Microsoft Azure Certification Exam Details (AZ-900, AZ-104, AZ-305)
Three separate exams, one career path
These are three separate Microsoft exams, not one. You book each one individually with Pearson VUE, pay for each one separately, and each has its own duration and its own credential. Microsoft owns and publishes all three — there is no third-party certifying body involved. Our programme prepares you for all three in sequence, delivered as live online sessions across India, with classroom sessions available only at our Kharadi campus in Pune.
Everything on this page is taken from Microsoft Learn. Where Microsoft does not publish a number — the exam fee in rupees, the exact question count — we say so instead of guessing. Links to the official pages are at the end of this section so you can check every line yourself.
The Three Exams Compared
| Attribute |
AZ-900 |
AZ-104 |
AZ-305 |
| Full exam name |
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals |
Microsoft Azure Administrator |
Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions |
| Credential you earn |
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals |
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate |
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert |
| Level |
Beginner |
Intermediate (Associate) |
Advanced (Expert) |
| Exam duration |
45 minutes |
100 minutes |
Not stated on the exam page. Microsoft’s published band for role-based exams is 100 minutes without labs and 120 minutes for exams that may contain labs. You are told the exact time when you register. |
| Seat time to allow |
65 minutes |
120 minutes |
120–140 minutes |
| Prerequisite |
None. Microsoft recommends some background in infrastructure, database or software development, but nothing is enforced. |
None enforced. Microsoft expects familiarity with operating systems, networking, servers, virtualisation, PowerShell, Azure CLI, the Azure portal, ARM templates or Bicep files, and Microsoft Entra ID. |
Hard requirement: you must already hold the Azure Administrator Associate certification to be awarded the Solutions Architect Expert credential. Passing AZ-305 on its own is not enough. |
| Renewal |
Does not expire. Microsoft lists no renewal frequency for Fundamentals certifications. |
Every 12 months. Renewal is free — an online assessment on Microsoft Learn, not a paid re-sit. |
Every 12 months. Renewal is free — an online assessment on Microsoft Learn, not a paid re-sit. |
| Microsoft Learn during the exam |
Not available on Fundamentals exams. |
Available. You can browse learn.microsoft.com in a split screen. No extra time is given and the clock keeps running. |
Available, on the same terms. |
| Languages |
13: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Spanish, German, French, Indonesian (Indonesia), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional), Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian |
10: English, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), Italian |
10: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), Italian |
| Booking |
Pearson VUE. Students and educators can also book through Certiport. |
Pearson VUE |
Pearson VUE |
Exam Format and Scoring — Common to All Three
| Exam Attribute |
Details |
| Certifying body |
Microsoft |
| Delivery |
Proctored. You can sit the exam at a Pearson VUE test centre or online with a remote proctor. |
| Question format |
Multiple choice, multiple response, drag and drop, hot area, build list, active screen and case studies. Some role-based exams also include hands-on labs in a live Azure environment. Microsoft does not publish which exams carry labs, because a lab can be withdrawn at any time. These are not purely performance-based exams — most of the paper is written questions. |
| Number of questions |
Microsoft does not publish a fixed count. Its own wording is that most Microsoft Certification exams typically contain between 40 and 60 questions, and that the number can vary depending on the exam. Any site quoting an exact figure for AZ-900, AZ-104 or AZ-305 is guessing. |
| Passing score |
700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Microsoft states plainly that this is a scaled score and may not equal 70% of the points. It is not a percentage. Anyone telling you that you need “66%” or “70%” has misread how Microsoft scores these exams. |
| Unscored questions |
Some questions on your paper are not counted — Microsoft uses them to trial new items. You are not told which ones, so answer every question as though it counts. |
| Negative marking |
None. There is no penalty for guessing; an incorrect answer simply earns no point. |
| Exam fee |
Microsoft does not publish a fixed rupee price. The line on every Microsoft exam page is that price is based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored. The INR amount for India appears at the Pearson VUE booking screen once you select your country, and Microsoft notes separately that quoted prices exclude applicable taxes and are subject to change without notice. We deliberately do not print a figure here — a stale price on a training website is worse than no price at all. Check it at the point of booking.
|
| Retake policy |
You can retake an exam 24 hours after a first failed attempt. The waiting period gets longer for subsequent attempts. |
| Breaks |
Unscheduled breaks are allowed on all three. Five minutes of break time is already built into the exam clock, but the clock keeps running while you are away, and you cannot return to any question you have already seen. |
| Retirement date |
None announced for AZ-305. The English version of AZ-305 was last updated on 17 April 2026. |
What Each Exam Actually Measures
These are Microsoft’s own domain headings. Only AZ-305 publishes percentage weights, so those are the only weights shown here.
| Exam |
Domains assessed |
| AZ-900 |
Describe cloud concepts · Describe Azure architecture and services · Describe Azure management and governance |
| AZ-104 |
Manage Azure identities and governance · Implement and manage storage · Deploy and manage Azure compute resources · Implement and manage virtual networking · Monitor and maintain Azure resources |
| AZ-305 |
Design identity, governance and monitoring solutions (25–30%) · Design data storage solutions (20–25%) · Design business continuity solutions (15–20%) · Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%) |
Passing Criteria and Results
- Score needed: 700 or above on a 1–1,000 scale. Because the score is scaled, the same number can represent a different count of correct answers on two different papers — a harder question set needs fewer points.
- When you get your result: for most exams, within minutes of finishing. Exams that include labs take around 30 minutes to score. Either way the result appears in your Microsoft Learn profile within 24 hours.
- What the score report shows: one overall numeric score, pass or fail, and a bar chart of your performance in each skill area. It does not give a numeric score per section, and Microsoft will not tell you which specific questions you answered incorrectly.
- Reading the bar chart: a bar showing above 70% in one section does not mean you passed. Sections carry different numbers of questions, so the bars cannot be added together into an overall result.
- Your certificate and badge: issued through your Microsoft Learn profile, not through any training provider. You claim and share the badge yourself.
- Register with a personal account: Microsoft recommends booking with a personal Microsoft account rather than a work or college one. If you register with an organisational account and later leave that organisation, your exam records are lost and cannot be recovered.
- Free practice before you book: Microsoft publishes free practice assessments and an exam sandbox that shows the real interface and question types. We build these into the programme rather than selling them as an add-on.
Where We Checked
Every figure above comes from Microsoft’s own pages:
Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900),
Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104),
Exam AZ-305,
Azure Solutions Architect Expert,
Exam scoring and score reports, and
Exam duration and exam experience.
We last checked these on 29 August 2026. Microsoft changes exam content and policy without notice — if you find a difference on their site, theirs is correct, and we would be glad to be told.