I took the AZ-900 exam

TL;DR?

"I passed the test with a score of 842. Thanks for reading my post."

• Jerry Arciaga

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Why I took the test

I took the test because for three reasons: I was curious, my job may require having this certification in the future, and also because I got a free voucher from the school I attended. Apart from taking the class for this, I never really had any experience using Microsoft Azure, but I wanted to try it out since my boss kept telling me that our roles will shift from on-premises tech support to a role involving Microsoft Azure. He didn't specify what we are about to do, but I'm pretty sure it will involve some admin work, like resetting passwords and reimaging machines like we always do.

How I got the voucher

Requesting for the voucher was an easy process since I just had to send an email to my Student Advisor. After that, I got access to their practice test account in which I had to send them screenshots of me scoring 90% or higher on at least two of their tests. The questions featured in the practice test are a mixed bag of easy fundamental questions such as IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS offerings and hard ones involving marketing terms I've never even heard of. Soon, I was able to get those screenshots, but I felt like I got them only because I've been taking the same questions from the test banks repeatedly and had them ingrained in my memory instead of understanding the concepts.

How I prepared for the test

I didn't do much. I actually spent more time worrying about the test than actually doing something about it. I took the practice tests sparingly to avoid just memorizing the questions and went over my notes. I even spun up a couple Azure resources thanks to my company subscription to A Cloud Guru. I have actually done this for months, but eventually, I decided to take a leap of faith and scheduled for the exam regardless of how unprepared I felt. Overall, I think I prepared for the test the same way I prepared for my DMV written exam.

Test Day

I took the test in person. I could hear my heart pounding as I was being escorted to the testing room and I was ready to face the consequences of not taking this seriously enough. However, when I finally got the test up and running, I noticed one thing - how overwhelmingly easy most of the questions are! I don't want to disclose any questions I was asked and risk being in unnecessary trouble, but I was able to answer most of the questions because I took the time to mess around with Azure.

Thoughts on the test

The test felt too easy for me, so much so that I would not recommend this to someone who is already working in the cloud industry. To be fair, this cert is aimed for either beginners who have never been exposed to Microsoft Azure and trying to break into the cloud industry, but also good for marketing since they have to have a base level of understanding of the Azure services and solutions they are trying to sell. That said, I still would have gone for this cert knowing all this. I feel like it's still a nice, free boost to my resume and one less thing to worry about in case my desktop support role requires me to be familiar with Microsoft Azure.