The Microsoft AZ-104 Azure Administrator exam is the most popular
role-based Azure certification and the credential most cloud-admin
job postings list as required. Pass at 700 out of 1000. 40 to 60
questions in 100 minutes. $165 USD per attempt. Most candidates need
8 to 12 weeks of focused study to pass on the first try. This guide
is the actual week-by-week plan, the resources that work, and the
exam-day mistakes that cost people their voucher.
The 90-second answer
Plan 12 weeks at 8 to 10 hours per week. Microsoft Learn's
official AZ-104 path covers everything the exam tests, and it's free.
Add a $15 Udemy course (Scott Duffy or Tim Warner) for breadth, a free
Azure subscription for hands-on labs, and 400+ practice questions for
pacing. Total cash spend if self-funded: $165 for the voucher plus
maybe $50 for paid practice questions if you want them.
Skip the $300 bootcamps. They compress 12 weeks of material into
1 week of cramming and the retention rate is terrible. Add John
Savill's free YouTube videos as a supplement for deeper coverage of
networking and identity (Microsoft's weakest documentation areas).
The first-attempt pass rate among candidates who score 80%+ on three
full timed practice exams in the final two weeks is roughly 88%. The
pass rate among candidates who skip timed practice exams entirely is
roughly 55%. Timed practice exams are the highest-impact study
activity by a wide margin.
How long should I study for AZ-104?
Most candidates need 8 to 12 weeks at 8 to 10 hours per week. Variance
comes from prior cloud experience, not study material quality.
| Your background | Realistic study window |
|---|---|
| 6+ months Azure admin experience | 6 to 8 weeks |
| AZ-900 passed, 3 months Azure | 8 to 10 weeks |
| AWS Solutions Architect (SAA-C03) holder | 8 to 10 weeks for vocabulary translation |
| Active sysadmin, no Azure | 10 to 12 weeks; start with AZ-900 |
| Career changer, no IT background | 16 to 20 weeks; consider AZ-900 first |
| Active Azure architect | 4 to 6 weeks for refresher only |
The biggest predictor of pass-on-first-try is hands-on portal time,
not study hours. Two candidates with the same 80 hours of study will
see very different scores if one of them built 5 to 8 small projects
in their Azure account and the other watched 30 hours of course
videos. Build at least 30 hours of lab time into the 12-week plan.
What's actually tested on AZ-104?
AZ-104 tests five domains. Microsoft updated the weights for the 2026
version. Every question maps to one domain.
| Domain | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20-25% | Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, subscriptions, management groups, tags, policies |
| Implement and manage storage | 15-20% | Storage accounts, blob containers, Azure Files, lifecycle management, AzCopy |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20-25% | VMs, scale sets, app services, container instances, ARM/Bicep templates |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15-20% | VNets, subnets, NSGs, load balancers, VPN gateway, peering, DNS |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10-15% | Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, backup, site recovery |
Two domains carry 40 to 50% of the weight: Identity/Governance and
Compute. Allocate study hours proportionally. The 10 to 15% Monitoring
domain is often skipped but the questions there are usually scenario-
heavy, so don't write it off.
Exam mix is roughly 60% multiple-choice, 30% drag-and-drop / order
sequencing, and 10% performance-based questions (PBQs) that drop you
into a simulated Azure portal. PBQs eat 5 to 8 minutes each, so plan
to flag them on the first pass and return after answering all MCQs.
How do I structure a 12-week study plan?
The 12-week structure below tracks the official exam objectives in
roughly Microsoft Learn's path order, with the heaviest-weight
domains getting extra time. Hours assume 8 to 10 hours per week.
| Week | Focus | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subscriptions, management groups, tags, governance basics | Build a 3-tier subscription hierarchy with policies and tags |
| 2 | Microsoft Entra ID, users, groups, devices | Create users via portal + CLI + PowerShell. Configure conditional access. |
| 3 | RBAC, custom roles, scope inheritance | Build a custom role that allows read-only on one resource group |
| 4 | Storage accounts, blob containers, lifecycle management | Create storage account with hot/cool/archive tiers + lifecycle rules |
| 5 | Azure Files, AzCopy, Storage Explorer, replication | Mount Azure Files on a VM, configure GRS replication |
| 6 | VMs, images, availability sets, scale sets | Build a VM scale set behind a load balancer in a custom VNet |
| 7 | App services, container instances, deployment slots | Deploy a containerized app to App Service with staging slot |
| 8 | Virtual networks, subnets, NSGs, peering | Build two peered VNets with NSG rules controlling traffic |
| 9 | Load balancers, application gateway, VPN gateway | Configure a point-to-site VPN to your home machine |
| 10 | Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, action groups | Build alert rule for VM CPU > 80%, route to action group |
| 11 | Azure Backup, Site Recovery, ARM/Bicep templates | Configure VM backup policy, write a Bicep template that recreates a resource group |
| 12 | Practice exams + weak-area cleanup | Take 3 timed practice exams. Postpone real exam if not at 80%. |
The single biggest miss in self-study plans is skipping the
identity-and-governance weeks (1 through 3). Roughly 20 to 25% of
the exam is on these topics, and they're conceptually different from
AWS IAM if you're coming from that background. Spend the time even
if it feels slower than the technical weeks.
If you fall behind in any week, push the schedule by 1 week rather
than compressing material. Compressed material doesn't retain. The
exam asks you to recognize patterns under time pressure, not
regurgitate facts.
Which AZ-104 resources are worth using?
The candidates who pass on the first attempt use a consistent stack
of free and low-cost resources. Anything beyond this stack is
optional.
- Microsoft Learn's official AZ-104 learning path (free, ~30 hours of modules). The closest match to exam phrasing because Microsoft writes both the modules and the questions.
- Microsoft Learn's AZ-104 exam page (free, lists current objectives + sample questions). Print and highlight the objectives as you cover them.
- One video course for breadth: Scott Duffy's "AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam Prep" on Udemy at $15 on sale is the community favorite. John Savill's free YouTube videos are equally good but less organized.
- A free Azure subscription ($200 of services for 30 days plus pay-as-you-go thereafter). Set a $10 billing alert immediately to avoid surprises.
- At least 400 practice questions before exam day for pacing
- Three full-length timed practice exams in weeks 11 and 12. Take them on a Saturday morning, treat them like the real exam, score honestly. If you're below 80% on the third one, postpone.
Skip the books. Azure changes too fast for printed material to stay
current. The Tim Warner book is the closest exception but expects 6+
months of Azure experience. Skip the $80 mobile flashcard apps unless
you already use flashcards; the time is better spent on practice
questions with explanations.
For practice questions, NerdExam has 703 enriched AZ-104 questions
with full explanations covering all five domains.
Start practicing AZ-104 questions to see
the question style before you commit to the full plan. The
explanations show the reasoning pattern the exam expects, which is
harder to learn from videos than from doing the questions.
How do I practice for the AZ-104 performance-based questions?
PBQs require hands-on configuration in a simulated Azure portal, not
memorization. The fastest way to prepare is to build the same five
scenarios that Microsoft cycles through on every exam version
directly in your free Azure subscription.
The five PBQ scenarios you should drill before exam day:
- Storage account configuration: create a storage account with specific tier, replication, and lifecycle rules from a stated requirement
- VM deployment: deploy a VM with specific size, availability options, networking, and disk encryption settings
- NSG rule ordering: given a set of network security group rules and a desired policy, drag the rules into the right priority order
- RBAC assignment: pick the correct built-in role (or build a custom role) for a stated permission requirement
- Backup policy configuration: configure VM backup with specific retention, instant recovery snapshots, and replication
The home-lab requirement is trivial: a free Azure subscription gives
you $200 of services for 30 days, which is more than enough to build
each scenario twice. After the 30 days expire, pay-as-you-go for
low-cost resources (B-series VMs, standard storage) costs $5 to $15
per month. Total cost over 12 weeks: $15 to $45.
The candidates who skip hands-on labs and rely on simulation tools
typically score 100 to 150 points lower on PBQ-heavy exams. Don't
skip the labs.
What are the biggest AZ-104 exam-day mistakes?
Most AZ-104 failures come from pacing or PBQ mismanagement, not
knowledge gaps. The same 4 mistakes show up in post-mortems on
Reddit's r/AzureCertification every week:
- Spending 10+ minutes on the first PBQ. The exam often opens with one. People panic, over-invest, and run out of time on the easier MCQs at the end. Skip every PBQ on the first pass. Flag them. Return after answering all MCQs.
- Mis-reading case studies. AZ-104 case studies have 4 to 6 paragraphs of company context, then 5 to 8 questions. Most candidates re-read the context for every question, eating 20+ minutes. Read the context ONCE, take quick notes, then answer the questions from your notes.
- Second-guessing 10+ answers. Statistically, your first answer is right 75% of the time. Don't change answers unless you spot a clear word you misread.
- Skipping the timed practice exams. Candidates who never time themselves discover their pace problem on exam day. By then it's too late.
A practical pre-exam check: take a 50-question practice exam under
real conditions in week 11 (no breaks, no notes, no internet,
100-minute timer). If you score 800+ in 90 minutes or less, book the
real exam within 7 days. If you score 700 to 799, study weak areas
one more week. If you score below 700, postpone by 2 to 3 weeks. The
voucher fee is too high to gamble with.
What's next after AZ-104?
Once AZ-104 is in hand, three paths open up depending on what you
want from your career:
- Architect track: AZ-305 (Solutions Architect Expert). The natural follow-on. Most architects do this within 12 to 18 months of AZ-104. Expect 16 to 20 weeks of study.
- Specialty track: AZ-500 (Security Engineer), AZ-700 (Network Engineer), or DP-203 (Data Engineer). Pairs well with AZ-104 for senior roles in those domains.
- Cross-cloud track: Add AWS (SAA-C03) or GCP (Associate Cloud Engineer). Enterprise multi-cloud roles pay 20 to 30% premium.
Most people take 12 to 24 months between AZ-104 and their next cert.
Use that time to ship real production Azure work. The cert pays off
when hiring managers see it alongside actual experience, not when
it's the only line on your resume.
Ready to start? Practice with 703 real AZ-104 questions on NerdExam
or browse the free per-question explanations.
Microsoft Learn's free AZ-104 learning path is also worth starting
first if you haven't: Microsoft Learn AZ-104 path.
Adjacent reading: AZ-104 overview: what's actually tested,
AZ-900 vs AZ-104: which to take first,
What is IAM and how Azure RBAC compares,
What is a VPC and how Azure VNets compare.