Hello
This time I’ve decided to create a study guide to help you be prepared and successfully clear out your AZ-204 : Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam.
First of all, detailed information about the exam can be found at the official exam page: http://aka.ms/az-204
From there, let’s take a quick look to the Objective Domains evaluated on this exam:
The content of this exam was updated on April 19, 2022. Please download the exam skills outline below to see what changed.
Develop Azure compute solutions (25-30%)
Develop for Azure storage (15-20%)
Implement Azure security (20-25%)
Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (15-20%)
Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (15-20%)
Please find below, the additional resources and exercises that I usually share during class with you.
I’ve decided to organize these by Module number, following the order from the Microsoft Official Course.
Module 1: Creating Azure App Service Web Apps
Cloud Service Models:
How I choose which services to use in Azure?
Shared responsibility in the cloud
Choose an Azure compute service for your application
Working with Azure App Service:
Tutorial: Authenticate and authorize users end-to-end in Azure App Service
Scale up an app in Azure App Service
Set up staging environments in Azure App Service
Routing traffic to your Azure Web Apps using Traffic Manager:
Traffic Manager routing methods
Module 2: Implement Azure functions
Hosting Models:
Azure Functions hosting options
Using Custom Handlers to expand capabilities to other languages
Azure Functions custom handlers
Develop and test Azure Functions Locally
Code and test Azure Functions locally
Work with Azure Functions Core Tools
Azure Durable Functions
What are Durable Functions?
Module 3: Develop solutions that use blob storage
Kinds of storage accounts and replication models
Pricing and Durability options
Azure Storage Overview pricing
Replication models and Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery and storage account failover
Use geo-redundancy to design highly available applications
BlobRequestOptions.LocationMode Property
Validate the Last Sync Time attribute
Check the Last Sync Time property for a storage account
Access Tiers
Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers for blob data
Optimize costs by automatically managing the data lifecycle
Configuring Immutable storage
Set and manage immutability policies for Blob storage
Access Keys
Manage storage account access keys
Learning Path: Connect an app to Azure Storage
Use the emulator included in Storage Explorer to develop and test solutions locally
Tutorial: Build a highly available application with Blob storage
Module 4: Develop solutions that use Cosmos DB storage
Common Azure Cosmos DB use cases
Azure Cosmos DB Consistency levels and APIs
Consistency levels in Azure Cosmos DB
Apache Cassandra and Azure Cosmos DB Cassandra API consistency levels
Manage consistency levels in Azure Cosmos DB
Core SQL API
Stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions
How to write stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions in Azure Cosmos DB
Migration
Copy data to or from Azure Cosmos DB’s API for MongoDB using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics
Tutorial: Migrate MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB’s API for MongoDB offline using MongoDB native tools
Service Quotas and Partitioning
Request Units in Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB service quotas
Partitioning and horizontal scaling in Azure Cosmos DB
Create a synthetic partition key
Introduction to provisioned throughput in Azure Cosmos DB
Design Patterns
JFK Files project based on CosmosDB
Use the Cosmos DB emulator to develop and test locally
Install and use the Azure Cosmos DB Emulator for local development and testing
Module 5: Implement IaaS solutions
VM Families and Virtual Machines compared to Containers
Containers vs. virtual machines
Build a containerized web application with Docker
High Availably Options and Operations
Availability options for virtual machines in Azure
Manage the availability of Linux virtual machines
ARM Templates – Infrastructure as a Code
Using linked and nested templates when deploying Azure resources
Working with Docker
Use Docker Tools in Visual Studio on Windows
Quickstart: Docker in Visual Studio
Module 6: Implement user authentication and authorization
Microsoft Identity Platform
Microsoft identity platform documentation
Microsoft identity platform and OpenID Connect protocol
Centralize application management with Azure AD
Configurable token lifetimes in the Microsoft identity platform (preview)
Authentication flows and application scenarios
Application types for the Microsoft identity platform
Azure AD App Registration and OAuth
What is application management?
Quickstart: Add an application to your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant
Quickstart: Add an enterprise application
Secure your application by using OpenID Connect and Azure AD
Tutorial: Add sign-in to Microsoft to an ASP.NET web app
Authentication flow support in MSAL
Microsoft identity platform and implicit grant flow
Azure AD B2C
Solutions and Training for Azure Active Directory B2C
Microsoft Graph
Microsoft Graph REST API v1.0 reference
Best Practices
Module 7: Implement secure cloud solutions
Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault developer’s guide
Authentication in Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault libraries for .NET
Manage secrets in your server apps with Azure Key Vault
Exercise – Access secrets stored in Azure Key Vault
Azure App Configuration
Azure App Configuration documentation
Quickstart: Create a Java Spring app with Azure App Configuration
Use labels to enable configurations for different environments
Quickstart: Add feature flags to an ASP.NET Core app
Azure App Configuration best practices
Managed Identities
Azure AD-managed identities for Azure resources documentation
Azure services that can use managed identities to access other services
Tutorial: Access Azure services from a .NET web app
Tutorial: Use a managed identity to connect Key Vault to an Azure web app in .NET
Storage Access Policies
Create a stored access policy with .NET
Design Patterns
External Configuration Store pattern
Module 8: Implement API Management
Create and Manage Azure APIM
Quickstart: Create a new Azure API Management service instance by using the Azure portal
API Management authentication policies
Protect a web API backend in Azure API Management by using OAuth 2.0 authorization with Azure AD
Azure security baseline for API Management
Module 9: Develop event-based solutions
Azure Event Grid
Understand event domains for managing Event Grid topics
Quickstart: Route custom events to web endpoint with Azure CLI and Event Grid
Azure Event Hub
Azure Event Hubs — A big data streaming platform and event ingestion service
Azure Event Hubs quotas and limits
Send events to and receive events from Azure Event Hubs – .NET (Azure.Messaging.EventHubs)
Azure Notification Hubs and Migration from App center Push
What is Azure Notification Hubs?
Reference Architectures
Preventing Rhino Poaching With Microsoft Azure
Build web and mobile applications
Module 10: Develop message-based solutions
Queues inside Azure Storage Accounts vs Queues inside Service Bus
Choose between Azure messaging services – Event Grid, Event Hubs, and Service Bus
Storage queues and Service Bus queues – compared and contrasted
Reference Architecture
Enterprise integration using queues and events
Design Patterns
Queue-Based Load Leveling pattern
Module 11: Monitor and optimize Azure solutions
App Insights Codeless Approach and Smart Detection
What is auto-instrumentation or codeless attach – Azure Monitor Application Insights?
Smart Detection in Application Insights
Web Application monitoring on Azure
Kusto Query Language
Get started with log queries in Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor ITSM Connector
IT Service Management Connector
Module 12: Integrate caching and content delivery within solutions
Azure Cache for Redis
High availability for Azure Cache for Redis
Best practices for Azure Cache for Redis
Azure CDN
Quickstart: Create an Azure CDN profile and endpoint
What are the comparisons between Azure CDN product features?
Tutorial: Configure HTTPS on an Azure CDN custom domain
Control Azure CDN caching behavior with caching rules
Design Pattern
Additional Resources
Get started guide for Azure developers
The Developer’s Guide to Azure
In terms of exam preparation, take a look at the following resources:
Exam duration and question types
The recently added Exam demo at: aka.ms/examdemo
AZ-204 Collection on MS Learn: aka.ms/az204learn
Thanks to all of you who helped me to gather and build this list of resources.
I hope you find them helpful.
Keep up that Azure Learning Journey!
Cristian
