AZ-900 vs AZ-104: which Azure certification should you take?
These sit at different levels and are not alternatives so much as consecutive steps. AZ-900 is the foundational exam: cloud concepts and core Azure services, with no hands-on experience assumed. AZ-104 is the role-based administrator exam, and it expects you to have genuinely worked in the Azure portal — managing identities, storage, compute, networking and monitoring. If Azure is new to you, take AZ-900 first. If you administer Azure at work already, skip it and go straight to AZ-104; nothing stops you booking it directly.
The two exams at a glance
| AZ-900Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals | AZ-104Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | Microsoft Azure |
| Level | Foundational | Associate |
| Questions | 40–60 | 40–60 |
| Time limit | 45 minutes | 100 minutes |
| Passing score | 700 / 1000 | 700 / 1000 |
| Exam fee | $99 | $165 |
| Valid for | Does not expire | 1 year (free renewal) |
| Exam domains | 3 | 5 |
| On SaveMyCert | Fully live | Fully live |
Start with AZ-900 if…
- You have little or no hands-on time in the Azure portal.
- You work alongside Azure rather than in it — project management, sales, procurement, product.
- You want a low-risk first exam that establishes vocabulary before you commit to the administrator path.
- You value a credential that never expires and needs no renewal.
Go straight to AZ-104 if…
- You already administer Azure resources as part of your job.
- You are comfortable with Entra ID, virtual networks, storage accounts and virtual machines in practice, not just in principle.
- You need the credential most Azure operations roles name in their listings.
- You are prepared for scenario questions where several answers look workable and only one meets the stated constraint.
The jump between them is real
AZ-900 asks what a service is and what it is for. AZ-104 asks how you would configure it to meet a requirement — which network topology, which storage redundancy, which role assignment, which monitoring rule. The exam assumes you have made those choices before and know where they bite.
That is the single most common reason people fail AZ-104: they prepared for it as if it were a longer AZ-900. Reading about virtual networks is not the same as having built one and watched the peering fail. If you cannot get into a real portal at work, a personal subscription and a few afternoons of building things is the highest-value preparation you can do.
Renewal works differently at each level
AZ-900 does not expire. Once you hold it, it stays on your Microsoft profile permanently with nothing further to do.
AZ-104 is a role-based certification, and those are valid for one year — but renewing is free and does not involve sitting the exam again. Microsoft opens a shorter, unproctored renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn in the six months before expiry, and passing it extends the certification. The recurring cost is an hour of your time, not another exam fee.
Is AZ-900 worth taking if you are heading for AZ-104 anyway?
If you are new to Azure, yes. It builds the service vocabulary and the mental model of how Azure organises things — subscriptions, resource groups, regions, role assignments — which AZ-104 takes entirely for granted. Going in without that is the hard route.
If you already work in Azure daily, no. The foundational exam would mostly re-test what you already know, and the time is better spent on AZ-104 preparation. It is a recommended on-ramp, never a prerequisite.
What comes after AZ-104?
AZ-104 is the hub of the Azure infrastructure path, and most specialisations branch from it — architecture, security, and the data platform among them. It is the certification to hold if you want one Azure credential that hiring managers recognise immediately.
A useful pairing to consider instead of a second Azure exam is a portable one. Infrastructure-as-code and Kubernetes credentials are not tied to Microsoft, so they keep their value if you change platform or employer, and they complement rather than duplicate what AZ-104 already proves.