Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104)
AZ-104 is the working Azure administrator's credential: identity and governance, storage, compute, networking and monitoring, tested as operational judgment rather than recall. Unlike AZ-900 it assumes you actually run Azure — questions routinely show a portal state, a CLI command or an ARM/Bicep fragment and ask what to do next.
- Typically 40–60
- Questions
- 100 min
- Duration
- 700 on a 1–1000 scaled score
- Passing score
- Priced by the country or
- Exam cost
Microsoft publishes no AZ-104-specific count
region where the exam is proctored — Microsoft publishes no single global price; check learn.microsoft.com
Exam facts reviewed July 2026 · Independent study resource, not affiliated with Microsoft
Who should take it
Administrators who already implement, manage and monitor an Azure environment — identity, governance, storage, compute and virtual networks — and want the role-based credential that matches the job. Microsoft expects real subject-matter expertise here; it is a substantially harder exam than AZ-900 and is not a natural first certification.
Skills measured
Domains and weightings as published by Microsoft. Full objectives →
- 24%Manage Azure identities and governance
- 19%Implement and manage storage
- 24%Deploy and manage Azure compute resources
- 19%Implement and manage virtual networking
- 14%Monitor and maintain Azure resources
What’s inside
What you get on Kwizza for this certification — free, no account needed to start.
- 300
- Practice questions
- 3
- Full exams
- 5
- Domains covered
- Free
- Cost
weighted to the official blueprint
every answer explained
Prepare with Kwizza
- Free practice exam — full-length, weighted to the official blueprint, every answer explained
- Study guide — domain-by-domain focus areas, common mistakes, exam-day tips
- Exam objectives — the official domains, unpacked
- Sample questions — real items from our bank, with answers and explanations
- How our exams are made — the quality pipeline behind every question
Frequently asked questions
- Does AZ-104 expire?
- Yes — and this is the key difference from AZ-900. AZ-104 is role-based, so it is valid for 12 months. Renewal is free: a short unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn during the six-month window before expiry, which extends it a year from the expiration date.
- What score do I need to pass?
- 700 on a 1–1000 scale. Microsoft states explicitly that this is a scaled score and may not equal 70% of the points, so treat any percentage — including on practice exams — as an approximation.
- Should I take AZ-900 first?
- Not required. If you already administer Azure daily, go straight to AZ-104. AZ-900 is useful mainly if the cloud model itself is new to you.
- How much hands-on experience do I need?
- Meaningful amounts. Microsoft describes the target candidate as having subject-matter expertise in running an Azure environment, and the exam reflects that — it asks what to do next given a real configuration, which is hard to fake from reading.
- How long is the exam?
- 100 minutes of exam time, within a 120-minute seat time that also covers instructions and the candidate agreement.
Related certifications
- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) — The foundational exam to take first if Azure is new
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — The comparable associate-level credential on AWS