AZ-400 Study Guide
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
Before You Start Studying
Before diving into the study sections, review the certification requirements, prerequisites, and recommended background knowledge below to understand what will help you succeed.
About This Certification
AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions is the required exam for the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification.
This is an expert-level certification. Passing AZ-400 alone is not enough — to earn the certification you must also hold one of these active associate certifications:
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104), or
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)
You can take AZ-400 before earning the prerequisite, but the DevOps Engineer Expert certification is only awarded once both requirements are met.
Important notes:
- A score of 700 or greater is required to pass AZ-400
- The exam skills were refreshed as of July 27, 2026 (minor updates only) — make sure your study material reflects the current skills list
- AZ-204 is scheduled to retire on July 31, 2026. If you earn it before retirement, it remains a valid prerequisite. Microsoft has stated that AI-200 (the AZ-204 successor) will be added as a prerequisite once it is generally available
- The certification renews annually through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn
Recommended Exam Path
AZ-400 assumes you already administer or develop on Azure. If you are earlier in your journey, build up in this order:
AZ-900 → AZ-104 or AZ-204 → AZ-400
- AZ-900 gives you cloud and Azure fundamentals if you are new to Azure
- AZ-104 is the better prerequisite if you come from an operations or infrastructure background
- AZ-204 is the better prerequisite if you come from a development background (available until July 31, 2026)
Because the prerequisite is required for the certification anyway, most candidates should complete it before attempting AZ-400.
Prerequisites
The exam assumes real experience with both Azure and modern delivery practices.
You should be comfortable with:
- Administering or developing on Azure, with strong skills in at least one of the two
- Git fundamentals: branching, merging, pull requests
- Working with both GitHub and Azure DevOps
- YAML syntax and pipeline concepts
- Basic scripting and application configuration
- Identity concepts such as service principals and managed identities
- Basic monitoring and telemetry concepts
Microsoft describes the audience as a developer or infrastructure administrator who also has expertise in working with people, processes, and products to enable continuous delivery of value.
Recommended Background Knowledge
AZ-400 is heavily weighted toward pipelines — Design and implement build and release pipelines is 50-55% of the exam. Plan your study time accordingly.
Processes and Communications (10-15%)
- Flow of work, including GitHub Flow
- Azure Boards and GitHub Projects integration with repositories
- Traceability between work items, commits, and pull requests
- DevOps metrics: cycle time, lead time, time to recovery
- Wikis, Markdown, and Mermaid diagrams
- Webhooks and Microsoft Teams integration
Source Control Strategy (10-15%)
- Branching strategies: trunk-based, feature branch, release branch
- Pull request workflows with branch policies and branch protection rules
- Large files with Git LFS; repository scaling with Scalar
- Repository permissions and tags
- Recovering and removing data by using Git commands
Build and Release Pipelines (50-55%)
- Azure Pipelines YAML and GitHub Actions
- Agent and runner infrastructure, including self-hosted scenarios
- Pipeline triggers, multi-stage pipelines, and job execution order
- Reusable elements: YAML templates, task groups, variables, variable groups
- Environments with checks and approvals
- Deployment strategies: blue-green, canary, ring, progressive exposure, feature flags, A/B testing
- Feature flags with Azure App Configuration Feature Manager
- Deployment slots and minimizing downtime
- Package management: Azure Artifacts feeds and views, GitHub Packages, semantic versioning
- Testing strategy: quality gates, test tasks, code coverage
- Infrastructure as code: Bicep, ARM, Azure Automation State Configuration, Azure Machine Configuration, Azure Deployment Environments
- Pipeline maintenance: health monitoring, cost and performance optimization, retention, classic-to-YAML migration
Security and Compliance (10-15%)
- Service principals vs managed identities (system-assigned and user-assigned)
- Secretless authentication: workload identity federation and OpenID Connect
- Azure Key Vault for secrets, keys, and certificates
- GitHub authentication: GitHub Apps, GITHUB_TOKEN, personal access tokens
- Azure DevOps service connections, permissions, and security groups
- GitHub Advanced Security (for GitHub and for Azure DevOps)
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud DevOps security
- Dependency, code, secret, and license scanning; Dependabot; CodeQL
Instrumentation Strategy (5-10%)
- Azure Monitor and Azure Monitor Logs
- Application Insights, VM Insights, Container Insights
- Distributed tracing
- Basic Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries
- GitHub insights and alerts for GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines
Step-by-Step Study Guide
Step 1: Review the Official Study Guide
What to do:
- Open the official AZ-400 study guide
- Read the skills measured sections — use the version effective July 27, 2026
- Note the heavy weighting of build and release pipelines (50-55%)
- Note any topics that are new to you
- Use it as your checklist throughout your prep
Link to The Official Study Guide
Step 2: Plan Your Prerequisite Certification
The DevOps Engineer Expert certification requires an active AZ-104 or AZ-204 certification in addition to passing AZ-400.
What to do:
- If you already hold AZ-104 or AZ-204, verify it is still active
- If not, choose based on your background: AZ-104 for operations, AZ-204 for development
- If you choose AZ-204, plan around its July 31, 2026 retirement date
- Complete the prerequisite before or shortly after AZ-400 — the certification is only granted when both are done
DevOps Engineer Expert Certification Page
Step 3: Schedule Your Exam
What to do:
- Choose a date that gives you enough time for study and practice
- Schedule the exam through the official Microsoft certification page
- Put the date on your calendar and plan backwards
Recommended timing:
- If you already build and operate CI/CD pipelines daily: 3 to 5 weeks
- If you know Azure but use pipelines only occasionally: 6 to 10 weeks
- If you are new to GitHub or Azure DevOps: complete the prerequisite certification first and get hands-on before scheduling
Certification and Exam Details Page
Step 4: Go Through the Official Learning Path
What to do:
- Complete the official AZ-400 course and modules
- Take notes on concepts you cannot explain in simple terms
- Practice both the Azure DevOps and the GitHub way of doing each task — the exam tests both
- Spend the most time on pipelines, deployments, and infrastructure as code
Official Learning Path Course Page
Step 5: Use Microsoft Official Exam Prep Resources
What to do:
- Watch Microsoft's official AZ-400 Exam Readiness Zone series (five episodes, one per exam domain)
- Compare each episode with the skills measured list
- Use the videos to understand how Microsoft frames exam objectives
- Revisit the study guide after watching the prep videos
Tips:
- AZ-400 questions are scenario-based: learn when to choose Azure Pipelines vs GitHub Actions, managed identity vs service principal, blue-green vs canary
- Expect YAML snippets — practice reading pipeline definitions, not just writing them
- Watch for requirements about security, downtime, cost, and auditability in scenarios
AZ-400 Exam Readiness: Configure Processes and Communications (1 of 5)
Step 6: Get Hands-On Practice
AZ-400 rewards real experience designing and running delivery pipelines. Reading alone will not prepare you for the scenario depth of this exam.
You should aim to get experience with:
- Building multi-stage YAML pipelines in Azure Pipelines
- Building workflows in GitHub Actions
- Creating reusable YAML templates and variable groups
- Configuring environments with approvals and checks
- Deploying with slots, canary, and blue-green strategies
- Implementing feature flags with Azure App Configuration
- Publishing and consuming packages with Azure Artifacts feeds and views
- Connecting pipelines to Azure with workload identity federation instead of secrets
- Storing and referencing secrets from Azure Key Vault in pipelines
- Enabling GitHub Advanced Security: secret scanning, code scanning with CodeQL, Dependabot
- Deploying infrastructure with Bicep from a pipeline
- Configuring branch policies and protection rules
- Querying Application Insights telemetry with basic KQL
The goal is not just to memorize services. You should understand how a DevOps engineer designs the whole flow: work item, branch, pull request, build, test, release, monitor.
Step 7: Benchmark Your Knowledge
What to do:
- Use CertiAce to benchmark your readiness
- Practice exam-style questions
- Take the official Microsoft practice assessment
- Review explanations carefully, especially for wrong answers
- Return to Microsoft Learn and hands-on practice for weak topics
Recommended target:
- Aim for consistent performance, not one lucky high score
- Because pipelines are 50-55% of the exam, unstable pipeline knowledge costs the most points
- Pay close attention to questions involving authentication, package versioning, deployment strategies, and YAML structure
Microsoft Practice Assessments
Step 8: Take the Exam
The day before:
- Review your weak topics only
- Revisit deployment strategies, YAML pipeline structure, Azure Artifacts feed views, and workload identity federation
- Skim branch policies, GitHub Advanced Security features, and KQL basics
- Avoid learning brand new topics
On exam day:
- Read questions carefully and identify what they are truly asking
- Eliminate wrong options first
- Watch for wording that implies security, least privilege, zero downtime, cost, or auditability — it usually selects the answer
- Check whether the scenario is GitHub-based, Azure DevOps-based, or hybrid before choosing a tool
- Remember that AZ-400 tests design decisions across the whole delivery flow, not just individual service features
Additional Learning Resources
Microsoft Official Resources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/resources/study-guides/az-400
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/devops-engineer/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/az-400/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/az-400t00
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/practice-assessments-for-microsoft-certifications
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/exam-readiness-zone/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/devops/
Microsoft Product Documentation
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/repos/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/github/integrate-azure-devops
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/key-vault/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-app-configuration/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/app-insights-overview
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/bicep/
- https://docs.github.com/en/actions
- https://docs.github.com/en/code-security
Ready to test your knowledge?
Practice questions for AZ-400