, Azure App Service and containers.
• Weeks 7–8: Virtual networks, subnets, NSGs, VPN gateways, load balancers and Application Gateway.
• Weeks 9–10: Monitoring with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and full AZ-104 practice exams.

Each week, combine documentation and video training with a lab checklist and a set of AZ-104 practice exam questions from a trusted question bank.

Using an AZ-104 Question Bank the Right Way

A strong AZ-104 question bank helps you internalize the exam pattern for the Azure Administrator Associate certification. To get the most benefit:

• Start with 20–30 untimed questions per domain to see where you stand.
• Review every explanation, even for correct answers, and map them back to Azure docs.
• Once comfortable, attempt full-length timed AZ-104 practice exams.
• Aim for 80–85% on practice tests before you schedule the real AZ-104 exam.

Avoid memorizing questions. Focus on understanding why a particular Azure solution is preferred in a given scenario.

Essential Labs for the Microsoft AZ-104 Exam

The Azure Administrator Associate role is hands-on, and so is exam AZ-104. Include the following tasks in your lab environment:

• Create and manage Azure AD users, groups and role assignments.
• Build different types of storage accounts and configure lifecycle management policies.
• Deploy Linux and Windows virtual machines with availability sets and load balancers.
• Configure a hub-and-spoke virtual network topology with network security groups and VPN.
• Set up Azure Monitor alerts and log queries for critical resources.

These labs align directly with the AZ-104 skills measured and will also help you in real Azure administrator work.

Article Details

• Certification: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate
• Exam code: AZ-104
• Level: Associate / Administrator

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