In order to confirm skills related to the usage of its cloud computing platform Azure, Microsoft has designed 12 certifications related to different data roles in an organization. Passing these certifications is a great opportunity to boost your career and make your CV shine to the eyes of recruiters.
If you are reading this article, you may just be new to Microsoft Azure certifications. Azure certifications are designed for system administrators, developers, and data and AI professionals to validate the skills necessary to cover all aspects of digital transformation. These skills go from managing on-premises, hybrid, or cloud infrastructure, to innovating with high quality applications, and maintaining those apps and the data infrastructure of the organizations. As a candidate you are free to pass the certifications organizing your own training, but it is advisable to follow a Microsoft Azure course to prepare for your certification. These are 4 days long courses that will cover main topics for each certification and train you to answer questions effectively according to the exam format.
How are Microsoft Azure certifications organized?
There are 12 Microsoft certifications available that include 14 exams. Exams are held online and gather between 30 and 60 questions that the candidate will need to answer in 150 to 180 minutes depending on the exam. To pass the certification exam you will need a score of 700/1000 or 70%. Microsoft Azure certifications are organized according to four levels of expertise and relate to professional data roles in a company.
Fundamentals Certifications are aimed at beginners. None of these are required for any higher Azure certifications, but they offer ideal starting points for anyone new to cloud or Azure.
Associate Certifications, if you already know your way around Azure, you may feel comfortable starting here. Then seven Azure Associate exams are open to candidates who have subject matter expertise implementing, managing, and monitoring an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.
Expert Certifications: start here, if you have serious tech skills! You will need an Associate certification (either an Azure Developer Associate or an Azure Administrator Associate) for the Azure DevOps Engineer Expert and the Azure Solution Architect Expert certification.
Specialty Certifications: These are certifications applicable to a particular service that is not from Microsoft. There are several of them including the Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty and Azure IoT Developer Specialty certifications. Speciality Certifications are accessible without having passed other Azure certifications.
Following a Microsoft Azure training, the road to success and certification
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As we have seen, Microsoft Azure certifications have a particular format that you will need to get used to before sitting an exam. If you want to get prepared and study beforehand, the best option is to discover a Microsoft Azure course that is adapted to you.
Depending on which certification you are planning to pass, this training will help you discover the content of the exam and get used to the exam format to be more efficient when you sit the exam. A training in DP-203 will, for instance, last around 4 days with 8 hours of teaching per day. It starts with an introduction to the Azure cloud computing environment and follows with a module on how Spark works with Azure and how to use Azure Databricks. The course then covers the use of Azure for database management including use of SQL pools and you will discover how to make data stores and pipelines more reliable and secure. Finally you will learn how to monitor and optimize all Azure services to manage data effectively.
Follow a Microsoft Azure course, or self-train with Microsoft Learn
So, in a nutshell, following a Microsoft Azure course will help you increase your knowledge on topics covered in the exam so that you are prepared for all related questions. It will make you more confident in passing through the various levels of validation and certifications that Azure requires from candidates. Microsoft Azure certifications are the most demanded in the IT industry and will allow successful candidates to secure better job positions and higher remuneration in top companies around the world. A good place to start is getting in touch with a Microsoft Learning Partner. They provide you with a selection of training solutions which you can sometimes customize to your career plans and goals. These resources include face to face or visiocall training led by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs). At times, you will also have the chance to apply this new knowledge during autonomous exercises sessions, so you can put yourself in the conditions of the exam.
If you feel more comfortable, learning and practicing on your own, you can also join Microsoft Learn. It is a free online platform provided by Microsoft, that gives you access to a set of training for the acquisition and improvement of digital skills. It offers an interactive and self-paced interface that allows you to code directly into it for practice. Also, you don’t need an Azure Subscription to do most of the exercises, since Microsoft Learn has a free practice environment.
