The AZ-204 measures five developer skill areas, weighted most heavily toward compute (~27%). It is a developer exam: you build, secure, integrate and monitor applications on Azure, rather than administer or architect it. The percentages below are approximate, so confirm the current skills-measured list on Microsoft Learn before you book.
| Skill area | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Develop Azure compute solutions | ~27% | Azure Functions, App Service, Container Apps and ACI |
| Connect to and consume Azure and third-party services | ~22% | API Management, Event Grid, Event Hubs, Service Bus, Queue Storage |
| Develop for Azure storage | ~17% | Cosmos DB, Blob storage, data operations from code |
| Implement Azure security | ~17% | Microsoft Entra auth, access tokens, Key Vault, Managed Identities |
| Monitor, troubleshoot and optimize | ~17% | Application Insights, caching (Redis), CDN |
How to read the weights
Compute is the single biggest area, so Functions, App Service and containers deserve the deepest study and the most hands-on time. The next priority is integration (the messaging services), because connecting systems is a large slice and easy to under-prepare. Storage, security and monitoring each carry similar, smaller weights, but security questions (tokens, Key Vault, Managed Identities) reward precise knowledge, so do not skim them.
How to study it
Build, do not just read. Spin up a free Azure account and write code against each service: deploy a Function, store and query data in Cosmos DB, read a secret from Key Vault, publish and consume an event. The exam assumes development experience, so practical familiarity with the SDKs is worth more than memorising service descriptions. Confirm the current curriculum on Microsoft Learn, since Azure changes frequently.