Eight Azure Certificates in Twelve Months: How I Did It

Why Modern Developers Can’t Ignore Azure, Cloud and AI Anymore.

Not long ago, many software development roles allowed engineers to focus almost entirely on application code - building features, shipping functionality, and delivering value through software alone. For a long time, that worked just fine.

Today, the landscape looks very different.

Photo: Ali Khan is a Software Engineer at Solidsoft Reply

Cloud platforms now underpin almost every modern system, and AI is rapidly changing how software is built, deployed, and maintained. Developers who limit themselves to “just writing code” risk falling behind - not because their skills aren’t valuable, but because the role itself is evolving.

Rather than seeing cloud and AI as threats, I see them as signals to evolve. Understanding cloud infrastructure, networking, security, and platform services is no longer optional it’s a core part of building resilient, scalable, production-ready systems.

At Solidsoft Reply, my day-to-day role already spans both front-end and back-end development, and I liked the idea of becoming more self-sufficient as a Software Engineer - someone who understands not just what the application does, but how it runs, scales, and stays secure in the real world.

That mindset is what pushed me towards completing Azure certifications.

Why Certifications (Beyond of Learning on the Job)?

Certifications don’t just appeal to me because they validate expertise. For me, biggest value is structure.

They:

• Create a clear framework for what’s worth learning

• Highlight knowledge gaps you didn’t know you had

• Push you to explore areas you might otherwise avoid

Personally, they helped me build a much stronger mental model of how Azure fits together.

In roughly a year, this approach led me to complete eight Azure certifications (and counting) while working full time.

Azure certifications are grouped into three levels:

• Fundamental

• Associate

• Expert

My goal was to start with the fundamental and progressively work towards expert level.

My Study Approach

My study plan that eventually worked best for me was:

• Go through Microsoft Learn text Material

• Follow up with instructor-led videos

• Adjust the order depending on the topic difficulty

Most of my exam's dates were scheduled on a Saturdays, and on Friday evenings I would do 1-2 hours for study cram usually using John Saville’s content.

Below is a breakdown of my certification journey.

Fundamental Certifications

I started with a Fundamental certification: AI 900 (Azure AI Fundamentals). I could have begun with AZ-900 (Azure fundamentals). However, I already, understood the core cloud concepts, so I chose to focus on something newer and more relevant.

Because of prior machine learning experience in a previous role, I did not find the exam technically deep.

AI-900 certification focuses more on:

• Service selection

• Use-case awareness

• High–level architecture

...rather than ML theory.

It is a solid orientation for developers moving into the AI and cloud space and served as a great confidence building starting point.

Associate Certifications

AZ-104 — Azure Administrator

The next step was gaining a strong grasp of Azure services. The best place to start was AZ-104 (Azure Administrator).

Interestingly, this was my originally starting point, but I paused it to build confidence with the exam format by completing AI-900 first.

AZ-104 covers a huge portion of Azure, and I tackled it on and off over a year. This was the most difficult certification for me, primarily because it was my true entry point into Azure Services.

AZ-204 - Azure Developer

Next came AZ-204 (Azure Developer), which I took about 5 weeks after.

This was easily the most enjoyable certification. It felt:

• Practical

• Relevant

• Closely aligned with my day-to-day development work

Thanks to the AZ-104 I could clearly see how the components would be used in real projects.

AI-102 - Azure AI Engineer

With admin and development suggestions in place, I moved to AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer).

Surprisingly, there was very little traditional ML (machine learning) content (one of my stronger areas). Instead, the focus was on Azure AI services, such as:

• Speech

• Vision

• LLMs

• Knowledge Mining

• Agents and Generative AI

This exam is much more about integration and implementation than pure ML theory.

AZ-500 - Azure Security Engineer

Next on the list was AZ-500 (Azure Security Engineer).

The certification validates expertise in:

• Identity and access management

• Data security

• Network security

• Security operations

These skills are critical for protecting cloud resources against threats.

This was the toughest exam of the bunch - not because the concepts were overly complex, but because the Microsoft Learn content is dense and verbose.

I paused this certification midway due to approaching burnout and the pressure of keeping my six-week exam cadence.

AZ-700 - Azure Network Solutions

At this point I thought I was finished with the Associate level. However, after checking with my study companion (AI), networking emerged as a remaining gap.

Although AZ 104 covers networking, AZ-700 (Design and Implement Azure Network Solutions) goes much deeper. Fortunately, Microsoft Learn content is only 6-7 hours.

Expert Certifications

AZ-305 - Azure Solutions Architect

With the core Azure domains covered, I moved to the expert level, starting the new Year with AZ-305 (Azure Solutions Architect).

This certification builds heavily on AZ 104 and AZ 500 and focuses strongly on:

• Migration

• Databases

• Storage design

I would not necessarily say it was harder than the Associate exams – likely because the earlier certifications had built a solid foundation.

AZ-400 - Azure DevOps Engineer

The second Expert certification is AZ-400 (Azure DevOps Engineer).

The Microsoft learn material here is again quite dense (like AZ-500) and focuses on:

• Azure Pipelines

• GitHub Actions

• CI/CD strategy

Having prior Azure Pipeline experience from both Solidsoft and previous roles helped significantly. The GitHub Actions content was particularly interesting, showing alternative approaches to similar problems.

What Actually Helped Me Pass / Exam Tips

Learning Strategy:

1. Start with Microsoft Learn - begin with the official Learning paths. Do not rush them - they build the foundation.

2. Take the Practice Assessment Early - do not be disheartened by low scores. All of mine started around 50%. That is normal.

3. Use Instructor-Led Videos - once you have read the material, videos help reinforce learning - especially for networking and identity topics.

4. Repeat Practice Assessments - keep looping until you consistently score around 80% or higher.

5. Use AI as a Personal Tutor - copilot (or any AI tool) is incredibly useful for: explaining concepts, you do not understand simplifying Microsoft’s wording creating cheat sheets (e.g. all Azure network monitoring tools and what they do).

6. YouTube for Deployments - if you lack time or resources for every lab, deployment walkthroughs (storage, VMs, web app, containers) are a solid alternative.

7. Use YouTube Study Crams Before the Exam - John Savill’s (there are others too) Study Crams are excellent last-minute refresher.

8. Practice Exam-Style Questions - Microsoft’s questions are often verbose and confusing. Train your brain for how they ask questions, not just the content.

Exam Day Tips:

1. Pearson VUE test centres are noisy - expect distractions: loud typing, coughing, general background noise. Prepare mentally. Long questions drain focus. Some questions are unnecessarily wordy. If you lose focus, flag it and move on.

2. Case Studies - all Associate-level exams (except Fundamentals) include case studies. Quickly scan where each tab is. Jump straight to the question. Only review environment details relevant to that question This saves a lot of time. Also, use the dry-wipe pen and paper are provided.

3. Be careful with Microsoft Learn Timing - in the AZ-700 exam, I nearly ran out of time by over relying on Learn. I finished with about 2 minutes remaining. Important: when time runs out, the exam instantly ends with no warnings.

My Final Advice Thoughts (TLDR)

• Start with the Fundamentals exam to learn the format (AZ-900 recommended)

• Take AZ-104 to understand the Azure platform

• Then Specialise based on your role (Developer, AI, Security, Networking)