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Overview

AZ-104: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

AZ-104 Study Q&A Set

Built 2026-09-03. Personal study material. Not part of any OB feature or deployment.

Exam Snapshot

  • Format: 40 to 60 questions
  • Time: about 100 minutes (varies with case studies)
  • Question types: single-choice, multi-answer ("select two/three"), drag-and-drop ordering, hot-area, case study
  • Passing score: 700 of 1000 (scaled, not straight percent)
  • Prerequisite knowledge: 6+ months hands-on with Azure
  • Skills-outline caveat: The exam blueprint mentions an April 2026 refresh. My training cutoff is January 2026, so this set is built against the April 2024 skills outline (which was current at cutoff). If Microsoft moved sub-topics between domains after that, the buckets below may be slightly off, but the underlying tech is stable. Confirm the live outline at https://learn.microsoft.com/credentials/certifications/exams/az-104/ before scheduling.

Domain Weights (April 2024 outline)

| # | Domain | Weight | File | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Manage Azure identities and governance | 20-25% | 01-identity-governance.md | | 2 | Implement and manage storage | 15-20% | 02-storage.md | | 3 | Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20-25% | 03-compute.md | | 4 | Implement and manage virtual networking | 15-20% | 04-networking.md | | 5 | Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10-15% | 05-monitoring.md |

Recommended Study Order

Given your background (working Azure infra engineer), the shortest path to the exam is:

1. Governance + RBAC first (Domain 1). Highest-weighted domain and where working admins lose points because Microsoft tests role-name trivia (User Administrator vs Global Administrator vs Privileged Role Administrator) that you rarely say out loud on the job. Also the plane-boundary questions (Entra role vs Azure role) trip almost everyone.

2. Networking (Domain 4). Second most trap-heavy. Load Balancer SKU rules, NSG effective-rule ordering, Basic vs Standard Public IP behavior, VPN gateway SKU throughput table, and the peering-transitivity question show up nearly every sitting. Reading these once buys real points.

3. Compute (Domain 3). Availability sets vs zones vs scale sets, VM disk types, VMSS Uniform vs Flexible orchestration, and App Service plan tier limits are memorization work. Fast return on time.

4. Storage (Domain 2). Mostly redundancy acronyms (LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS + RA variants), access tiers, lifecycle policy syntax, and identity-based SMB Files auth. Fast to review if you have used storage accounts.

5. Monitoring (Domain 5). Lowest weight. KQL basics, alert/action-group structure, Recovery Services Vault vs Backup Vault distinction, Update Manager vs the retired Update Management.

How to Use This Set

Each domain file is plain markdown Q&A. Cover the answers with your hand or terminal, work the question, reveal.

Every answer has a 2-4 sentence explanation aimed at closing the gap between "how a working admin says it" and "how the exam writes it," because that gap is where experienced people leak points.

Anywhere a topic overlaps with a system you have production experience on (Entra ID, Conditional Access, App Proxy, RBAC, VNets/NSGs/route tables, ExpressRoute, S2S VPN, storage accounts/Blob/File Sync, Azure Monitor, PowerShell Az module), the question has a "Field anchor" note attaching the exam language to real work. If there is no anchor, it is because I could not confirm the connection from your task prompt, not because the topic does not apply.

Where the real exam is known to phrase things differently than working admins do, look for the "Exam trap" callout in the explanation.

Files in This Set

  • 00-INDEX.md (this file)
  • 01-identity-governance.md (30 core Q + 20 scenario Q)
  • 02-storage.md (28 core Q + 20 scenario Q)
  • 03-compute.md (30 core Q + 20 scenario Q)
  • 04-networking.md (30 core Q + 20 scenario Q)
  • 05-monitoring.md (25 core Q + 20 scenario Q)
  • 06-REFERENCES.md (Azure super-power map: Microsoft Learn paths, official labs, per-domain doc index, PowerShell/CLI cheatsheet, portal navigation, community resources, study cadence, exam-day tips)
  • 07-FLASHCARDS.md (the 50 trickiest questions distilled to spaced-repetition flashcards with trigger phrases and doc links; 10 per domain)
  • 08-EXAM-PLAN-AND-ACCESS.md (14-day study plan at 4 hrs/day, voucher discounts, cost budget, exam scheduling, exam-day tech check, retake policy, and instructions for how to get back to these files from anywhere)

Total: 243 questions (143 core + 100 scenario) + one reference file + 50 flashcards + exam plan and logistics.

Each question includes Microsoft Learn doc links inline so you can drill straight from a question to the authoritative source (which is where the official screenshots and diagrams live).

Coverage summary and honest gap flags are printed to chat at end of build.