Learn Azure DevOps and become a Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer Expert(AZ-400)
Do certifications matter?
In my opinion, certifications do matter and really help us to understand the technology basics quite well which we can apply in our advanced day to day work. We get to learn tons of things when we prepare for certifications in very short span of time.Apart form learning lots of things ,you undersatnd how less you knew about the technology and how much more to explore.
Recently ,i completed AZ-400 which is Microsoft certifications for designing and implementing DevOps solutions . It has been great preparation experience and wanted to share my experience with everyone .
Exam Details:
Who should prepare for it?
This exam revolves around Azure DevOps which is software as a service (SaaS) platform from Microsoft that provides an end-to-end DevOps toolchain for developing and deploying software.
If you are already working with Azure cloud and want to explore more about DevOps concepts then it is a great choice for you.
If you are already working with other cloud services or other Devops tools like Jenkins/Bamboo then still it’s a great choice as it’s a great end to end Microsoft solution for Devops and it integrates very well with most of the popular tools provided by other vendors
If you are a beginner and looking for career in DevOps then it’s a jackpot for you. You are going to learn tons of DevOps concepts.
Prerequisite :
You can directly appear for AZ-400 but to earn “Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert” batch you should complete atleast one of the below exams.
- Exam AZ-103/104: Microsoft Azure Administrator
- Exam AZ-203/204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
In my opinion, it’s very imporatnt if you have certain level of azure cloud understanding and above certifications will give a good start.
You can check below article if you want to prepare for AZ-103/104.
How to prepare:
- Start with Micosoft Learn
Microsoft learn is always a great place to start . Microsoft has designed below course in such a way that a beginner can also learn by doing. Give good attention to each module and try to perform each task/lab by doing it. It’s huge amount of learning if you are new with Azure DevOps and it’s completly worth it.
2. Checkout Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer (AZ-400) path on Pluralsight
Pluralsight subscription can be costly for many of us but if you can subscribe it for 1–2 months then you can find some great course by some great industry experts.Pluralsight DevOps learning path contains 6 modules and 34 hours long. You might find some of the submodules repetitive . If you have enough time then go through each video otherwise i have below recommendations:
a) Continuous Delivery and DevOps with Azure DevOps: Source Control with Git by Marcel de Vries
Note: you can skip above course if have good understanding of Source Control with Git.
b) Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Implement and Manage Azure Pipelines Infrastructure by James Bannan
c) Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Creating an Automated Build Workflow by Chris Behrens
d) Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Monitoring Code Quality by Chris Behrens
e) Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Implement a Secure and Compliant Development by Neil Morrissey
f) Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Inspecting and Identifying Code Dependencies by by Neil Morrissey
g) Inspecting Open Source Software Packages for Security and License Compliance by Neil Morrissey
3. Lots of learning, jump to test your knowledge
It’s quite important to understand question sturucture and pattern for the exam. I found Whizlabs test papers quite helpful. Refer Microsoft documentations as much as possible to review answers of questions which you don’t know.
My Exam Experience:
I scheduled for online exam becuse have COVID situation and exam went quite smooth and i didn’t face any issues.Please read pearson vue terms and condition while scheduling online exams. Try to login 15–20 minutes before scheduled time.
I got 41 questions . Among 41 questions, I got 2 case studies consisting of 9 questions ,few group of related questions for which you can not modify previous answers and other multiple choice drag and drop questions . Pattern was similar to what you will find with Whizlabs test papers.
I didn’t get any labs. It seems Microsoft has stopped labs for now as they have extra demand of their azure resources because of COVID situation. But you should be very comfortable with all the labs.
It’s around 180 minutes exam but i completed it in less than 90 minutes. I find time management is not an issue here and you will easily complete exam in given time.
Yeah , I passed with great score :)
Conclusion:
- If you are a beginner and having very less or no experience with Azure then gain some knowledge first. Prepare and crack (AZ-103/104)/(AZ-203/204).
- Complete all modules from Microsoft learn.
- If you can subscribe Pluralsight then atleast go through all the courses recommended by me, It’s always good to do all ;)
- Practice tests from Whizlabs.
If you perform above task honestly , nothing can stop you from being an Azure DevOps Expert. Above all, you will learn tons of DevOps concepts which will shape your career in better way.
Happy Learning !
