Which Azure Certification Path is Right for Me?
Microsoft Azure encompasses a large variety of technologies and skillsets. Review the Microsoft Azure certification paths
listed below, categorized by experience level and job role, and find the next certification that is right for you and
your career goals.
Note below that each certification is tied to a specific experience level and job role. The name of each certification also describes
more specifically the
targeted job role of the certification candidate.
Prove that you understand the options available in Microsoft 365 and the benefits of adopting cloud services, the Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud model, and implementing Microsoft 365 cloud service.
Prerequisites
- No prerequisites for this certification
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
This allows students to demonstrate knowledge of common ML and AI workloads and how to implement them on Azure..
Prerequisites
- No prerequisites for this certification
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals
Responsibilities for this role include implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment, plus provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources, when needed.
An Azure Administrator often serves as part of a larger team dedicated to implementing your organization's cloud infrastructure.
Prerequisites
- Candidates for the Azure Administrator Associate certification should have subject matter expertise implementing, managing, and monitoring an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.
- A candidate for this certification should have at least six months of hands-on experience administering Azure, along with a strong understanding of core Azure services, Azure workloads, security, and governance. In addition, this role should have experience using PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure portal, and Azure Resource Manager templates.
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator (beta)
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Responsibilities for this role include participating in all phases of cloud development from requirements definition and design, to development, deployment, and maintenance. performance tuning, and monitoring.
Azure Developers partner with cloud solution architects, cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement solutions.
Prerequisites
- Candidates for the Azure Developer Associate certification should have subject matter expertise designing, building, testing, and maintaining cloud applications and services on Microsoft Azure.
- A candidate for this certification should have 1-2 years professional development experience and experience with Microsoft Azure. In addition, the role should have ability programming in a language supported by Azure and proficiency in Azure SDKs, data storage options, data connections, APIs, app authentication and authorization, compute and container deployment, debugging, performance tuning, and monitoring.
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
Azure Data Engineers design and implement the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data using the full stack of Azure data services to satisfy business needs.
Prerequisites
- No prerequisites for this certification
Step 1 Take These Courses
Step 2 Take These Exams
- Exam DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
- Exam DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate
The Azure Data Scientist applies their knowledge of data science and machine learning to implement and run machine learning workloads on Azure; in particular, using Azure Machine Learning Service.
Prerequisites
- No prerequisites for this certification
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate
Responsibilities for this role include analyzing requirements for AI solutions, recommending the appropriate tools and technologies, and designing and implementing AI solutions that meet scalability and performance requirements.
Azure AI Engineers translate the vision from solution architects and work with data scientists, data engineers, IoT specialists, and software developers to build complete end-to-end solutions.
Prerequisites
- Candidates for the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification should have subject matter expertise using cognitive services, machine learning, and knowledge mining to architect and implement Microsoft AI solutions involving natural language processing, speech, computer vision, and conversational AI.
- A candidate for this certification should have knowledge and experience designing and implementing AI apps and agents that use Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Bot Service, Azure Cognitive Search, and data storage in Azure. In addition, a candidate should be able to recommend solutions that use open source technologies, understand the components that make up the Azure AI portfolio and the available data storage options, and understand when a custom API should be developed to meet specific requirements.
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AI-100: Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate
Job Role:
Security Engineer
Responsibilities for this role include maintaining the security posture, identifying, and remediating vulnerabilities by using a variety of security tools, implementing threat protection, and responding to security incident escalations.
Azure Security Engineers often serve as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security or hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
Prerequisites
- Candidates for the Azure Security Engineer certification should have subject matter expertise implementing security controls and threat protection, managing identity and access, and protecting data, applications, and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.
- A candidate for this certification should have strong skills in scripting and automation; a deep understanding of networking, virtualization, and cloud N-tier architecture; and a strong familiarity with cloud capabilities and products and services for Azure, plus other Microsoft products and services.
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate
Job Role:
Solutions Architect
Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.
An Azure Solutions Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.
Prerequisites
- 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.
- A candidate for this certification should have advanced experience and knowledge across various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, this role should be proficient in at least one of these Azure knowledge domains: administration, development, or DevOps.
Step 1 Take These Courses
Step 2 Take These Exams
- Exam AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
- Exam AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Job Role:
DevOps Engineer
Azure DevOps professionals combine people, process, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end user needs and business objectives.
Prerequisites
- One of the following Azure Associate Certifications:
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate -OR-
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
- Candidates for this exam are DevOps professionals who combine people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end user needs and business objectives. DevOps professionals streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation. They design and implement strategies for application code and infrastructure that allow for continuous integration, testing, delivery, monitoring, and feedback.
- Candidates must be proficient with Agile practices. They must be familiar with both Azure administration and Azure development and experts in at least one of these areas. Azure DevOps professionals must be able to design and implement DevOps practices for version control, compliance, infrastructure as code, configuration management, build, release, and testing by using Azure technologies.
Step 2 Take This Exam
- Exam AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions
Step 3 Earn This Certification
- Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert