AZ-203 Exam Guide

Warning

AZ-204 has replaced the AZ-203 certification

As of August 31, 2020, exam AZ-203 has been replaced by exam AZ-204 as the requisite exam for earning the Azure Developer Associate certification.

In this repository, you can find the transcribed learning paths suggested by Microsoft as preparation for the exam.

This material is by no means exhaustive of all possible exam questions. In fact, exams tend to have a much broader scope than the learning paths, so it's meaningful to consider eyeballing some sample questions in addition to that 👀

For a sample of the many topics that fall outside the scope of the learning paths, have a look here.

This article is intended as a kind of guideline to prepare you as successfully as possible for the Azure 203 exam. The Az203 certification qualifies the successful candidate to become an Azure Associate Developer.

Introduction

First of all, you should be aware that this check is very code-heavy. If you don't like analyzing code sections (be it C#, Bash or even CLI commands), you should opt for a different certification. However, if you are very fit in "pure" coding, you should decide for this certification, because the pure theoretical part of this exam is a bit smaller. The proportion is approx. 30% theory and 70% coding. I also recommend that you have yourself tested at a PersonVue test center because you don't have to worry about anything and you're not responsible for anything, which means if the system hangs or something doesn't work technically, then it's not your fault. If you still don't want to be tested in the test center, then make sure you check one day before if your system runs smoothly. You have to bring TWO SIGNED ID documents (passport, identity card, driver's license, EC card, AOK card, credit card) to the test center.

How to prepare for this exam?

Since I'm not a fan of too much theory, I recommend starting with these labs first. With this book you can practically prepare yourself well. It's a bit older, but the topics are still part of the exam and therefore still a good preparation. I also recommend this course I would also say that this blogpost is also very helpful to prepare theoretically for the exam. The author has picked out quite a few links to each topic and there are even some quickguides. We also have a course on udemy which is also helpful for the preparation. Get creative with Google to get your hands on sample questions (for starters, examtopics is a good example of a Google search term).

After working through these sources one should be ready to pass the exam.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about the procedure and the structure of the exam:

You have 210 minutes for the exam. The time is also sufficient. The retreat consists of 54 questions. I think that can vary from time to time. 30 questions were "theory" and already in this part some code questions were asked. There were multiple choice questions and code parts had to be put in the right order. Most of the questions relate to the implementation of services or the creation of services. All areas that are part of the exam preparation are queried. But I have to say that I have noticed a small focus on webapps.

The second part of the exam was exclusively about Use Cases. Different codes were provided (JSON files, *.cs - code, Javascript) etc. which had to be examined and which was also relevant for answering the questions. You had to look at the classes and decide which code to insert. There were also one or two questions about the compilability of the code. Whether this code leads to the desired result or which output would result.

There are also a few questions (I mean there were 6) that you couldn't answer afterwards. There were three for each Use Case. They asked how to implement a certain use case.

Add-on: Philipps Exam Tipps

I took the exam in March 2020 and passed with 740 point (700 required). My exam structure was

210 mins 37 question: 2 Case Studies with 5 questions each 27 open question Preparation Main source for preparation was AZ-203 of linuxacademy. In my opinion, they do a very good job explaining the main components of AZ-203 and I really recommend taking this curse. (I did 1 total walk-through + some lectures multiple times during test preparation.) Unfortunately, linuxacademy does not cover all topics. Additionally, I would recommend to read the Azure Documentation regarding (links are based on a quick search whether I saw similar context in the exam)

CDN (4-5 questions) https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/cdn/ https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/cdn/cdn-map-content-to-custom-domain https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/cdn/cdn-custom-ssl?tabs=option-1-default-enable-https-with-a-cdn-managed-certificate https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/cdn/ Hub Notification (2-3 questions, including Code: How to create a Hub client) https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/notification-hubs/notification-hubs-android-push-notification-google-fcm-get-started Telemetry as Code (2-3 questions) https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/azure-monitor/app/asp-net-core (Code with multiple-coice gaps based on code similar to Configure the Application Insights SDK) API Gateways (2-3 questions) https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/architecture/microservices/design/gateway Standard-Kubernetes-Command (1 question)

Question was a selection of typical Kubernetes command line tools(kubectl, helm, ingress ??? ...) and you had to select them for 3 specific tasks (deploy file, something with an IP, ...)

Praxis Exam

I would suggest the following praxis exams:

Linux Academy Az-203 Praxis Exam: good coverage of the open question and valuable insight for some case study questions Udemy AZ-203 : Developing Solutions for MS Azure : Practice Tests: additional (minor) case study questions In general, the majority of questions is framed as a (short) use case. Therefore, I simple technical understanding is oft not sufficient. I need to know how to apply it