If you passed AZ-800 and were pacing yourself on AZ-801, the clock just got short. Both exams retire on September 30, 2026, at 5:00 PM Central Standard Time.
The replacement is one exam instead of two, and it is not a straight merge. Some of what you have been studying is not on it.
Both Exams Go on the Same Day
Microsoft lists AZ-800 and AZ-801 together on its retiring-exams table, both dated September 30, 2026. The warning banner sits on both exam pages.
What retires with them is the credential. “Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate” is the certification named on that table, and Microsoft’s policy on retirement is blunt: after the date, you cannot earn it.
You also cannot renew it. That is the part people miss. If you already hold the certification it stays on your Microsoft Learn transcript and nobody takes it away, but the annual renewal assessment retires with the exam. Microsoft’s guidance is to renew before the date if you are eligible, because the option disappears afterwards. If your renewal window is open right now, use it.
The successor credential is “Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Administrator Associate,” currently in beta. AZ-800 and AZ-801 still appear on its page during the transition. After September 30 they come off it, and AZ-802 is the only route in.
The word “Hybrid” is gone from the exam title as well. AZ-800 was “Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure.” AZ-802 is “Administering Windows Server.”
AZ-802 Is Seven Domains, Not Two Exams
Here is what the new exam measures, from Microsoft’s AZ-802 study guide:
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Deploy and manage AD DS | 20–25% |
| Manage Windows Server instances and workloads in a hybrid environment | 10–15% |
| Manage virtual machines | 10–15% |
| Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure | 10–15% |
| Manage storage and file services | 15–20% |
| Secure Windows Server infrastructure | 10–15% |
| Monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server environments | 15–20% |
Read that against what you know. Five of the seven map onto AZ-800 territory: AD DS, hybrid management, virtual machines, networking, storage. Two come from AZ-801: security and monitoring.
The compression shows in the weights. AD DS was the heaviest block on AZ-800 at 30–35% and lands at 20–25% here. Security carried 25–30% of AZ-801 and lands at 10–15%.
Two exams of material did not fit into one, so Microsoft cut. The useful question is what.
What Got Cut
Three AZ-801 domains have no counterpart in the AZ-802 outline:
- Implement and manage Windows Server high availability
- Implement disaster recovery
- Migrate servers and workloads
Failover clustering, Azure Site Recovery, Azure Backup and Azure Migrate do not appear anywhere in the AZ-802 skills list. Containers lost their billing too: AZ-800 tested “Manage virtual machines and containers,” AZ-802 tests “Manage virtual machines.”
The domain headings overstate the change, though, so here is the honest version. Several of those skills survive as bullets inside other domains. High availability for Hyper-V VMs sits under virtual machines, and high availability for DHCP under networking. Hyper-V Replica is still on the list, which is disaster recovery wearing a different hat. Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica moved into the storage domain. Migration survives in one narrow form, moving file shares and DFS to Azure Files and Azure File Sync.
What leaves is the enterprise clustering and site-recovery layer. If that is the half of AZ-801 you have been dreading, it is not on the new exam.
Which Path to Take
If you passed AZ-800 and need AZ-801, book it now and sit it before September 30. You are one exam away on a path you already know. Miss the date and you land on AZ-802, where most of your AZ-800 preparation still counts.
Starting from zero? Go to AZ-802. Two exams in four weeks is a bad bet, and the second one would be spent on disaster recovery material the current exam has dropped.
Mid-prep on AZ-801 is the case that needs a decision rather than a default. Look at what is on your desk. If you are deep in failover clustering and Azure Site Recovery, that time pays off only if you sit AZ-801 before it goes. Otherwise you are studying for an exam that will not exist.
The Beta Catch
As of late August 2026, AZ-802 is still a beta exam, and beta has two costs.
You do not get your score at the test center. Beta results are held until the exam finishes its beta period and goes live, so you wait, and you cannot plan a retake while you wait.
Microsoft’s free practice assessment for AZ-802 is not available yet either. The page says these usually arrive within eight weeks of an exam leaving beta. The study guide is published and complete, so the objectives are not a mystery, but the official practice questions are not there.
If you need a scored result by a fixed date, for a job requirement or a review cycle, that tips toward sitting AZ-801 while it is still live.
Before You Book
Read Microsoft’s AZ-802 study guide next to the AZ-801 one. Fifteen minutes comparing the two outlines tells you more about your own gap than any summary, this one included.
Passing score for all three exams is 700. That is a scaled score on a 1 to 1,000 range, and Microsoft states plainly that it does not equal 70% of the points. People misread this every year and walk in aiming at the wrong number.
If you are going for AZ-801 before the deadline, Pass-IT has adaptive practice for AZ-800 and AZ-801, built from the current exam objectives. Per-domain scoring shows whether the clustering and recovery sections are ready before you spend the exam fee.
AZ-500 is retiring too, and the 2026 cloud certification roadmap shows where each Azure path leads.
