Quick Answer: how to pass AZ-900 in two weeks
Give it ten weekdays: about an hour a day on eight of them, plus two longer sessions. AZ-900 is Microsoft's Azure Fundamentals exam, a 45-minute test of cloud concepts, the main Azure services, and Azure management and governance. Watch one short YouTube lesson a day, use one long course as a reference, and finish with practice questions. The biggest domain, Azure architecture and services, carries 35-40% of the exam per Microsoft's study guide, read October 2026.
That is the plan. Days 1 to 5 cover cloud concepts and the Azure architecture and services domain. Day 6 covers management and governance. Day 7 is Microsoft's own Practice Assessment, Days 8 and 9 are review driven by your question log, and Day 10 tells you whether to sit the exam or move the date.
What the exam actually tests
Per Microsoft's AZ-900 study guide, read October 2026, the skills measured are current as of July 20, 2026, and split into three domains with weight ranges, not fixed numbers. The exam lasts 45 minutes, with 65 minutes of seat time, and it is proctored. Microsoft Learn is not available to you during a fundamentals exam.
These are the weights from the study guide, read October 2026, mapped to this plan:
| Domain | Share of the exam | Days in this plan |
|---|---|---|
| Describe cloud concepts | 25-30% | Day 1, reviewed Day 8 |
| Describe Azure architecture and services | 35-40% | Days 2-5, reviewed Days 8-9 |
| Describe Azure management and governance | 30-35% | Day 6, reviewed Day 9 |
Architecture and services is the biggest domain, so it gets four days in Week 1. Per Microsoft's exam scoring page, read October 2026, scores run from 1 to 1,000 with a pass at 700 or greater, as a scaled score. Some questions may be unscored and you will not know which, so answer every one.
Who this exam is for, and why your manager wants it
Microsoft's study guide, read October 2026, describes the candidate as "a technology professional who wants to demonstrate foundational knowledge of cloud concepts in general and Microsoft Azure in particular." If your company runs on Azure and you work in support, IT, development, data or a role next to them, that is you, even if you never deploy anything yourself.
The same guide calls it "a common starting point in a journey towards a career in Azure." You do not need to be an Azure engineer. You need to know what the services are for and who controls what.
If your company is on AWS instead, our two-week AWS Cloud Practitioner prep plan follows the same shape.
Read this first: the videos are older than the exam
Every YouTube lesson in this plan was recorded between 2020 and 2023, and Microsoft updated the AZ-900 outline on July 20, 2026. The concepts these videos teach, like cloud models, regions, RBAC, Azure Policy and cost, are stable. Names are what drift, and the biggest rename sits right in the middle of the security topics.
Microsoft renamed Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID, and the service plan display names changed on October 1, 2023, per Microsoft's Entra documentation, read October 2026. The exam now says Microsoft Entra ID. When a video says "Azure AD" or "Azure Active Directory", write "Microsoft Entra ID" in your notes.
Keep the AZ-900 study guide open all fortnight. When a video disagrees with it, the study guide wins.
Some topics in the current outline get little or no time in the short videos: Zero Trust, defense in depth, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Purview, Azure Arc, Conditional Access, passwordless sign-in and the monitoring tools. Cover those from the freeCodeCamp chapters and the Microsoft Learn paths on the days below.
Before Day 1: three things to set up
Before your first study hour, open the study guide in a tab, bookmark Microsoft's three self-paced Learn paths, and confirm your booking: date, time, and test center or online. Then block eight one-hour slots and two longer slots in your calendar. A plan that lives only in your head loses to the first busy week.
The Microsoft Learn paths. Microsoft has one self-paced path per domain: Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure: Describe Cloud Concepts, Describe Azure Architecture and Services and Describe Azure Management and Governance. Use them like the freeCodeCamp course, by module, to fill a gap.
The reference spine. freeCodeCamp's Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification Course (AZ-900) UPDATED - Pass the exam in 8 hours! (freeCodeCamp.org, 8h 21m, uploaded December 2023) is the newest video in this plan. Each day below names the topic to find in its chapter list.
A question log. One page, three columns: the question you got wrong, the domain, and the one-line reason the right answer is right. Week 2 runs on this page.
Week 1: cloud concepts, then Azure architecture and services
Week 1 is five weekdays of content. Day 1 covers the whole cloud concepts domain, and Days 2 to 5 work through architecture, compute and networking, storage, then identity and security. Each day pairs one short Adam Marczak episode with the matching freeCodeCamp chapters, so you hear each idea twice from two teachers.
Day 1: what the cloud is and how Azure sells it
Watch Adam Marczak's AZ-900 Episode 1 | Cloud Computing and Vocabulary (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 10 min), then AZ-900 Episode 5 | IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS cloud service models (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 8 min). Together they are enough because this domain is mostly vocabulary, and about 18 minutes names the core terms and the three service models.
Your hour today: open the freeCodeCamp chapters on cloud concepts for the rest: the shared responsibility model, public, private and hybrid clouds, the consumption-based model, pricing models and serverless. Then write three reasons your company runs on Azure rather than its own servers.
Day 2: regions, availability zones and how Azure is organized
Watch AZ-900 Episode 7 | Geographies, Regions & Availability Zones (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 15 min). It is enough because regions and availability zones are a small set of related terms, and one 15-minute episode covers geographies, regions and zones together.
Your hour today: in the freeCodeCamp chapters, cover sovereign regions and the management hierarchy: resources, resource groups, subscriptions and management groups. Draw that hierarchy as four nested boxes; it tells you where a policy or permission applies.
Day 3: compute and networking
Watch AZ-900 Episode 9 | Compute Services | VMs, VM Scale Set, App Service, Functions, ACI, AKS (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 26 min). It is enough because the exam asks you to tell containers, virtual machines and functions apart, and this episode puts them side by side in one sitting.
Your hour today: use the freeCodeCamp chapters for what the episode leaves out: availability sets, Azure Virtual Desktop, and networking, meaning virtual networks, subnets, peering, Azure DNS, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, and public and private endpoints. The change log flags compute and networking as updated in July 2026, so check this day against the study guide.
Day 4: storage
Watch AZ-900 Episode 11 | Azure Storage Services | Blob, Queue, Table, Files, Disk and Storage Tiers (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 19 min). It is enough because storage questions turn on matching the right service and tier to a need, and the episode walks through both.
Your hour today: add the freeCodeCamp chapters on storage redundancy, account types and moving data: AzCopy, Storage Explorer, Azure File Sync, Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box. Build a one-page service map with three headings, compute, networking and storage, and two or three services under each with a one-line purpose.
Day 5: identity, access and security
Watch AZ-900 Episode 28 | Azure Role-based Access Control (RBAC) (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 14 min). It is enough for RBAC because the idea is one sentence long, who can do what where, and this episode is given over to that one idea.
Your hour today: this is the day the older videos cover least, so lean on the freeCodeCamp chapters and the architecture Learn path. Cover Microsoft Entra ID, Entra Domain Services, single sign-on, MFA, passwordless, external identities, Conditional Access, Zero Trust, defense in depth and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Any "Azure AD" you hear goes in your notes as Microsoft Entra ID.
Week 2: governance, then questions until you are ready
Week 2 covers the last domain and then switches from watching to answering. Day 6 is management and governance, Day 7 is Microsoft's Practice Assessment, Days 8 and 9 are review using John Savill's cram by section, and Day 10 is a readiness check and exam-day plan. Days 7 and 10 are the two longer sessions.
Day 6: cost, governance and management tools
Watch AZ-900 Episode 31 | Azure Policy (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 15 min) and AZ-900 Episode 37 | Azure Cost Management (Adam Marczak - Azure for Everyone, 10 min). They are enough because each episode is given over to one of the domain's named topics, Azure Policy and cost management, and together they run under half an hour.
If cost still feels fuzzy, John Savill's Functionality and Usage of Azure Cost Management - AZ-900 Certification Course (John Savill's Technical Training, 6 min) is an optional second view.
Your hour today: use the management and governance Learn path for the rest: cost factors, the pricing calculator, tags, resource locks, Microsoft Purview, the Azure portal, Cloud Shell, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, Azure Arc, infrastructure as code, Azure Resource Manager and ARM templates, then Azure Advisor, Azure Service Health and Azure Monitor with Log Analytics, alerts and Application Insights.
Day 7: Microsoft's Practice Assessment (long session)
Take the Practice Assessment linked from Microsoft's Azure Fundamentals certification page. Per Microsoft Learn, read October 2026, practice assessments cost nothing and can be attempted as many times as you like. That makes it your main source of question practice in this plan.
Your session today: take it in one sitting with no notes and no video open. Log every miss and every lucky guess with its domain. By the end you should know your weakest domain.
Day 8: review cloud concepts and architecture with the cram
Open John Savill's AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals Study Cram - 2022 Edition! (John Savill's Technical Training, 3h 25m) and watch only the sections on cloud concepts and on architecture and services that match your question log. It is enough because a cram is built for review: fast, dense, and organized by topic.
Your hour today: for every logged miss in those two domains, write why the right answer is right and why each wrong option is wrong. When a wrong option is a real Azure service, naming what that service is actually for is the skill being tested.
Day 9: review governance and close the gaps
Go back to the same cram and watch the management and governance sections, plus any architecture section you did not reach on Day 8. Then retake the Practice Assessment. It is enough because the second attempt shows whether a day of review moved your weak domain, and that is the question Day 10 has to answer.
Your hour today: for any topic the cram skips or that has changed since 2022, go to the matching Microsoft Learn path module instead. Microsoft's July 2026 change log touched the monitoring and management tools, so check those against the study guide.
Day 10: readiness check and exam-day plan (long session)
Run one honest check: take the Practice Assessment again, timed, and explain each answer out loud. You are ready when your misses are scattered rather than stacked in one domain, and you can say why each wrong option is wrong. If one domain still dominates, move the exam date rather than guess.
Your session today: plan the clock. Per Microsoft's exam duration page, read October 2026, you get 45 minutes of exam time inside 65 minutes of seat time, and no Microsoft Learn during the exam. Answer every question. Per the study guide, if the exam is not available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes. Microsoft does not identify question types or formats in advance, so try its exam sandbox once to see the interface.
What to skip in these two weeks
Skip anything that teaches you to build rather than to describe: hands-on labs, deep configuration walkthroughs, scripting, and associate-level material. Every domain in the study guide starts with the word "Describe," per Microsoft's study guide read October 2026. Building things is real and useful, and none of it moves your score this fortnight.
The full freeCodeCamp course end to end. At 8 hours 21 minutes it is longer than all eight one-hour study slots in this plan combined.
The TCO calculator. If a video spends time on it, skip that part: the current outline lists the pricing calculator and not a TCO calculator. Spend that time on the pricing calculator instead.
The next certification. If this exam makes you curious about a technical role, our guide on how to move from cloud support to cloud engineering and our ranking of the best YouTube channels for cloud engineering across AWS, Azure and GCP are the next reads, after the exam.
What the exam costs, and the booking trap
Microsoft prices the exam by location. Per its certification page, read October 2026, the price is based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored, so you see it when you schedule through Pearson VUE. Every YouTube lesson, the Microsoft Learn paths and the Practice Assessment in this plan cost nothing.
Ask your manager on Day 1 whether the company pays. Then watch the account you book with: Microsoft recommends a personal Microsoft account, because if you register with a work or school account, your exam records are lost if you leave the organization.
If the first attempt does not go your way, Microsoft's retake policy, read October 2026, lets you retake after 24 hours, then requires a 14-day wait between later attempts, with at most five attempts in 12 months. You pay for each retake where a fee applies.
Proof at the end: the pass, plus the certificate
The proof that this fortnight worked is the pass itself, a scaled score of 700 or more. It is the only thing that earns you the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification, and per Microsoft's renewal page, read October 2026, fundamentals certifications do not expire. Nothing else in this plan replaces that Microsoft credential.
LearnPath builds a path of free YouTube videos for a topic and generates a quiz from each video's transcript, so you find out whether a lesson stuck before the exam does. Free opens step 1 of up to two paths; every later step is Pro. The completion certificate is Pro-only, so free accounts do not get one, and it is not a Microsoft certification. Only passing AZ-900 earns that.
Build a work-ready Azure Fundamentals path before your exam date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Six questions that come up when your manager has booked you on AZ-900 with two weeks to go. Each short answer points back to the part of the plan that covers it, so you can jump there when the question comes up halfway through a study hour or on the way home.
Can I pass AZ-900 in two weeks with a full-time job?
Microsoft describes AZ-900 as a common starting point for technology professionals, and the exam lasts 45 minutes. Ten weekdays of about an hour each, plus two longer sessions, covers the three domains and real practice questions. Nobody can promise a pass, so use the Day 10 readiness check to decide honestly.
What score do you need to pass AZ-900?
Per Microsoft's exam scoring page, read October 2026, scores are reported on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and the passing score is 700 or greater. It is a scaled score, not a percentage. Some questions may be unscored and you will not know which, so answer every question you see.
How much does the AZ-900 exam cost?
Microsoft's certification page, read October 2026, says the price is based on the country or region where the exam is proctored, so you see it when you schedule through Pearson VUE. The YouTube lessons, the Microsoft Learn paths and the Practice Assessment cost nothing. Ask your manager whether the company pays.
Are YouTube AZ-900 videos from 2020 to 2023 still accurate in 2026?
Mostly. The core concepts are stable, but Microsoft updated the outline on July 20, 2026, and renamed Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID. When a video says Azure AD, write Microsoft Entra ID. Check each day against the study guide, and when a video disagrees with it, the study guide wins.
Does the AZ-900 certification expire?
No. Microsoft's renewal page, read October 2026, says fundamentals certifications do not expire. If you fail, the retake policy allows a first retake after 24 hours, then a 14-day wait between later attempts, with at most five attempts in 12 months. You pay again for each retake, where a fee applies.
Does LearnPath give a certificate for an Azure Fundamentals learning path?
Yes, on the Pro plan; free accounts do not get one. It shows you finished a LearnPath path, and it is not a Microsoft certification. Only passing the AZ-900 exam earns the Azure Fundamentals credential. Free opens step 1 of up to two paths, and every later step is Pro.
