I just got the great mail in my inbox that I passed the AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 Microsoft Azure Architect Design exams to receive and renew the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. Back in 2015 I received my first MCSD Azure Solutions Architect certification and renewed it in 2019. A couple of weeks back I took the new AZ-303 and AZ-304 beta exams online, to future proof my knowledge on Azure cloud architecture. When you take a beta exam you get the test results after a couple of days the exam in generally launched, and today was the day.
What is the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect certification?
Earning the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification demonstrates skills and knowledge to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates have advanced experience and knowledge across IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution.
Candidates for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification should have subject matter expertise in designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security.
Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.
An Azure Solution Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.
A candidate for this certification 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 should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, this role should have expert-level skills in Azure administration and have experience with Azure development and DevOps processes.
You can find more information on the certification here. To earn the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification you will need to pass two exams.
Take AZ-303 and AZ-304 Exams
You can also take any of the following exam combinations if you already have passed an “older” exam.
The high-level view of the skills measured in the certification and exams are:
- Implement and monitor an Azure infrastructure
- Implement management and security solutions
- Implement solutions for apps
- Implement and manage data platforms
- Design monitoring
- Design identity and security
- Design data storage
- Design business continuity
- Design infrastructure
How to prepare and pass the AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 Microsoft Azure Architect Design exam
The skills measured in the two exams are a mix of Azure Cloud Solution Architect tasks focusing on Azure expertise in designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security. If you are just getting started with Microsoft Azure, I recommend that you take first the exam AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals. This is not a required exam, but it is a great way to validate your knowledge and get started with the cloud. If you feel comfortable you can directly start with the Azure Solutions Architect certification. I have written an AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 Microsoft Azure Architect Design exam study guides, with all the information and resources I used to prepare for the exam. These are all the resources I used to study and prepare for these exams.
AZ-303 Study Guide Azure Architect Technologies Exam Study Guide
For many people, I also recommend ether taking the AZ-204 Azure Developer or AZ-104 Azure Administrator exam first. These exams are not mandatory but provide you with the basic knowledge of Azure, which you can also leverage in Azure Solutions Architect exams.
AZ-304 Study Guide Azure Architect Design Exam Study Guide
I also have a blog post on generally prepare for Microsoft certification exams as well as some tips on how to take Microsoft exams.
Conclusion
Are you also interested in becoming Microsoft Azure Certified? Check out my blog posts about why you should become Microsoft Azure Certified, how to pick the right Azure exam certification path, and how to prepare and pass a Microsoft Azure certification exam. I hope this helps you to prepare, study, and pass the AZ-303 and AZ-304 to become a Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect.
I am super happy I passed the AZ-303 and AZ-304 exams, it is a great way of validating your skills. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.
Hello Tomas!
how long does an exam remain in beta?
They just came out of beta last week :)
I was looking for a while a written confirmation somewhere about the possibility of having AZ-300 + the new one AZ-304.
Thank you so much Thomas.
Hello Thomas,
Thanks for the article. What would you recomment to take first after Az-900: AZ 303 or AZ 304?
regards,
Vinod
Hard to say, because it doesn’t really matter. I think I would go for Az-304 first. I remember it correctly to be a little bit more high-level.
Thank you Thomas, this is what I was thinking :)
Is there any lab exams for AZ 303 and AZ 304?
AZ303 or AZ 304, which one i should plan first ? Which one comes first in trajectory ?
In my opinion, you can start with either one.
hi, i am preparing for AZ304 and AZ303 exam for AZ expert certificate. I have few queries.
1. Can i attempt AZ304 and then AZ303 or it is mandatory to attempt AZ303 first and AZ304 later?
2. What would be the time gap between these 2 exams?
regards,
Jayesh
1. You can take them in the order you like
2. You can take them after each other. But you need to calculate the full time when booking. Lets say you get 3 hours for 1 exam, you can book the second exam not after 2 hours the first exam started. ;) So there is no big waiting period.
Hi Thomas, what is beta exam and how they are different then AZ303 AZ304 exam?
The beta exams are just the first public version of the exam, so see if the questions are working. Sometimes questions need to be fixed. You also don’t get the result straight away after the beta exam. But result wise they are the same certifications.