AZ-104 Study Guide 2026: Azure Administrator Exam Plan and Practice Strategy
A practical AZ-104 preparation workflow combining the current skills outline, hands-on Azure tasks, scenario reasoning, and timed practice.
Start with the April 2026 AZ-104 outline
The AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam measures whether you can implement, manage, and monitor an Azure environment. Microsoft updated the English-language skills outline on 17 April 2026, so an effective AZ-104 study guide for 2026 should follow the current objectives rather than the chapter order of an older course.
The current skill areas are:
- Manage Azure identities and governance: 20-25%;
- Implement and manage storage: 15-20%;
- Deploy and manage Azure compute resources: 20-25%;
- Implement and manage virtual networking: 15-20%; and
- Monitor and maintain Azure resources: 10-15%.
Microsoft lists 100 minutes for the assessment and requires a scaled score of 700 or greater. The exam may contain interactive components. Check the official AZ-104 study guide before booking because Microsoft periodically revises role-based exams.
Who should use this AZ-104 study plan?
AZ-104 is an administrator-level exam rather than a cloud-vocabulary assessment. Microsoft expects familiarity with operating systems, networking, servers, virtualization, PowerShell, Azure CLI, the Azure portal, infrastructure templates, and Microsoft Entra ID.
If cloud concepts are still new, begin with the AZ-900 preparation guide. If you can explain Azure services but have not configured them, build hands-on practice before relying on an AZ-104 practice test. A mock exam can reveal decision and recall gaps, but it cannot replace experience using the platform.
Study the five AZ-104 domains as administrator workflows
Identity and governance
Practise managing users, groups, licenses, external identities, role assignments, subscriptions, resource groups, Policy, locks, tags, budgets, and management groups. Learn the difference between identity administration and authorization at a resource scope.
For each scenario, identify the required scope, the least privilege assignment, and the governance control that will keep the environment consistent after deployment. This is more useful than memorising a list of built-in roles.
Storage
Configure storage accounts, redundancy, encryption, access keys, shared access signatures, firewalls, lifecycle management, object replication, Blob Storage, and Azure Files. Use Azure Storage Explorer and AzCopy so that command and interface references are familiar.
Build a comparison table for authentication methods, redundancy options, access tiers, recovery features, and network restrictions. Add a short scenario showing when each option fits and what trade-off it introduces.
Compute
Deploy resources with ARM templates or Bicep, and practise reading and modifying an existing template. Configure virtual machines, disks, availability options, scale sets, containers, registries, Container Instances, Container Apps, and App Service.
Do not study these services as isolated definitions. Given a workload, decide how it should scale, where configuration belongs, how traffic reaches it, how certificates are applied, and how it is backed up or recovered.
Virtual networking
Work with virtual networks, subnets, peering, routing, network security groups, load-balancing services, DNS, private access, and hybrid connectivity at the depth stated in the outline. Draw packet paths and label where name resolution, filtering, routing, and address translation occur.
Networking mistakes often come from choosing a plausible component without checking direction, scope, or dependency. Troubleshoot from symptoms and evidence rather than guessing a service name.
Monitoring and recovery
Use Azure Monitor, alerts, logs, Network Watcher, Backup, and Site Recovery in practical scenarios. Distinguish between collecting telemetry, querying it, triggering a response, protecting data, and recovering a workload.
A six-week AZ-104 exam-preparation schedule
Week 1: map the objectives and create a lab environment
Turn every bullet in the official outline into a checklist. Complete a baseline assessment, then identify which tasks you can perform without instructions. Use budgets and clean-up routines to control any Azure lab costs.
Weeks 2 and 3: identity, governance, storage, and compute
Alternate reading with configuration work. After each lab, reproduce the important steps with PowerShell or Azure CLI and explain what would change at a different scope.
Week 4: networking
Build and troubleshoot a small network. Include subnets, security rules, name resolution, peering, and a workload endpoint. Record the evidence you would inspect when connectivity fails.
Week 5: monitoring, backup, and mixed scenarios
Create alerts, inspect logs, configure a recovery control, and work through scenarios that cross several domains. AZ-104 decisions rarely stay inside one objective.
Week 6: timed practice and correction
Use a timed AZ-104 practice test to check pacing and decision quality. Review every uncertain answer, including correct guesses. Return to Microsoft documentation or a lab for each important gap before taking another mock.
How to review an AZ-104 mock exam
Classify misses into four groups:
- Missing Azure knowledge;
- Confusion between similar services or scopes;
- Failure to read a constraint such as cost, downtime, or least privilege; or
- Weak troubleshooting sequence.
Write the corrected decision in your own words and include the evidence that supports it. Track domain performance across several fresh attempts rather than treating one percentage as a forecast.
Open the CertGuru AZ-104 mock exam for timed practice, then use the mock-exam results review guide to turn the report into the next study session.
CertGuru is an independent exam-preparation platform and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. Certification names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Practice results do not guarantee an official exam outcome.
Authoritative references
- Microsoft Learn: AZ-104 study guide and skills measured
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Exam objectives and policies can change. Confirm the current Microsoft information before registration and exam day.