A one-page AZ-204 reference: exam facts plus the services you must know. Use it for final review, not as a substitute for hands-on practice. Confirm all current details on Microsoft Learn.
Exam facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | ~40-60, including case studies |
| Time | ~120 minutes |
| Pass mark | 700 / 1000 (scaled) |
| Cost | ~US$165 (confirm with Microsoft) |
| Validity | 1 year; free online renewal |
| Delivery | Online-proctored or test centre |
Compute (the heaviest area)
- Azure Functions - event-driven, serverless code; know triggers and bindings.
- App Service - managed hosting for web apps and APIs; deployment slots.
- Containers - Container Apps and Azure Container Instances; when to use each.
Storage
- Cosmos DB - globally distributed NoSQL; consistency levels, partition keys.
- Blob storage - object storage; access tiers, SAS tokens.
Security
- Microsoft Entra - authentication and access tokens (OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect).
- Key Vault - store secrets, keys and certificates.
- Managed Identities - let a resource authenticate without storing credentials.
Integration and monitoring
- API Management - publish, secure and throttle APIs.
- Messaging - Event Grid (events), Event Hubs (telemetry streams), Service Bus and Queue Storage (decoupling).
- Application Insights - app monitoring and diagnostics.
- Caching / CDN - Azure Cache for Redis and Content Delivery Network for performance.
Common traps
- Confusing Event Grid (discrete events), Event Hubs (high-throughput streams) and Service Bus (enterprise messaging).
- Mixing up App Service with Functions - know when serverless fits.
- Forgetting Managed Identities as the credential-free way to access Key Vault and other resources.