How to... Become Microsoft Certified

The New Year for a lot of people marks the start of something new, something we want to improve on or achieve in the year ahead, be that the diet you start every year or maybe learning a new language. For this month's (long overdue) entry, and in keeping with the spirit of starting anew, I’ve decided to cover the ‘How to..’ of Microsoft Certifications: what are they and how do you get certified?

For those who work in the technical space, certifications are a great way to highlight and show off your skills. However, while Microsoft themselves have an assortment of resources regarding ‘Getting Certified,’ for anyone new to the process it can be a bit confusing. I wanted to give my own take on the process and hopefully help someone out there start their own certification journey.

Why get Microsoft Certified?

You can read up on Microsoft’s learn page on Why getting certified? is important. These reasons include career progression and boosts to salary that are great in the long term, especially if you progress into the more advanced ‘Associate’ and ‘Expert’ level certifications.

However, if you are new to the IT industry or wanting to pivot into the cloud space as an existing engineer, getting a Microsoft certification—even if it’s just the fundamental level exams—can be a great way to stand out. You'd be surprised at how many organisations still use on-prem (physical) infrastructure and haven't done any sort of cloud/hybrid setup.

Speaking from my experience, I genuinely don't believe I would be where I am today without having done the AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals. Taking that exam was the catalyst for my transition to working so heavily in the Azure space; the learning material was fresh, it was interesting, and I genuinely enjoyed learning something completely new and it inspired me to move more into the cloud space.

What are Microsoft Certifications?

Now, if you are sitting there thinking, “Great, but I still don’t know what they are,” let’s break it down.

First and foremost, a Microsoft credential is essentially an industry-recognised stamp of approval that validates your level of knowledge and understanding in a given topic area. For this blog series, I’ll keep the focus on Azure, but you can become certified in a range of Microsoft technologies—from the Power Platform to Microsoft Dynamics.

Now there are two different types of certification that Microsoft offer:

1. The "Full" Microsoft Certifications This is the main one—the badge you’ll see posted across professional social media profiles. Think AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals or AZ-104: Azure Administrator. These are generally "Role-Based" (aimed at specific job roles like Administrators or Architects) and are rigorously tested via proctored exams. Once you've earned your certification (i.e passed your exam) you are then granted ‘Microsoft Certified’ for that given subject area.

For Associate and Expert level certifications, Microsoft requires an annual renewal assessment. This is a free, short unproctored (meaning no one is watching you) assessment designed to ensure you are up to speed with the latest changes in that technology for the year ahead. And as long as you complete that renewal assessment each year, you keep your ‘certified’ status but failing to do so you'll have to take the full proctored exam again.

2. Microsoft Applied Skills The other type of credential is the Microsoft Applied Skills. These are relatively new and tailored towards practical, hands-on learning. They validate that you can solve a specific problem (like "Secure storage for Azure Files") rather than validating a whole job role.

Crucially, these are not proctored (meaning they are not monitored by an invigilator). Instead, they are lab-based assessments where you complete real tasks in a virtual environment primarily aimed at educators and students. We won’t cover them in much detail here, but they are worth knowing about if you want to try some hands-on.

Breaking down the different certifications

Focusing on the "Full" certifications, if you look at the Become Microsoft Certified poster, you might notice that they are broken up into distinct categories. It isn't just a random list; there is a structure to the madness. Here is how they stack up:

1. Fundamentals As the name suggests, these are the entry-level certifications (look for the "900" series exams). If you are new to the Microsoft Cloud, this is an excellent place to start. They are designed to provide a high-level overview of the technology without requiring deep technical prior knowledge.

While the Fundamental exams are optional, in my opinion, they are absolutely worth doing. Unlike the higher tiers, they do not require renewal, meaning once you earn them, you keep them for life. They look excellent on a CV and show you have a solid grasp of the core concepts.

2. Role-Based The next step up is the "Role-Based" tier. These are the bread and butter of IT professionals and are split into two distinct levels:

• Associate (Intermediate): These exams test your practical, hands-on knowledge of tools and services. Microsoft generally recommends six months of experience, but I would personally recommend around 12 months of hands-on exposure to really feel comfortable.

• Expert (Advanced): These test your ability to translate practical skills into high-level technical designs. The focus shifts heavily towards architecture pillars like cost vs. performance, redundancy, and security. It is recommended to have 2–3 years of experience here.

  • The Catch: Most Expert certifications have a prerequisite. For example, to earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, passing the AZ-305 exam isn't enough; you must also hold the AZ-104 (Administrator) certification.

3. Specialty As the name implies, these are focused on specific niche solutions within the cloud. They are perfect for those who want to deep-dive into a particular technology, such as AZ-140: Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD).

4. Business (New!) These are the new kids on the block, introduced recently in November 2025. At the time of writing, many are still in beta. These are aimed squarely at business professionals rather than engineers, focusing on using AI tools in areas like Marketing, Project Management, or Customer Service.

What Certification Level is right for you?

Level	Focus	Recommended Experience	Renewal Required
Fundamentals	Concepts & Terminology	None (Beginner)	No (Lifetime)
Associate	Implementation & Configuration	6 - 12 Months	Yes (Annual)
Expert	Design & Architecture	2 - 3 years	Yes (Annual)
Speciality	Niche Technical Scenarios	Deep Technical Experience	Yes (Annual)
Business	AI & Productivity Applications	Professional Context	Varies by Exam

How Do You Get Certified?

So, we know what Microsoft Certifications are and what some of the benefits are but how do you actually get certified? Well remember the Become Microsoft Certified poster? well, it starts once you’ve selected the certification path you want to take. Each certification in the poster has an embedded link to the certification page where it will cover all the details and information of that exam so If you’re entirely new to cloud, then start with the fundamentals. Interested in Security? then go look at the SC-900: Security, Compliance and Identity Fundamentals or for Azure it’s AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals. Whatever your path or career goals, there is a certification relevant to you.

Once you’ve chosen a path or an exam you want to take, this is where you’ll need to put the work in towards that certification. Unfortunately, I can’t do the studying for you but what I can do is help you break it down into three key stages: Study, Practice and Exam.

Stage 1: The Study Process

For most certifications there are a lot of resources you can use, both official (material provided by Microsoft) and non-official (material provided by third parties) and within that, the resources then fall into three different categories. I personally use a combination of all three as this is what works for me, but you might learn differently but these are as follows:

• Microsoft Learn: This is your foundation. It's Microsoft's own free learning platform, offering structured, self-paced modules for every exam on offer. The content is always aligned with the latest updates to the exam material and consists typically of written materials with some ‘try-this’ style exercises.

• Video Courses: As the name suggests, these are generally full video series on the course material with demos and visuals to help you learn. You can use reputable platforms like Udemy or Pluralsight, that are great for east to digest even on the commute to work every morning. I recommended going with instructors or courses from high rated trainers such as Scott Duffy or John Savill on YouTube who offers great study crams across a number of Microsoft certifications.

• Hands-on Labs: If you're like me, I generally learn more by ‘doing something’ rather than just reading about it so rather than just reading how to create an Azure Virtual Desktop, go create one and try to connect it and use it. As someone who has worked in Azure for four, going on five years hands-on experience is crucial especially if you want to tackle those Associate and Expert level certifications, I created a guide in my Getting Started with Azure on how to setup your own subscription for practice at home without breaking the bank.

Stage 2: Practice Exams

I would always advise especially if you have never done a Microsoft certification exam before to practice the types of questions you’ll get in your full exam. While they’re not designed to trick you, they are designed to test your knowledge especially on Associate and Expert level exams where a pass could be the difference between knowing the Azure services that offer regional failover and those that don’t for a particular scenario.

There are a good variety of sites and third-party platforms that offer practice exams, some of the courses on Udemy that we discussed earlier even include their own set of practice exam questions but the ones that I would recommend personally are:

Microsoft Practice Exams (Official) - For each certification Microsoft offer, under each exam there is ‘Prepare for the exam’ section that will take you towards the bottom of the page where you can take a practice assessment as shown in the screenshots below

TutorialsDojo (Non-official) - TutorialsDojo is third-party platform that offers exam-like practice questions as you would in your actual Microsoft exam in a course like format. These are paid courses for around £10 each give or take but having used this site for all my certifications so far, it’s been incredibly helpful and provides clear guidance throughout your practice exams why your answers might be right or wrong with links to official Microsoft Learn documentation.

Whatever platform you use, It’s important to go through these practice tests to ensure that there are no gaps in your knowledge, if you do find a topic area that you are struggling with, go back and do some further study in that area until you feel your more comfortable, there is nothing worse than getting to a question in your actual exam and having completely forgotten about that specific topic (don’t ask me how I know) as that one topic could be the difference between a pass or fail so make sure your score across the different topic areas is as balanced, this will give you the best chances in the exam.

For the actual certification exam (Applies only to Associate and Expert level certifications) you do have access to Microsoft Learn (Open Book) however any time spent here is used up against your exam time so don’t spend ages looking for information, otherwise you might miss out on answering all the questions or have to rush towards the end leaving marks on the table that you do know. Instead, what I have found works well is to flag or mark ‘🚩’ any questions you are unsure of for reviewing at the end of the test. Then using any time you have left, to search for that information to confirm those questions.

Each exam study practice platform will have its own recommended threshold; on the official Microsoft practice tests they recommend aiming for a consistent 80% (A pass is 70% or 700/1000 in the actual exam) but TutorialsDojo has the threshold at 70% but from my experience if during your practice exams you are getting between 70 -80% pretty consistently then you are ready to take your exam.

Stage 3: Booking your exam

Note: I would recommend booking your exam as soon as possible after studying. Don’t do all of your studies and practice then wait something like 8+ weeks for your exam, book the exam as close together as possible. Even if you are getting 65%-75% in your practice exams book the exam a few weeks in advance and by the time the exam appointment rolls around you should be up to that 70%-80% practice mark or alternatively book the exam at the start of your studies and work towards that date. Don’t worry if you get close to your exam date and don’t feel ready, you can reschedule your exam as long as it’s done 24+ hours in advance of the date/ time of your appointment.

So, you’ve done all your studying and now you're ready to take the exam but how do you schedule it? Well, if you haven’t already done so then the first step is setup your Microsoft Learn Profile as you cannot take any exam without one, I covered the process on how to do this on Getting started with Azure, if you have done this step then head to the certification exam page of your choice, in this example we’ll use the AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals. From the exam page, scroll down until you find the ‘Schedule exam’ section as per the screenshot below.

Exam prices will vary depending on region and level, a typical range is around* £64 - £106 or your regional equivalent at the time of writing with role-based exams on the higher end of the scale.

You will then be transferred to the Pearson Vue once you have filled out and submitted the candidate identity page as per the screenshot below.

Once you have been transferred to the Pearson Vue site the first option you will need to choose is where you’re going to take your exam, there are two main options to choose from:

1. Test centre (In-Person) - Travel to and take the exam at a dedicated testing centre, operated and managed by PearsonVue.

2. OnVue (Online/ Remote) - Allows you to take the exam at home or at a remote location in your own space.

Taking your exam

Depending on what option you chose to take your exam, will depend on the experience. If you chose to take your exam at a test centre, then the process is fairly straightforward. Once you arrive at the test centre the staff on site will guide you through the steps and what you need to do, things like phones will be locked away in lockers that type of thing.

However, if you are taking the exam at home then there are certain requirements and steps you need to do to ensure a space within your home meets those exam requirements otherwise PearsonVue may cancel your exam, you can read the full details on how to setup your space here and if this is your first time taking an exam, Microsoft also have a link at the bottom of each certification page where you can take a practice assessment that will run through a short demo of how the full exam will look.

Closing thoughts

And there you have it—my breakdown of the what, why, and how of Microsoft Certifications. I hope this post has been helpful to remove some of the mystery and confusion around Microsoft certifications and encourages you to go for that certification (or two), and I wish you all the best of luck for 2026!