AZ-900 Prerequisites: What to Know First

The short version

AZ-900 has no required prerequisites. You do not need another certification or any Azure experience to book it. Microsoft describes the candidate as someone with skills and experience in an area of IT, but it is a profile, not an entry test.

What Microsoft says

The Microsoft study guide describes the audience as technology professionals who want to show foundational knowledge of cloud concepts and Azure. It says you should have skills and experience working with an area of IT such as infrastructure management, database management, or software development. Microsoft also calls the certification a common starting point for a career in Azure. The certification page does not list any other certification you have to hold first.

Required versus recommended

Required: nothing formal. You need a way to schedule and sit the exam, which means a Microsoft account (Microsoft recommends a personal one) and a booking through the exam provider.

Recommended:

  • A basic idea of what servers, networks, storage, and databases do.
  • Comfort reading short technical scenarios in English or in another exam language.
  • Time to study. Our study plan suggests 15 to 30 hours for many beginners.
  • Some contact with the Azure portal, even just browsing it.

Skills self-check

Read each line and answer honestly. You do not need a yes to all of them, but the list shows where to start.

  • I can explain the difference between a server, a database, and a network.
  • I know what a virtual machine is and why a company might rent one instead of buying a server.
  • I know what a firewall and an IP address are, at a basic level.
  • I can explain why a company might back up data to another location.
  • I understand the idea of a user account, a password, and permissions.
  • I can name the three main service types (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) or I am ready to learn them in week one.
  • I have seen the Azure portal at least once.
  • I am comfortable with the idea of paying for what you use rather than buying upfront.

If you answered no to most of these, you are not blocked. Choose the 8-week plan and start by learning the basic terms before the Azure names.

If you are brand new to IT

Start with plain concepts, then Azure. Spend the first week on the ideas behind the cloud: what a datacenter is, why companies rent computing, and what IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS mean. The Microsoft Learn paths on the AZ-900 page are free, and our how to study guide helps with planning. Keep a glossary as you go, and our glossary can fill in general terms.

If you already work in IT

You can probably skip the plain concepts. Spend your time on what is Azure-specific: the names, the hierarchy of management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, the storage redundancy options, and the governance and monitoring tools. Those names are where experienced people lose points, because they know the idea but not the Azure term.

What comes after

Microsoft calls AZ-900 a starting point. Microsoft’s certification page does not name a required next exam, so choose by role: administrator, developer, security, or data tracks each have their own exams. The vendor’s certification page is the best place to see the options when you get there.

More guides for AZ-900

Next step

Read the exam overview and the exam format page, then check your starting level with the AZ-900 practice tests.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The skills list does not ask you to write code. You should recognize terms like infrastructure as code and ARM templates at a conceptual level.

Do I need an Azure account?

No, but looking at the portal helps the names stick.

Should I take AZ-900 before other Azure exams?

Microsoft calls it a common starting point but does not make it required on the page we checked. Check the page for the exam you want next.

Try the AZ-900 practice exams