AZ-104 Study Guide 2026: Your Azure Administrator Exam Path (and the Labs That Matter)

Only about half of first-time candidates walk out of the AZ-104 exam with a pass. Brutal, right?

Here’s the thing. Most of them didn’t fail because Azure is impossible. They failed because they memorized documentation and never touched the portal. This AZ-104 study guide fixes that. You’ll get the real 2026 exam objectives, a domain-by-domain plan, the labs that actually move the needle, and honest numbers on what the Azure Administrator certification does for your pay.

Quick version? The AZ-104 costs $165 USD, runs about 100 minutes, and you need 700 out of 1000 to pass. Five skill areas. Roughly 40 to 60 questions. And yes, some of them are hands-on tasks in a live environment, not just multiple choice.

So if you booked your exam and you’re staring at a wall of Microsoft docs wondering where to start, you’re in the right place. Let’s build you a plan.

What’s on the AZ-104 exam in 2026?

The AZ-104 tests whether you can actually run an Azure environment. Not talk about it. Run it. Identity, storage, compute, networking, and monitoring.

Microsoft updated the skills measured on 2026-04-17, so anything older than that is out of date. Here’s the current breakdown straight from the official Microsoft study guide:

Skill area	Weight
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%
Monitor and maintain Azure resources	10-15%

Notice the two heavy hitters. Identity and compute together can make up half your exam. That’s where your study hours should go first.

The exam facts, in plain terms:

• Cost: $165 USD (varies a bit by country)
• Passing score: 700 out of 1000
• Question types: multiple choice, case studies, drag-and-drop, and live scenario tasks
• Renewal: free online assessment on Microsoft Learn, once a year

That renewal detail matters. Your Azure Administrator certification doesn’t sit still. You keep it current with a free open-book assessment, no re-paying the $165. Nice.

Want a shortcut through all of this? Our Azure Workbook maps every objective above to a practice question and a lab task, so you study the exam, not the entire Azure catalogue. That’s the fastest way to stop drowning in docs.

What actually changed on the AZ-104 this year?

If you studied a year ago and paused, read this part carefully. A few things moved.

Azure AD is gone, at least by name. It’s Microsoft Entra ID now, and the exam fully reflects that rebrand. Same concepts, new labels. Get the terminology wrong on a case study and you’ll second-guess a question you actually know.

Networking got deeper too. Expect questions on Private Endpoints and Private Link, not just basic peering. On the compute side, Bicep shows up alongside ARM templates, and Azure Container Apps now sits next to Container Instances.

None of these are exotic. But they’re the difference between an old study guide and a current one. Study the 2026 objectives or you’ll prep for an exam that no longer exists.

Is AZ-104 worth it? The honest salary answer

Short answer: for most people breaking into cloud, yes.

Azure Administrators in the US sit around a $110K median, with the range running roughly $87K to $161K depending on experience and location. Some sources push higher. Entry-level lands closer to $70K to $90K, and folks with five-plus years cross into $130K-plus territory (passitexams salary data, 2026).

The bigger picture is demand. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects cloud-related roles growing around 22% between 2022 and 2032, way ahead of the 4% average across all jobs. Cloud isn’t cooling off.

Take Priya. Junior sysadmin, three years of on-prem Windows work, felt stuck around $68K. She booked her AZ-104 for a date eight weeks out, studied nights, and passed on her second try. Four months later she moved into a cloud support role at $94K. The cert didn’t do the work. But it got her resume past the filter that was quietly rejecting her before.

That’s the real value. AZ-104 is the credential that says “this person can be trusted with a subscription.” Recruiters filter on it.

The AZ-104 study plan, domain by domain

Here’s how to actually structure your weeks. Match your hours to the exam weights. Don’t spend three weeks on monitoring (10-15%) and skim identity (20-25%). People do this constantly and it costs them.

Manage Azure identities and governance (20-25%)

Start here. It’s the biggest chunk and it underpins everything else.

Know how to create Entra ID users and groups, assign built-in roles at the right scope, and read an access assignment when a scenario throws one at you. Then governance: Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, management groups, and cost alerts with budgets.

The trap? Role-based access control questions look easy until they ask “at which scope.” Practice reading scope, not just definitions.

Implement and manage storage (15-20%)

Storage accounts, redundancy options, blob tiers, and access. This domain rewards flashcard-style repetition.

Get comfortable with SAS tokens, access keys, and identity-based access for Azure Files. Then blob lifecycle rules, soft delete, and versioning. Know when you’d pick LRS versus GRS versus ZRS without hesitating.

Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (20-25%)

The other heavy domain. And the one most theory-only students bomb.

You need to create and size VMs, work with disks and availability sets, and handle scale sets. But the part that trips people up is infrastructure as code. You’ll get questions asking you to read or modify an ARM template or a Bicep file. Reading Bicep cold is hard if you’ve never opened one.

This is where automation skills pay off beyond the exam. If you want to go deeper into Bicep, pipelines, and infrastructure as code as a career path, our DevOps Workbook picks up right where AZ-104 stops.

Implement and manage virtual networking (15-20%)

VNets, subnets, peering, NSGs, Azure Bastion, private endpoints, DNS, and load balancers.

Quick reality check. If subnetting still feels shaky, this domain will hurt. Azure virtual networking assumes you can look at a CIDR block and know what fits. Shore that up first with our subnetting guide and practice questions, then come back to NSG rules and effective security rules.

Make sense so far? Good.

Monitor and maintain Azure resources (10-15%)

Smallest domain, still worth easy points. Azure Monitor metrics and logs, alert rules and action groups, Network Watcher, and backup with Recovery Services vaults plus Site Recovery.

Don’t overstudy this one. Know the backup and restore flow and how to read a metric, and you’ve captured most of the marks here.

AZ-104 labs: how to practice without spending a dime

This is the section that separates passers from re-takers. So pay attention.

You cannot pass the AZ-104 by reading. The exam includes live tasks, and even the multiple-choice questions are written by people who assume you’ve actually clicked through the portal. Reading about a load balancer and building one are different skills.

The good news? Azure gives you a free account with $200 in credit for the first 30 days, plus a batch of always-free services. That’s your lab. No expensive home server needed.

If you came from networking certs, this is a mental shift. Your CCNA labs ran in EVE-NG or Packet Tracer on your own machine. Azure labs run in the cloud, on Microsoft’s dime, in the real portal. Same discipline of building things by hand. Different sandbox.

Here’s Marcus. He crammed for six weeks using only a video course and a question bank. Walked in confident. Walked out with a 640. The case study on deploying a VM scale set and the drag-and-drop on NSG rules wrecked him because he’d never actually done either. He spent the next month building every objective in a free Azure account, one lab a night. Retook it. Scored 812.

The difference wasn’t more theory. It was his hands.

Our Azure Workbook is built around that idea. Every domain comes with a guided lab you build in your free Azure account, plus the exam-style questions to check yourself after. Ready to study the way the exam actually tests you? That’s the resource.

How long to study, and who should take it first

Most people need 6 to 10 weeks studying part-time. Coming in with real IT experience? Closer to 6. Total beginner? Give yourself 12 and don’t rush the booking.

Here’s an honest gut-check most guides skip. AZ-104 is an associate-level exam, not a beginner one. Microsoft expects you to already know operating systems, networking, servers, and virtualization. If you’re brand new to IT, you’ll struggle, and not because of Azure.

Not sure whether you’ve got the networking base? This breakdown of CCNA vs Network+ helps you figure out where your foundation actually stands before you drop $165 on an exam that assumes it.

Bottom line on timing: book the exam before you start studying. A real date on the calendar beats “someday” every time.

What to do after you pass AZ-104

Passing is the start, not the finish. So where next?

Three common paths:

• Go deeper in Azure. AZ-500 for security, or AZ-305 for solutions architecture. Natural steps up.
• Go multi-cloud. One cloud is good. Two makes you rare. Our AWS Solutions Architect guide is the fast route to pairing Azure with AWS, and multi-cloud people command real premiums.
• Go into security. Cloud plus security is one of the hottest combos out there. A cert like CompTIA CySA+ pairs well with your Azure base. Start with this CySA+ certification guide to see if it fits your goals.

Prefer live instruction with an actual teacher and Q&A over self-study? Our sister site runs instructor-led IT training courses at SMEnode Academy, which is a solid option if you learn better with structure and a schedule.

Whatever you pick, keep momentum. The gap between passing your first cert and your second is where most careers stall out.

5 mistakes that fail AZ-104 candidates

Want to skip the pain? Avoid these. They show up over and over in retake stories.

Studying an outdated version. Anything before 2026-04-17 misses Entra ID naming, Bicep, and Private Endpoints. You’ll walk in prepped for the wrong exam.

Reading instead of building. Said it already, saying it again. The portal tasks and case studies eat theory-only candidates alive. No lab time, no pass.

Ignoring the exam weights. Spending equal hours on every domain feels fair. It isn’t. Identity and compute are worth up to 50% combined. Weight your time accordingly.

Skipping cost management and governance. People love the flashy compute stuff and skip Policy, locks, tags, and budgets. Those are easy, reliable points. Don’t leave them on the table.

Booking “when ready.” Ready never comes. A booked date creates the pressure that actually gets you studying. Set it first, then work backward.

One more, honestly. Don’t rely on brain-dump question sites. Half the answers are wrong and Microsoft changes questions constantly. Use real labs and legitimate practice questions, like the free practice assessment on Microsoft Learn and a workbook built for the current objectives.

AZ-104 study guide FAQ

Bottom line

AZ-104 is one of the better bets in IT right now. Strong demand, a $110K-ish median, and a credential recruiters actually filter for.

Your five-step path:

1. Study the 2026 objectives, not an old version. Entra ID, Bicep, Private Endpoints.
2. Match your hours to the exam weights. Identity and compute first.
3. Build every domain by hand in a free Azure account.
4. Test yourself with exam-style questions until you’re consistently over 700.
5. Book the date before you feel ready. Momentum beats perfection.

Do the labs. That’s the whole secret, honestly.

When you’re ready to study the exam instead of the entire internet, grab the Azure Workbook, objective-mapped labs and practice questions in one place. Or browse the full range of certification workbooks to plan your next few certs while you’re at it.

You’ve got this. Now go build something.