Azure AZ-104 Study Guide: Free Resources, Exam Tips, and a Week-by-Week Plan
The AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam is the standard credential for Azure practitioners. This guide covers exactly what to study, where to study it for free, and how to manage the hands-on component.
The AZ-104 is Microsoft's primary technical certification for Azure cloud practitioners. It validates that you can manage Azure resources across identity, networking, storage, and compute — the daily operations of any Azure-based organization. It is a required or strongly recommended credential for most Azure administrator and cloud engineer roles.
What the AZ-104 Tests
Manage Azure Identities and Governance (20–25%)
Azure Active Directory, RBAC, management groups, resource locks, and Azure Policy. This domain is foundational — a weak understanding of IAM makes every other domain harder.
Implement and Manage Storage (15–20%)
Storage accounts, Blob containers, Azure Files, Storage access tiers, lifecycle policies, and shared access signatures (SAS).
Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (20–25%)
Virtual machines, VM scale sets, App Service, Azure Container Instances (ACI), and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) basics.
Implement and Manage Virtual Networking (15–20%)
Virtual networks, subnets, NSGs, Azure DNS, VPN gateways, VNet peering, private endpoints, and Azure Load Balancer.
Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources (10–15%)
Azure Monitor, Log Analytics workspaces, VM Insights, Application Insights basics, backup, and disaster recovery with Azure Site Recovery.
Free Study Resources (Ranked by Quality)
You can fully prepare for the AZ-104 without spending money. Here are the best free resources:
Microsoft Learn — AZ-104 Learning Path
The official learning path from Microsoft. Covers every exam domain with modules, knowledge checks, and sandbox environments where you can practice without a paid subscription. This should be your primary resource.
Microsoft Learn Sandbox Environments
Embedded in Microsoft Learn modules, these give you real Azure CLI and Portal access in a temporary environment — no credit card required. Use them extensively for hands-on practice.
Microsoft's AZ-104 Exam Skills Outline
Download the official skills measured PDF from Microsoft's certification page. This is your exam blueprint. Every topic on the exam is listed. Use it as a checklist.
John Savill's AZ-104 Master Class (YouTube)
Deep-dive video series by a Microsoft MVP. Particularly strong on networking and identity. His whiteboard diagrams for VNet architecture and RBAC are the clearest available.
Microsoft Azure Free Account
Create a free Azure account and get $200 in credits for 30 days. Use this for hands-on practice with VM deployment, storage accounts, and networking. The free tier also includes always-free services.
6-Week Study Plan
- Week 1: Identity and Governance. Start here because Azure AD and RBAC underpin everything else. Create users, groups, assign roles, and configure conditional access policies in the sandbox. Study management groups and Azure Policy. Write RBAC role assignments both in the Portal and with the CLI.
- Week 2: Storage. Create storage accounts. Understand performance tiers (Standard vs. Premium) and access tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive). Configure Blob lifecycle policies. Generate SAS tokens. Mount an Azure File Share on a VM. Practice with Azure Storage Explorer.
- Week 3: Compute. Deploy VMs in the Portal and with the CLI. Configure extensions, availability sets, and proximity placement groups. Create a VM scale set with autoscale rules. Deploy a basic App Service and understand deployment slots. Create a container group with ACI.
- Week 4: Networking. This is the hardest domain for most candidates. Create a VNet with multiple subnets. Configure NSGs and understand how rules are evaluated. Set up VNet peering between two VNets. Deploy an Azure Load Balancer and an Application Gateway. Configure private endpoints for a storage account.
- Week 5: Monitoring and DR. Configure Azure Monitor alerts and action groups. Create a Log Analytics workspace and connect VM diagnostic data. Set up Azure Backup for a VM. Configure Azure Site Recovery in a failover scenario. Study the difference between Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
- Week 6: Practice exams and weak area review. Take two or three full practice exams. For every question you get wrong, go back to the Microsoft Learn module for that topic. Focus the last two days on your weakest domain only.
Hands-On Is Not Optional
The AZ-104 regularly includes questions that are impossible to answer from reading alone. Questions about what happens when you change an NSG rule, how VM boot diagnostics work, or how to troubleshoot a failing VPN connection require you to have actually done these things.
Budget at least 20–30 hours of hands-on practice, distributed across all five domains. The Microsoft Learn sandbox environments are the easiest way to get this without spending money.
Exam Day Tips
- The AZ-104 may include lab questions where you perform actual tasks in an Azure portal simulation. These appear at the start. They cannot be skipped and revisited — once you move past a lab section, you cannot return. Read the lab instructions carefully before acting.
- Case study questions provide a scenario document. Open it, read the entire background before answering any questions in that section.
- For networking questions, draw a quick diagram if the topology is complex. A 30-second sketch often reveals the answer instantly.
- When a question asks about least-privilege access, think: what is the minimum RBAC scope (management group, subscription, resource group, or resource) and the minimum built-in role that satisfies the requirement?
Test your AZ-104 knowledge
Take a free timed mock exam for the Azure AZ-104 on CertifySphere. Detailed explanations on every question.
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