Background

At the end of 2022 I decided to try taking another Microsoft certification. I finished the Ignite Cloud Skills Challange, received the free voucher and started wondering what exam should I use this voucher for. Go the AI route?

Then, I spotted that Simon Lee was preparing for az305 and I came up with an idea: how about pairing up for az305 and making the learning public? Simon agreed, I scheduled a Twitter space and we went with promoting it. It gained popularity in the Azure community, people joined the chat - including Femila from Microsoft responsible for Microsoft learn. I decided to summarize conclusions & resources in this article.

Mindset

Before starting the preparation, it’s important to understand how the preparation should be approached. Az305 is an architecting exam, focused on cases studies - not implementation details. So, how the studying should be approached?

1. The purpose/feature/usage of services/products
2. Important limitations
3. Pricing SKUs - NOT details like app service plan S1 vs S2, but general tiers like free vs paid

Here’s how the case study format looks like

Essential resources

• az305 exam readiness sessions - especially the sections at the end showcasing how the exam questions should be approached
• official mock case studies - to practice with
• Azure Maps by Stephane Eyskens - providing high level overview of different Azure services

More

For more learning:

• az305 study cram by John Savill
• official Microsoft learn az305 modules

To focus more on data:

• dp900 study cram by John Savill
• dp900 LinkedIn Learning course by Keith Atherton, Gregor Suttie, Adam Wilbert

Feedback

Want to provide feedback about Microsoft Learn modules? Reach out to Femila from Microsoft (Twitter/LinkedIn)

Community

Do you want to join the az305 study group and learn together? Let’s connect!