Chapter 20 — AZ-900 Exam Preparation Guide

You've Made It!

You've covered all three AZ-900 exam domains:

• Domain 1: Cloud Concepts (Chapters 02–06)

• Domain 2: Azure Architecture & Services (Chapters 07–15)

• Domain 3: Azure Management & Governance (Chapters 16–19)

This final chapter is your exam preparation toolkit — study strategies, tips, practice questions, and an exam-day checklist.

AZ-900 Exam at a Glance (Refresher)

Domain Weightage (Study Priority)

Domain 2: Azure Architecture & Services   35–40%  ← Study most
Domain 3: Azure Management & Governance   30–35%  ← Study second
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts                  25–30%  ← Study third

Total: 100%

Recommended Study Schedule

2-Week Plan (Part-Time — ~2 hours/day)

4-Week Plan (Casual — ~1 hour/day)

Spread the 2-week plan across 4 weeks, covering one chapter per day with extra time for review and practice tests.

Key Topics to Know Cold

Domain 1: Cloud Concepts

Domain 2: Azure Architecture & Services

Domain 3: Management & Governance

Commonly Confused Pairs (Exam Traps)

These pairs trip up many candidates. Know them cold:

Sample Practice Questions

Question 1

Which cloud deployment model is BEST for a company that needs to keep patient health records on-premises for compliance, but wants to use cloud for their public website?

• A) Public cloud

• B) Private cloud

• C) Hybrid cloud

• D) Multi-cloud

Answer: C — Hybrid cloud combines on-premises (private) for sensitive data with public cloud for general workloads.

Question 2

A company wants to ensure that no Azure resources can be created outside of the East US and West Europe regions. Which Azure service should they use?

• A) Azure RBAC

• B) Resource locks

• C) Azure Policy

• D) Azure Blueprints

Answer: C — Azure Policy with the "Allowed locations" built-in policy can deny resource creation outside specified regions.

Question 3

Which of the following is ALWAYS the customer's responsibility, regardless of the cloud service model?

• A) Operating system patching

• B) Physical data center security

• C) Customer data and identity management

• D) Virtualization infrastructure

Answer: C — Data and identity are always the customer's responsibility in all service models.

Question 4

An organization needs to connect their on-premises data center to Azure with guaranteed bandwidth, consistent latency, and without using the public internet. Which service should they use?

• A) Azure VPN Gateway

• B) Azure ExpressRoute

• C) Azure Content Delivery Network

• D) Azure Virtual Network Peering

Answer: B — ExpressRoute provides a private, dedicated connection to Azure that does not traverse the internet.

Question 5

Which Azure tool provides a PERSONALIZED recommendation to resize an underutilized virtual machine to reduce costs?

• A) Azure Monitor

• B) Azure Policy

• C) Azure Advisor

• D) Azure Cost Management

Answer: C — Azure Advisor provides personalized cost, security, reliability, and performance recommendations.

Question 6

Which Blob storage access tier has the LOWEST storage cost but requires data to be rehydrated before access?

• A) Hot

• B) Cool

• C) Cold

• D) Archive

Answer: D — Archive is the cheapest tier but data is offline and must be rehydrated (takes hours) before access.

Question 7

What is the purpose of Azure Availability Zones?

• A) To replicate data to a secondary geographic region

• B) To protect applications from failures in individual data centers within a region

• C) To allow resources to be deployed globally in multiple regions

• D) To separate billing for different departments

Answer: B — Availability Zones are separate data centers within a region with independent power, cooling, and networking.

Question 8

A company wants to allow their partners to access their Azure resources using the partners' own organizational credentials. Which feature should they use?

• A) Azure AD B2C

• B) Azure AD B2B

• C) Self-Service Password Reset

• D) Conditional Access

Answer: B — Azure AD B2B allows external partners to use their own identities to access your resources.

Question 9

Which of the following is a characteristic of the consumption-based cloud pricing model?

• A) Pay a fixed monthly fee regardless of usage

• B) Pay upfront for maximum anticipated capacity

• C) Pay only for what you actually use

• D) Share costs with other cloud customers

Answer: C — The consumption-based model means you pay only for the resources you actually consume.

Question 10

Which resource lock type prevents both modifications and deletions of an Azure resource?

• A) CanNotDelete

• B) CanNotModify

• C) ReadOnly

• D) DoNotRemove

Answer: C — ReadOnly prevents both modifications and deletions. CanNotDelete allows modifications but prevents deletion.

Exam-Day Checklist

Before the Exam

• Good night's sleep — you're taking the exam, not cramming at 3 AM

• Review your weakest domain one more time

• Know the exam format (multiple choice, drag-and-drop, scenario-based)

• Have valid government photo ID ready

For Online Proctored Exams (At Home)

• Quiet room with no interruptions for 60 minutes

• Stable, fast internet connection

• Webcam and microphone working

• Desktop cleared — only computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse

• No phones or additional monitors in the room

• Check-in 15–30 minutes before your scheduled time

During the Exam

• Read every question carefully — AZ-900 uses precise wording

• For scenario questions, identify WHAT problem is being solved first

• Eliminate obviously wrong answers first

• Don't overthink — go with your strongest first instinct

• Flag uncertain questions and return to them

• Watch the clock — you have about 60–90 seconds per question

After the Exam

• Results displayed immediately after submission

• Digital badge delivered within 24–48 hours via Credly

• Share badge directly on LinkedIn from Credly

• Celebrate — you earned it!

Free Study Resources

Final Quick-Reference Cheat Sheet

Cloud Types:   IaaS / PaaS / SaaS (less control → less work)
Deployment:    Public / Private / Hybrid
Benefits:      HA, Scalability, Elasticity, Agility, DR, Geo, CapEx→OpEx

Infrastructure:
  Region (60+) → AZ (3/region) → Region Pair (300+ miles apart)
  Hierarchy: Resource → RG → Subscription → Management Group

Compute:       VM (IaaS) | App Service (PaaS) | Functions (Serverless) | AKS
Network:       VNet | NSG | VPN (internet) | ExpressRoute (private)
Storage:       Blob (Hot→Archive) | File | Queue | Table | Disk
Database:      SQL DB | SQL MI | MySQL | PostgreSQL | Cosmos DB (NoSQL)
Identity:      Entra ID | SSO | MFA | Conditional Access | RBAC
Security:      Defender | Sentinel | Key Vault | DDoS | Firewall

Cost:          Pricing Calc | TCO Calc | Cost Management | Reservations
Governance:    Policy (Deny/Audit) | Blueprints | RBAC | Locks | Tags
Compliance:    Trust Center | GDPR | ISO | SOC | Purview | Compliance Manager
Monitoring:    Azure Monitor | Log Analytics | App Insights | Advisor | Service Health

Official References

• AZ-900 exam page — Microsoft Learn

• AZ-900 Learning Path — Microsoft Learn

• Schedule exam — Pearson VUE

• Azure Free Account

• Microsoft Virtual Training Days

You've completed all 20 chapters. Good luck on your AZ-900 exam!