Prepared with AI assistance by Pass-IT. Vendor sources support exam facts; the exercises and study recommendations are ours.
If you already use Azure, prepare for AZ-104 by turning familiar tasks into decisions you can explain. Knowing where a setting lives is useful; predicting the result and checking what happened helps you apply that knowledge to an unfamiliar problem.
The Microsoft AZ-104 study guide recommends hands-on experience with the portal, CLI, PowerShell and Bicep. Use that recommendation to guide your practice, rather than treating another certification as a required starting point. The exercises below are study suggestions, not descriptions of live exam questions.
Start with the official objectives
The Microsoft study guide lists these objectives effective April 17, 2026:
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20–25% |
| Implement and manage storage | 15–20% |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20–25% |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15–20% |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10–15% |
Use the weights to balance your preparation while covering every area. Record evidence for each objective: something you have configured, inspected or explained. An objective you recognize but cannot demonstrate needs further work.
Use a repeatable study method
Before an exercise, write the intended outcome and the behavior you expect to observe. Execute the task in a study environment, or read an existing configuration without changing it. Inspect the result and compare it with your prediction. Explain why your approach fits the requirement and why an alternative does not.
Keep a short mistake log: requirement, prediction, observation, explanation and next exercise. Choose the next task based on the misunderstanding you found. If you clicked the correct option but cannot explain the result, revisit the reasoning.
Identity and governance
Begin with role scope and inheritance. Draw a resource hierarchy and explain a user’s expected access before checking a configuration. Separately, review an Azure Policy example and describe its purpose. Check your understanding by explaining what evidence you need to investigate an unexpected result.
Explain a denied Azure operation
A Contributor can modify resources in one subscription but not another. Both inherit the role from the same management group; the failing subscription has a deny assignment.
Check the failing scope and the deny assignment. An inherited allow does not override a deny. Adding another broad role will not resolve a deny assignment. Distinguish authorization from a network connectivity problem.
Draw management group, subscription, resource group and resource scopes. Mark where the role is inherited and where the deny applies. Use the portal’s access-check view or a read-only listing to inspect an example; do not remove production restrictions for a study exercise.
Explain which action is denied, its scope and why another Contributor assignment does not change the result. Then change the scenario to a resource lock and explain how your investigation changes.
Microsoft’s deny assignment documentation explains that Azure manages deny assignments; users cannot directly create arbitrary ones. Check the action, scope, principal and exclusions to establish whether a deny applies.
Storage
Choose a storage requirement and record your proposed redundancy, access and lifecycle settings. Configure a study example or inspect a supplied configuration, then compare the settings with your written requirement. Explain an alternative and which change in the requirement would make you reconsider your choice. Record any setting you selected without understanding it.
Compute
Deploy a study VM or read a Bicep deployment example. Predict the resources and configuration before running or inspecting it, then compare the result with your notes. Explain how you would change the deployment for a revised requirement and identify what you would inspect afterward. Revisit unexplained differences before repeating the task.
Networking
Draw a connection between resources, including the relevant virtual networks, DNS, routes and NSGs. Predict whether the connection should work, then test it or inspect the configuration. Name the evidence you would examine next if the observation contradicts your prediction. Explain an alternative cause instead of changing several settings together.
Monitoring and maintenance
Choose a resource and a condition you want to investigate using Azure Monitor or Log Analytics. Record what you expect to observe and inspect the available evidence. Then review a Backup or Site Recovery configuration against a recovery requirement. Explain what your observations establish and what still needs a separate check.
Review before booking
Identity, storage, compute, networking and monitoring form a useful starting sequence. Move between them when a mistake reveals a dependency; there is no fixed weekly schedule here.
Before booking:
- Compare your work with every current official objective.
- Try unfamiliar problems and explain the alternatives without relying on remembered answers.
- Revisit unresolved mistakes and check booking information on the official certification page.
The Microsoft study guide specifies a scaled passing score of 700, not 70%. Your practice results can help you choose what to review; they do not predict a pass.
Use Pass-IT’s AZ-104 practice questions and explanations to examine your reasoning and find ideas for further exercises.