AZ-303 Study Guide: Azure Architect Technologies

To get the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification, there are two new exams which you need to pass, the AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and the AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design exam. In this blog post, I am going to share my AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam Study Guide with you. To learn and prepare for the exam, I usually use a couple of online resources, mainly Microsoft Docs and Microsoft Learn, which I am going to share with you. You can find more information about how I prepare for a Microsoft Certification exam on my blog post: How to prepare and pass Microsoft Certification Exam.

NOTE: Before starting with this exam, check out the new AZ-305 exam and my AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Certification Exam Study Guide.

Also, check out other Microsoft Azure Certification Exam Study Guides:

Here is my AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam Study Guide

It is essential to get familiar with the exam objectives and skills measured first. That is why I recommend reading the description of the exam and the skills measured.

Exam AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies

Candidates for this exam are Azure Solutions Architects who advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance. This role requires managing how decisions in each area affects an overall solution.

Candidates must have expert-level skills in Azure administration and have experience with Azure development processes and DevOps processes.

The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam:

Implement and Monitor an Azure Infrastructure (50-55%)
Implement Management and Security Solutions (25-30%)
Implement Solutions for Apps (10-15%)
Implement and Manage Data Platforms (10-15%)

You can find more information on the exam website.

Free Online Microsoft Learn AZ-303 Exam Study Guide resources

Microsoft Learn provides you with free online training and learning paths for different Microsoft technologies. They not just offer reading material, but also control questions and free online labs. Here are some relevant Microsoft Learn modules and learning paths for the AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam. Microsoft Learn is an important part of my AZ-303 exam study guide.

Microsoft Docs AZ-303 study guide resources

One thing I always used to prepare for my Microsoft exams is Microsoft Docs. Here are the relevant Microsoft Docs which I used to prepare and study for the AZ-303 exam.

Implement and Monitor an Azure Infrastructure (50-55%)

Implement cloud infrastructure monitoring

monitor security
monitor performance
monitor health and availability
- Azure Service Health
- Resource Health overview
monitor cost
configure advanced logging
initiate automated responses by using Action Groups
- Create and manage action groups in the Azure portal
configure and manage advanced alerts

Implement storage accounts

select storage account options based on a use case
- Storage account overview
- Introduction to Azure Storage
configure Azure Files and blob storage
- Introduction to Azure Blob storage
- Create an Azure file share
configure network access to the storage account
- Configure Azure Storage firewalls and virtual networks
implement Shared Access Signatures and access policies
- Delegate access with a shared access signature
- Grant limited access to Azure Storage resources using shared access signatures (SAS)
implement Azure AD authentication for storage
- Authorize access to blobs and queues using Azure Active Directory
manage access keys
- Manage storage account access keys
implement Azure storage replication
- Azure Storage redundancy
- Disaster recovery and account failover (preview)
implement Azure storage account failover
- Initiate a storage account failover (preview)

Implement VMs for Windows and Linux

configure High Availability
- Availability options for virtual machines in Azure
- Manage the availability of Windows virtual machines in Azure
configure storage for VMs
select virtual machine size
- Sizes for Windows virtual machines in Azure
- Sizes for Linux virtual machines in Azure
implement Azure Dedicated Hosts
- Deploy VMs to dedicated hosts using the portal
- Azure Dedicated Hosts
deploy and configure scale sets
- What are virtual machine scale sets?
configure Azure Disk Encryption
- Azure Disk Encryption for Linux VMs
- Azure Disk Encryption for Windows VMs

Automate deployment and configuration of resources

save a deployment as an Azure Resource Manager template
- Download the template for a VM
modify Azure Resource Manager template
evaluate location of new resources
- Conditional deployment in Resource Manager templates
- Set resource location in Resource Manager template
configure a virtual disk template
- Create a VM from a VHD by using the Azure portal
deploy from a template
- Download the template for a VM
manage a template library
- Azure Resource Manager templates overview
create and execute an automation runbook
- Start a runbook in Azure Automation

Implement virtual networking

implement VNet to VNet connections
- Configure a VNet-to-VNet VPN gateway connection by using the Azure portal
implement VNet peering
- Virtual network peering
- Create, change, or delete a virtual network peering

Implement Azure Active Directory

add custom domains
- Add your custom domain name using the Azure Active Directory portal
configure Azure AD Identity Protection
- What is Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
implement self-service password reset
implement Conditional Access including MFA
configure fraud alerts
configure verification methods
- Change your two-factor verification method and settings
- What is the Additional verification page?
implement and manage guest accounts
manage multiple directories
- Understand how multiple Azure Active Directory tenants interact

Implement and manage hybrid identities

install and configure Azure AD Connect
- Custom installation of Azure AD Connect
- Select which installation type to use for Azure AD Connect
identity synchronization options
- Azure AD Connect sync: Understand and customize synchronization
- Azure Active Directory Hybrid Identity Design Considerations
configure and manage password sync and password writeback
configure single sign-on
- Azure Active Directory Seamless Single Sign-On: Quick start
- Azure Active Directory Seamless Single Sign-On: Frequently asked questions
configure Azure AD Connect cloud sync
- What is Azure AD Connect cloud sync?
- Create a new configuration for Azure AD Connect cloud sync
use Azure AD Connect Health
- Azure Active Directory Connect Health operations
- What is Azure AD Connect?

Implement Management and Security Solutions (25-30%)

Manage workloads in Azure

migrate workloads using Azure Migrate
implement Azure Backup for Azure workloads
- An overview of Azure VM backup
- Get improved backup and restore performance with Azure Backup Instant Restore capability
implement disaster recovery
- Set up disaster recovery to a secondary Azure region for an Azure VM
implement Azure Update Management

Implement load balancing and network security

implement Azure Load Balancer
implement an application gateway
- Application Gateway configuration overview
implement a Web Application Firewall
- Azure Web Application Firewall on Azure Application Gateway
implement Azure Firewall
- Tutorial: Deploy and configure Azure Firewall using the Azure portal
implement Azure Firewall Manager
- What is Azure Firewall Manager?
implement the Azure Front Door Service
- What is Azure Front Door Service?
- Quickstart: Create a Front Door for a highly available global web application
implement Azure Traffic Manager
- What is Traffic Manager?
- Quickstart: Create a Traffic Manager profile using the Azure portal
implement Network Security Groups and Application Security Groups
- Security groups
- Create, change, or delete a network security group
implement Bastion
- Create an Azure Bastion host

Implement and manage Azure governance solutions

create and manage hierarchical structure that contains management groups, subscriptions and resource groups
assign RBAC roles
- Add or remove role assignments using Azure RBAC and the Azure portal
create a custom RBAC role
- Custom roles for Azure resources
- Tutorial: Create a custom role for Azure resources using Azure PowerShell
configure access to Azure resources by assigning roles
- Tutorial: Grant a user access to Azure resources using RBAC and the Azure portal
configure management access to Azure
interpret effective permissions
- What is role-based access control (RBAC) for Azure resources?
- Quickstart: View the access a user has to Azure resources
set up and perform an access review
- What are Azure AD access reviews?
implement and configure an Azure Policy
implement and configure an Azure Blueprint
- What is Azure Blueprints?
- Quickstart: Define and assign a blueprint in the portal

Manage security for applications

implement and configure KeyVault
- What is Azure Key Vault?
- About keys, secrets, and certificates
implement and configure Azure AD Managed Identities
- What are managed identities for Azure resources?
- Use a Windows VM system-assigned managed identity to access Resource Manager
register and manage applications in Azure AD
- Tutorial: Register an application in Azure Active Directory B2C

Implement Solutions for Apps (10-15%)

Implement an application infrastructure

create and configure Azure App Service
create an App Service Web App for Containers
- Deploy a custom Linux container to Azure App Service
create and configure an App Service plan
- Azure App Service plan overview
- Manage an App Service plan in Azure
configure an App Service
configure networking for an App Service
create and manage deployment slots
- Set up staging environments in Azure App Service
implement Logic Apps
implement Azure Functions

Implement container-based applications

create a container image
configure Azure Kubernetes Service
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using the Azure portal
publish and automate image management by using the Azure Container Registry
- Push your first image to a private Docker container registry using the Docker CLI
- Tutorial: Build and deploy container images in the cloud with Azure Container Registry Tasks
publish a solution on an Azure Container Instance

Implement and Manage Data Platforms (10-15%)

Implement NoSQL databases

configure storage account tables
- Azure Table storage overview
- Understanding the Table service data model
select appropriate CosmosDB APIs
- Choose the appropriate API for Azure Cosmos DB storage (Microsoft Learn module)
- Welcome to Azure Cosmos DB
set up replicas in CosmosDB

Implement Azure SQL databases

configure Azure SQL database settings
implement Azure SQL Database managed instances
configure HA for an Azure SQL database
- High-availability and Azure SQL Database
publish an Azure SQL database
- Azure SQL database deployment
- Tutorial: Deploy your ASP.NET app and Azure SQL Database code by using Azure DevOps Projects

Tips and Resources

I hope this AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam Study Guide helps you pass the exam and get the Azure Solutions Architect certification. I also recommend that you open a free Azure account if you don’t have one yet. You can create your free Azure account here. Also, check out my blog posts about Microsoft Azure Certification:

I hope you enjoyed my AZ-303 Study Guide and it helps you as exam prep. Did I miss any link, or do you have any recommended AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam Study Guide resources? Let me know in the comments.

56 responses

Alen

March 17, 2020

Thanks a lot for sharing this.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 17, 2020
  
  you’re welcome :)
  
AAI

March 17, 2020

Thanks for sharing this information.
But please is AZ303, 304 replacement for AZ-300, AZ-301 exams?

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 17, 2020
  
  Yes,
  
  AZ-300 -> AZ-303
  AZ-301 -> AZ-304
  
Haider

March 17, 2020

Thank you for sharing :)

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 17, 2020
  
  you’re welcome :)
  
Vaibhav

March 18, 2020

Hi Thomas,

I was compiling az-303 study guide myself. After compiling azure docs links for first two modules, I came across this blog post. The links that I considered for those two modules exactly match what you have given above. I’m convinced now that I’m on right path. For rest of the modules, I will follow your study guide only.

Thanks a lot for putting this up and helping the azure community.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 18, 2020
  
  Thank you, Vaibhav! That is great. :) Happy Learning
  
Sameer Bhanushali

March 19, 2020

This is really helpful . Thanks a Lot for sharing. Do you have any similar type of study guide for MS-101 exam.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 19, 2020
  
  Not yet :)
  
Sameer Bhanushali

March 19, 2020

This is really helpful .
Thanks a Lot for sharing. Do you have any similar type of study guide for MS-101 exam.

Ben

March 19, 2020

Can Microsoft give unlimited exam vouchers to everyone who wants to do the exams online during this time ?

Hansa

March 21, 2020

Thank You Thomas for sharing your journey with valuable information.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  March 21, 2020
  
  thank you :)
  
Dean

March 29, 2020

Great set of resources that are extremely helpful in assisting with the architecture exams. The coverage, content and the format of the blog makes it really easy to follow and learn. Great contribution! – Thanks!

Dilip Kumar

April 7, 2020

Thank You Thomas for sharing the details. Do you have link to any mock exam related to 303 .

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  April 8, 2020
  
  I am not aware of any. But I would check the exam page for more information on that. Maybe it gets updated with that information.
  
Ali

April 9, 2020

Thanks you Thomas!
Any plan for compiling a similar resource list for AZ304?

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  April 9, 2020
  
  Hi Ali, Yes very soon! :)
  
Arvind

April 12, 2020

Thanks for sharing Thomas. Looking forward to one for 304 as well.

Manni

May 10, 2020

Thanks for sharing, Thomas!

I hoping to see another one for AZ-304 soon.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  May 10, 2020
  
  Thanks Manni :)
  There is one for AZ-304 right here: https://www.thomasmaurer.ch/2020/04/az-304-study-guide-microsoft-azure-architect-design/
  
Bharath Kumar

May 12, 2020

Hats off to your patience! You have created such a wonderful certification index. It will save days worth of research to find these articles. Thanks so much!

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  May 12, 2020
  
  Thank you, Bharath
  
Vicluar Daniel Merchan

May 13, 2020

Thank you so much for sharing this valuable information. I’m kicking off my preparation towards the Solutions Architect certification. This material will be my main driver over the road.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  May 18, 2020
  
  You’re welcome :)
  Awesome that it works for you, good luck with the exam!
  
Shankar

May 26, 2020

Hi Thomas,

Thank you so much. Any plans for AZ – 400?

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  May 26, 2020
  
  You’re welcome. No plans for AZ-400 at the moment.
  Is this something you need a Study Guide like this?
  
Tristan

June 9, 2020

Great guide Thomas.

Is this material applicable for the AZ-300 exam?

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  June 9, 2020
  
  They are not specifically for the Az-300 exam. And maybe there are some parts missing here for AZ-300 and some parts are new in the AZ-303. However, a lot of them are overlapping.
  
Ash

July 7, 2020

I have to start preparation for “Azure Solutions Architect Expert”. In your opinion, what should I target for? Az-300/301 or Az-303/304

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  July 7, 2020
  
  In my opinion, would start with 303/304
  FYI, you can also do 300/304 or 301/303 :)
  
Nithin

July 9, 2020

HI Thomas, Thanks first of all. The exams 303 and 304 are showing beta currently. Does it mean we should wait to give exams till they are off beta. I want a valid certification to be completed in next 2 months.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  July 9, 2020
  
  You can already take them now. You will just need to wait until you get the result. (You get the result usually a couple of days after the exam comes out of beta.)
  
Christophe GIGAX

July 9, 2020

Does the AZ-303 exam count for Azure Solutions Architect Expert certifications ?
Or should we retake the final exam to earn the badge ?

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  July 10, 2020
  
  Hi
  Yes, the AZ-303 exam (even in beta) counts for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certifications. But keep in mind the Azure Solutions Architect certification includes two exams to pass. For example 303 and 304.
  
MR SUNNY SINGH

July 15, 2020

Hi Thomas, thanks for the information. I am begining to prepare for the this exam. Does this cover everything my friend?

Vikas

July 20, 2020

Great I was looking for this only…Thanks for sharing this material and helping us :-)

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  July 20, 2020
  
  No Problem, you^’re welcome :)
  And thanks for the comment
  
Chris

July 30, 2020

What are you thoughts on the Learning path from the AZ-303 site? as opposed to the direct Docs site for the particular topic?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/learn/certifications/exams/az-303?WT.mc_id=thomasmaurer-blog-thmaure&tab=tab-learning-paths

Anthony

August 6, 2020

Take a bow Thomas. This is an awesome resource. Thank you for putting all this together.

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  August 6, 2020
  
  Thank you :)
  
Saji

August 23, 2020

Thanks a lot Thomas. It is a great resource. I just started the journey with the learning paths. Did you use any practice exam resources? Might be a good addition to your excellent study guide, if you have come across any good ones.

ATANU GUPTA

September 21, 2020

Great stuff… thanx for sharing.
Does these new AZ series exams has labs?

Chetan Gajera

October 13, 2020

Thank you Thomas for collating all details for the exam AZ-303 on a single page.

Abraham Hayat

October 15, 2020

You sir, are indeed a fine human being for this level of organizing and generosity to share. Hats off, for this awesome work. I hope to use it for my cert goals. Thanks!

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  October 16, 2020
  
  Thanks Abraham :) Good luck with the Certification!
  
Sathya

November 9, 2020

Great blog!

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  November 10, 2020
  
  thanks!
  
aix.smichel

December 3, 2020

Thank a lot for this post ! MS made some minor change on the exam scope the 24th November ;-)

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  December 4, 2020
  
  Yep, will soon have an update for these minor changes :)
  
Jamil

December 8, 2020

Thanks for the information! Just about to start studying for 303, then 304. How much time do you think I need to dedicate for each? Bit of an aside, but what is that tablet & program combo you’re using in the top picture for the architecture diagrams? Looks great.

Amir

April 6, 2021

Just want to say thank you Thomas,
It’s about 2 months I’m studying Azure 303. after reading original “AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies” book and different training videos I understand my path wasn’t correct! book wasn’t detailed enough and Videos didn’t cover everything.

The path and links that you have provided here is great. I am starting again. Not only this path ends with ace on exam, but also it’s great to become a knowledgable Azure Admin.

Thank you

Karol

September 8, 2021

Thank you Thomas for this study guide. Just want to let you know that this link is broken :
Update Management solution in Azure

I think it should be replaced by this :
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/update-management/overview?WT.mc_id=thomasmaurer-blog-thmaure

1. Thomas Maurer
  
  September 9, 2021
  
  Thank you Karol. I just updated the post with the fixed link.
  
Jose

October 25, 2021

Thank you so much

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Here is my AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Certification Exam Study Guide

Free Online Microsoft Learn AZ-303 Exam Study Guide resources

Microsoft Docs AZ-303 study guide resources

Implement and Monitor an Azure Infrastructure (50-55%)

Implement Management and Security Solutions (25-30%)

Implement Solutions for Apps (10-15%)

Implement and Manage Data Platforms (10-15%)

Tips and Resources

Related articles

AZ-305 Exam Study Guide Azure Solutions Architect Certification

Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

AZ-220 Study Guide: Microsoft Azure IoT Developer

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