Got a major blessing in my life today by passing AZ-104. I had been trying on and off for around 7 months, mainly working on building my confidence and getting myself ready and praying to finally complete it.
My background : Got few years IT experience but not azure or cloud. Last 4 years working in retail and no IT experiance at all. Got Ms900 SC900 and AZ900 in this January.
This time, I decided to start from scratch again. About 1.5 months ago, I went through all the Microsoft Learn modules properly and built my foundation first. Then, during the last week or two before the exam, I bought Tutorial Dojo and Shireen Khan practice tests.
The transition from ChatGPT MCQs to those practice tests was a major shock. They were much harder than I expected and honestly overwhelming at the beginning. In my first few attempts, I couldn't even pass 60%. But instead of giving up, I kept practising for days, reviewing my mistakes, and learning why I got questions wrong.
Some of the topics I remember seeing in the exam were:
Azure Container Apps (ACA) / App Service / Azure Container Registry (ACR)
Azure Container Instances (ACI) CPU questions
PowerShell ARM deployment commands
Storage networking and redundancy
NSG rules
Resource movement
Workloads supported by Backup Vault / Recovery Services Vault (RSV)
Custom DNS for App Service
App Service Backup
Azure Advisor and Cost Management
Private DNS Zones
Assigning licenses to groups
RBAC for Storage keys
RBAC actions and notActions in ARM templates
Adding tags using Azure Policy
Deny actions using Azure Policy
Creating and joining VMs to AD DS using ARM
Azure Monitor Network Insights / Network Watcher
VNet Peering
Private Endpoints
VM restore with the "replace existing" option
Redeploying VMs due to Azure maintenance
Assigning 16 VMs across 3 Fault Domains and 5 Update Domains
Custom attributes for Users, Groups, and Service Principals
Points of Presence (PoP)
My biggest advice to anyone preparing for AZ-104:
Go through all the Microsoft Learn theory modules properly. Build your foundation first.
Use AI to explain concepts and clear your doubts.
Use good practice tests like Tutorial Dojo and Shireen Khan ( both if you can ).
Keep practising until you can consistently score around 90%.
Most importantly, don't memorise answers. Learn how to solve the question. Even if you remember a practice question, force yourself to go through the logic step by step even it takes time. This will help when you get the exact question in the exam and just changed the scenario, numbers, or requirements.
I also practised using Microsoft Learn search option. Initially, I tried searching specific keywords, but that approach didn't work well for me. Since I became familiar with the Microsoft Learn modules, I practised searching "AZ-104" and navigating through the modules to find the information I needed trough the sections. This helped me answer two questions in the actual exam.
If you find certain topics difficult or you don't like certain questions in practice tests, don't avoid them. Those are exactly the areas you need to improve. Go back to the basics, use AI, understand the concept, and then practise again and then you will nail it. Also that question you didnt like earlier might be your saviour question getting you passed just over the pass mark.
I learned about these practice tests and preparation tips from this group, and they helped me build confidence and get this done. I wanted to share my own experience and hopefully help someone else on their AZ-104 journey.
Thinking of taking AZ 305 in 2 weeks any suggestions please.
Good luck to everyone preparing — keep going. It is achievable! 🚀
Source: r/AzureCertification · by /u/knowles-nothin