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Everything you need to know about the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals certification, Microsoft's entry point to the Azure cloud, as of 2026. This guide covers the AZ-900 exam, the three domains and their weights, the 45-minute format and passing score, the $99 fee, why it never expires, DoD 8140 status, and the roles it opens the door to.
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals certification, earned through exam AZ-900, is Microsoft's entry-level Azure credential. It proves you understand what the cloud is, what the core Azure services do, and how Azure is priced, managed, and governed.
It is a concept exam, not a configuration exam. Nobody asks you to build a virtual network; they ask you what a virtual network is for, which storage redundancy option survives a regional outage, and who is responsible for patching under the shared responsibility model. That makes it approachable for people who have never opened the Azure portal, while still being a real test of whether you can follow an Azure conversation.
There are no prerequisites. Microsoft recommends some general IT experience in infrastructure, databases, or software, but it is written for technology professionals and anyone starting on Azure. It is issued and maintained by Microsoft, and the skills-measured outline was last updated on July 20, 2026.
Cloud computing, shared responsibility, public, private, and hybrid clouds, consumption pricing, and IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and serverless. 25 to 30%.
Regions, availability zones, resource groups, compute, networking, storage, and identity and security with Microsoft Entra ID. The largest domain at 35 to 40%.
Cost management, Azure Policy, resource locks, Purview, the portal and command-line tools, Azure Arc, ARM templates, and monitoring. 30 to 35%.
Four things that make Azure Fundamentals the first Microsoft cloud credential most people earn in 2026.
Azure is the second-largest cloud and the default in Microsoft-heavy, enterprise, and regulated environments. AZ-900 is the credential Microsoft built for people walking in that door with no cloud background, and it is the shared starting point for the administrator, developer, security, data, and AI paths above it.
Regions, availability zones, resource groups, the shared responsibility model, IaaS versus PaaS. These are the terms every Azure meeting runs on, and AZ-900 is where you learn them properly. Engineers, project managers, and sales teams all get the same baseline from it.
A $99 fee, 45 minutes in the testing center, and a credential that never expires. Few certifications ask so little. Our guide to starting with AZ-900 or AZ-104 covers when that trade is worth making.
AZ-900 is not a DoD 8140 credential and does not appear in the Approved Qualifications Matrix V2.1, which lists no Microsoft certifications at all. The current matrix is published at the DoD Cyber Exchange.
Its weight is market-driven instead. Agencies and contractors running Azure Government ask for Azure credentials, and Microsoft partners, resellers, and enterprise IT teams treat AZ-900 as the baseline for anyone who touches Azure without administering it.
Everything you need to know about the certification and the AZ-900 exam as of September 2026.
Azure Fundamentals is the bottom rung by design. From here, most people either move up to a role-based associate exam or sit a second fundamentals exam in the specialty they care about. The three below are the common next steps.
The move from describing Azure to running it. AZ-104 tests hands-on administration across identity, storage, compute, networking, and monitoring in a 100-minute exam, and it is the credential most cloud administration job listings name. See our AZ-104 guide.
The sideways move for anyone whose interest is security. SC-900 is another 45-minute, $99 fundamentals exam that never expires, and it picks up where the identity and security material in AZ-900 leaves off, covering Microsoft Entra, Defender, Sentinel, and Purview in more depth.
The specialty fundamentals for data and AI work. Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) covers machine learning and AI services on Azure, and Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) covers relational, non-relational, and analytics data workloads. Both assume the platform basics AZ-900 teaches.
AZ-900 sits at the fundamentals tier of Microsoft's Azure path, the level everything else builds on. From here the path runs up through the associate tier and then branches into architecture, DevOps, security, and networking.
The cloud groundwork
Hands-on role-based exams
Pick your path
Two questions to answer before you commit: can you sit it, and should you spend the time on AZ-900 rather than going straight to a role-based exam. Here's a straight answer to both.
No prerequisites of any kind.
There is no prerequisite credential, no experience requirement, and no application. You register through Pearson VUE, or through Certiport if you are a student or educator, and sit the exam. If you fail a first attempt, you can retake it after 24 hours. It is one of the few IT certifications a complete newcomer can realistically earn in a month.
Easy questions, a lot of ground.
No single AZ-900 question is hard, but the outline names dozens of services, and you need to know what each one is for and how it differs from its neighbors. Reading alone tends to blur them together. Spend a few hours in the Azure free tier creating a resource group, a storage account, and a virtual machine, and the service names stop being abstract. A practice test then shows you which domain still needs work.
Azure Fundamentals is an entry credential, so it opens doors rather than filling senior seats on its own. These are the roles where it shows up most often in job listings and where it does the most for a resume.
The most common first stop. Help desk and desktop support teams increasingly touch Microsoft 365 and Azure-backed services, and AZ-900 shows a hiring manager you understand the cloud side of the tickets you will handle.
An entry seat on a cloud team, usually under a senior admin. AZ-900 gets you the vocabulary and the portal familiarity to be useful on day one, and AZ-104 is the credential you work toward from here.
Technical sales and pre-sales roles at Microsoft partners and resellers. These teams need people who can explain regions, pricing, and shared responsibility to customers accurately, which is exactly what AZ-900 tests.
Non-engineering roles on cloud migration and modernization projects. AZ-900 lets you follow the technical conversation, scope work realistically, and read an Azure bill without asking an engineer to translate.
The on-premises Windows or server admin whose organization is moving workloads to Azure. AZ-900 is the quick, low-cost way to prove you are ready to take part in that migration before committing to AZ-104.
Developers and analysts whose applications and data now live on Azure. AZ-900 covers the platform basics they are expected to know, and it is the shared starting point before AI-900, DP-900, or AZ-204.
The three certifications people weigh against AZ-900 most often: the next rung up on Azure, the Microsoft security fundamentals sibling, and the AWS equivalent. Here's how they line up.
| Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) | Azure Administrator (AZ-104) | SC-900 Security Fundamentals | AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Microsoft | Microsoft | Microsoft | Amazon Web Services |
| Level | Fundamentals | Associate | Fundamentals | Foundational |
| Focus | Cloud concepts and Azure basics | Operating Azure environments | Microsoft security, compliance, and identity basics | Cloud concepts and AWS basics |
| Exam | Count not published, 45 min | Count not published, 100 min | 45 min | 65 questions, 90 min |
| Passing Score | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 | 700 of 1000 |
| Cost | $99 | $165 | $99 | $100 |
| Validity | Does not expire | 1 year, free renewal | Does not expire | 3 years |
| Best For | Beginners and non-technical roles on Azure | Cloud administrators | Beginners heading into security | Beginners on AWS |
Pricing is US list and varies by country and taxes. None of the Microsoft or AWS certifications above appear on the DoD 8140 Matrix; their recognition is market-driven. Microsoft fundamentals certifications do not expire, associate and expert credentials renew free each year, and AWS certifications are valid for three years. For the full AZ-104 picture, see our Azure Administrator guide.
As a Microsoft training partner, our Azure Fundamentals boot camp covers all three AZ-900 domains in a single instructor-led day, with your exam voucher and a free retake included, so you can sit the exam while the material is fresh.
What AZ-900 actually tests, how to pay less for it, and where it fits among the certifications a newcomer to IT considers.
A domain-by-domain walk through the AZ-900 outline, with the concepts that show up most, the services you need to recognize by name, and the topics candidates tend to underestimate.
The question every Azure beginner asks. When the Fundamentals exam is the right first step, when it is a detour, and how to decide based on the experience you already have.
Legitimate ways to bring the $99 exam fee down to zero, including Microsoft Virtual Training Days and other programs, and what to watch for before you register.
How AZ-900 stacks up against the other entry-level certifications a newcomer to IT considers, and how to sequence them so each one builds on the last.
Where Azure Fundamentals sits among the Microsoft credentials employers ask for most, and which associate and expert certifications candidates move on to after it.
The full Microsoft map, from the fundamentals tier that AZ-900 belongs to through the associate and expert levels, with exam details and the job roles each path leads to.
For people who already hold the AWS Cloud Practitioner or higher and are weighing a second cloud. What carries over, what does not, and where Azure Fundamentals fits.
The AZ-900 exam is organized into three domains, each carrying its own weight. Architecture and services is the heaviest at 35 to 40 percent, and it is where most of the named Azure products live. Click any domain for what it covers.
What cloud computing is and why organizations use it: the shared responsibility model, public, private, and hybrid deployments, and the consumption-based pricing model. It also covers the differences between IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and serverless so you can place any Azure service on that spectrum.
How Azure is organized, from regions and availability zones to subscriptions, resource groups, and management groups, followed by the core services: compute (virtual machines, scale sets, containers, functions, App Service, Virtual Desktop), networking (virtual networks, peering, DNS, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute), and storage (tiers, redundancy, AzCopy, File Sync, Migrate, Data Box). Identity and security round it out with Microsoft Entra ID, SSO, MFA, Conditional Access, RBAC, Zero Trust, defense in depth, and Defender for Cloud.
What drives Azure cost and the tools that manage it, including the pricing calculator and tags, plus the governance layer of Azure Policy, resource locks, and Microsoft Purview. It also covers how you actually work with Azure: the portal, Cloud Shell, the CLI and PowerShell, Azure Arc, infrastructure as code with ARM templates, and monitoring through Advisor, Service Health, and Azure Monitor.
Domains and weights reflect the Microsoft AZ-900 skills-measured outline last updated July 20, 2026, which made minor changes to the compute and networking, deployment tools, and monitoring skill areas without changing the domains. Microsoft refreshes exams periodically, so confirm the current outline on Microsoft Learn before scheduling.
The questions candidates ask most often when researching the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification.
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals certification, earned by passing exam AZ-900, is Microsoft's entry-level Azure credential. It tests whether you understand cloud concepts, the core Azure services, and how Azure is priced, managed, and governed. It's aimed at people starting on Azure, and it doesn't assume you've configured anything yet.
The current exam is AZ-900, and Microsoft last updated the skills-measured outline on July 20, 2026. The changes were minor: small updates to the compute and networking, deployment tools, and monitoring skill areas. The three domains and their weights didn't change.
No. AZ-900 has no prerequisites, so anyone can register and sit the exam. Microsoft recommends some general IT experience in infrastructure, databases, or software, but it's a recommendation, not a requirement. Plenty of people take AZ-900 as their first IT certification of any kind.
The three domains are Describe cloud concepts (25 to 30 percent), Describe Azure architecture and services (35 to 40 percent), and Describe Azure management and governance (30 to 35 percent). Architecture and services is the largest, and it's where most of the named Azure products live.
Microsoft does not publish a question count for AZ-900, and the number can vary by session. You have 45 minutes to complete the exam, which is short compared with Microsoft's role-based exams, so pacing matters more than you'd expect for a fundamentals test.
You need 700 on a scale of 100 to 1000 to pass. Microsoft uses scaled scoring, so 700 does not mean 70 percent of questions correct. Some questions carry more weight than others, and the passing line reflects your overall performance across the three domains rather than a straight percentage.
The AZ-900 exam costs $99 USD in the United States, and the price varies by country. It's delivered through Pearson VUE, or through Certiport for students and educators. Training Camp's Azure Fundamentals boot camp includes the exam voucher in the program fee, along with a free retake.
No. Microsoft certifications don't appear on the DoD 8140 Approved Qualifications Matrix V2.1, so AZ-900 won't satisfy a cyber-coded position requirement on its own. Its value in government settings is practical instead: agencies and contractors running Azure Government routinely ask for Azure credentials, and AZ-900 is the quickest way to show you understand the platform. See the full DoD 8140 work role paths.
No. Microsoft fundamentals certifications, including Azure Fundamentals, do not expire and have no renewal assessment. That's different from Microsoft's associate and expert certifications, which are valid for one year and renew through a free online assessment. Once you pass AZ-900, it stays on your transcript.
On its own, AZ-900 opens entry-level and cloud-adjacent roles rather than senior technical ones: IT support specialist, junior cloud administrator, cloud pre-sales or solution specialist, project manager or business analyst on cloud projects, systems administrator preparing for an Azure migration, and junior developer or data analyst. For hands-on administration jobs, employers usually look for AZ-104 next.
If you're new to the cloud, or you work in a non-engineering role, take AZ-900. It builds the vocabulary that makes everything after it easier, it costs $99, and it never expires. If you already administer servers or have hands-on Azure time, you can skip to AZ-104, since AZ-900 isn't a prerequisite for anything. It comes down to your starting point, not a rule.
AZ-900 is a fundamentals exam, so it tests recognition and understanding rather than configuration. The difficulty is breadth: you need to know what dozens of Azure services do and how they differ, plus the pricing and governance concepts. Most candidates with some IT background prepare in a few weeks, and a practice test is the fastest way to find the gaps. Training Camp's AZ-900 practice test is a good place to check your readiness.
For anyone starting on Azure, yes. It's a $99 exam that takes 45 minutes, never expires, and gives you a shared vocabulary with every Azure team you'll work with. Azure is the second-largest cloud and the default in Microsoft-heavy and regulated environments, so the concepts carry over widely. It's less useful for experienced administrators, who'll get more from AZ-104 directly.
Deciding between AZ-900 and AZ-104, planning the Azure path, or arranging cloud training for a team: tell us where you are and we'll help you map out the right next step.