Azure DevOps Certification : Azure DevOps Certification Path [AZ-400]

Azure DevOps Certification: An Overview

The AZ-400 Microsoft Azure DevOps Certification is a great course for anyone who wants to build their dominance in all functionalities of the Azure DevOps platform. You can emerge as a Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer Expert with a multitude of possibilities and career opportunities in this domain. Through this Tutorial, you will acknowledge that in addition to mastering a thorough understanding of DevOps strategies, deployment processes, and various application integrations and infrastructural implementations, having a certification badge can be a great addition to your resume indicating the credibility of this expertise.

Read More: DevOps Engineer Salary in India 

What you will learn?

Typically, collecting this certificate corroborate your expertise and ability in the following areas which also constitute the key topics weighted for the exam:

• Develop an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)
• Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy (5-10%)
• Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)
• Manage source control (10-15%)
• Facilitate communication and collaboration (10-15%)
• Define and implement continuous integration (20-25%)
• Define and implement continuous delivery and release management strategy (10-15%)

The course is structured and designed to teach the basic concepts of working with Azure Repos, pipelines, boards, artifacts, and test plans. You will further explore the DevOps infrastructure and the functionalities of DevOps for a database. The latest update of the course version 2.0 facilitates the learning of artifact management, integration with Microsoft Teams, and release strategies including blue-green and ring-based deployment.

With a total of 8 structured modules as described above(including a basics module), here is what will be explored within each module:

Getting Started (Module 0): DevOps & Azure DevOps Fundamentals

This module focuses on the basics of DevOps and Azure where you will explore fundamental concepts such as agile planning, Continuous Integration and Delivery, Azure Repos, pipelines, creating a new account, project, and several other basic concepts.

Module 1: Develop an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)

This module has a 5-10% weightage with learning regarding DevOps business and development strategies, design and implementation of logging and telemetry, designing a license management strategy, and integration of logging and monitoring solutions. 

Module 2: Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy (5-10%)

With a weightage of 5-10% in the exam, this module focuses on the development of actionable alerting strategies, design, and implementation of a health check as well as failure prediction strategy.

Module 3: Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)

In this module, you will explore security facets such as authentication and authorization, sensitive information management strategy, development of security and compliance, and designing government enforcement mechanisms. 

Module 4: Manage source control (10-15%)

Pertaining to source control, this module explores the development of a modern source control strategy, configuration and repositories, and the integration of source with tools along with the planning and implementation of branching strategies for source code. 

Module 5: Facilitate communication and collaboration (10-15%)

With a 10-15 weightage in the certification exam, module 5 covers all issues regarding deployment communication, automation of communication with team members, and more on the DevOps process documentation.

Module 6: Define and implement continuous integration (20-25%)

Module 6 has a heavy weightage of 20-25% and covers important aspects such as build automation and strategy, packet management strategy, and designing application infrastructure management strategies. 

Module 7: Define and implement continuous delivery and release management strategy (10-15%))

The final, module 7 pertains to the development of deployment scripts and templates and the implementation of orchestration automation solutions.

All these modules consist of sub-modules that dive deeper into individual topics and enrich a learning experience regarding the same.

Azure DevOps Exam Details and Questions pattern

The exam topics’ weightage and content have been discussed in detail in the previous section. The certification listed as “ AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer Expert” has an exam duration of 210 minutes with a total of 60 questions to be answered with a lab task and other subtasks. The duration and questions can vary as per your choice of practices. The passing score is 700/1000 and remains valid for up to 2 years. You can take the exam in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, and the certification exam costs $165.

A very significant prerequisite is the requirement of having cleared the AZ-104 or the AZ-203 exams to be eligible for the AZ- 400 certification. The other basic prerequisites include a robust proficiency in agile practices, design, and implementation of DevOps practices with build compliance, and testing methodologies of Azure technologies along with the basic infrastructural knowledge of implementing strategies and code application.

The AZ-400 certification exam includes a range of question types including scenario-based single choice questions, multiple-choice questions, case study based questions as well as questions for arranging in the right sequence. You will have an option to retake the exam within 24 hours if you fail on the first attempt for this exam. The second attempt can, however, be taken only after 14 days with a total of 5 retakes allowed in the span of a year. 

Read More: Top 50 DevOps Interview Questions and Answers

Azure DevOps Benefits of being Microsoft Azure Certified

There are multi-faceted benefits of the AZ-400 certification that can help you penetrate the corporate sector with stiff competition. Being a Microsoft certification for the same, the certificate has great value if you’re trying to diversify your career in cloud computing, development, AI engineering, security, and data engineering, or perhaps validating your credibility as an ace DevOps engineer. Some statistically observed benefits of gaining this certification include:

• Thorough learning of optimization practices, implementation strategies for code application, and understanding of the infrastructure through constant practice, testing, application, and monitoring; which can be instrumental in all future applications.

• A head start to a career in cybersecurity due to a robust understanding of the Security Development Lifecycle which can help you emerge as an able security engineer. 

• Optimized integrations with the .NET platform as well as learning of various implementation strategies within Linux, Java, and PHP based environments.

• The robust building of DevOps skills with advanced integrations with cloud services, design, application development, automation, cloud monitoring, and much more to muster high paying jobs in these niches.

With these merits in your bag, you can easily venture out into the developers’ arena and bag some great work and skill polishing opportunities with the robust training this course offers.

Summary

Thus, the AZ-400 Azure DevOps Certification can be the much-needed feather to your cap while providing a streamlined platform to upskill your learnings. With detailed topics being covered within the course you can dive deep into minute functions and learn directly from the DevOps operators about the best ways to function on the Azure DevOps Platform. If you’re inclined to design secure CI/CD dependent systems or perhaps looking to build a competency in the DevOps arena, this certification is a great place to begin!

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