Azure DevOps Certification Guide

Primary Certification

AZ-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions

Format: check current question count, time limit, passing score, and price on the official Microsoft Certification page before relying on these (needs verification — exam format and price change periodically; previously stated here as 40-60 MCQ, 3 hours, 700/1000, $165 USD)

Related Certifications

•GitHub Actions Certification

•AZ-204 Azure Developer Associate

Key Exam Topics

•Azure Pipelines: YAML pipeline structure (trigger, pool, stages, jobs, steps)

•Service connections: authenticate pipelines to external services (Azure, GitHub, Docker)

•Environments: track deployments; approval gates before prod deployment

•Branch policies: require reviews, build validation, work item linking before merging

•Variable groups and Azure Key Vault: share variables across pipelines securely

•Azure Artifacts: private package feeds (npm, NuGet, Maven, Python, Universal)

•Test Plans: manual + exploratory testing; integrate test results from CI pipeline

Must-Know CLI Commands

bash

az devops configure --defaults organization=https://dev.azure.com/myorg project=myproject
az pipelines create --name my-pipeline --yaml-path azure-pipelines.yml --repository myrepo
az pipelines run --name my-pipeline --branch main
az pipelines variable-group create --name my-vars --authorize --variables MY_VAR=value
az artifacts universal download --feed myfeed --name mypackage --version 1.0.0 --path ./output

Exam Tips

•YAML pipelines > Classic pipelines: version controlled, reviewable, reusable

•Template syntax: extends template for standardized pipelines across teams

•Deployment gates: invoke Azure Function or REST API to check conditions before deploy

•Service connections: use managed identity (not service principal) for Azure resources

Study Plan

Week 1-2: Read official docs + overview/fundamentals sections in this platform

Week 3-4: Hands-on labs (AWS free tier / Azure sandbox / GCP free tier)

Week 5: Practice exams (TutorialsDojo, ExamTopics, Whizlabs)

Final days: Review weak areas + cheatsheet

Free Study Resources

•AWS: aws.amazon.com/training — free digital courses

•Azure: learn.microsoft.com — Microsoft Learn (free + sandbox labs)

•GCP: cloud.google.com/training — free courses + Qwiklabs credits

•TutorialsDojo: cheat sheets for all exams (best value paid resource)

Revision Notes

PRIMARY EXAM: AZ-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions

TOP TOPICS:
  Azure Pipelines: YAML pipeline structure (trigger, pool, stages, jobs, steps)
  Service connections: authenticate pipelines to external services (Azure, GitHub, Docker)
  Environments: track deployments; approval gates before prod deployment
  Branch policies: require reviews, build validation, work item linking before merging

Azure DevOps — Certification