I recently took the Microsoft Azure Exam 70-534: Architecture Microsoft Azure Solutions. I am happy to announce that I passed the exam. I will share my experiences with this exam in the next sections.
What are you supposed to know?
On November 22, 2016, the skills covered in the exam were updated. The exam’s focus has now shifted to the Resource Manager model, and related technologies, tools, and techniques. These are the areas that were covered at the time of writing this blog:* Design Azure Resource Manager, (ARM) Networking (5 – 10%)* Secure Resources (20 – 25%)* Design Advanced Applications (20 – 25%)* Design Azure Web and mobile apps (5 – 10%)* Design a Management Monitoring and Business Continuity Strategy (20 – 25%)* Architect an Azure Compute Infrastructure (10 15%)
You are encouraged to review the exam objectives before you take the exam. They are subject to change at any time. For the most current exam objectives, click here.
What is Azure Solutions Architect Examination?
The exam’s main purpose is to assess your ability to design Public and (mostly), Hybrid Cloud Solutions. It is expected that you have a good understanding of the Cloud Services available, can compare and contrast them and choose the best one for your situation. This is the larger theme of the exam. It is important to understand the “Why” and “How” aspects of the services. Your Design and Architecture skills should be on the forefront. Your coding skills will not be required for the majority of the time.
One example: When would Azure Storage Queue be preferred over Azure Service Bus Queue?
Exam pattern and my experience with them
Exam Experience: The exam is divided into multiple sections. You have 150 minutes to complete the exam. There are 65 questions. There are three main patterns to the sections.
Case study-based questions will be presented to you. These questions will include an overview, business requirements, technical requirements, security requirements, and more. Each scenario will have 4-8 questions. These case study questions have one drawback. You cannot track your overall progress at the moment. You only see your progress when you are in a particular case study section. Each case study section is not limited in time. If you don’t pay attention, you might spend too much time on one section and end up gasping for breath later. Another problem is that once you’re done with a section of a scenario, you can’t go back. You can mark it to be reviewed within the section, but you cannot return to it once you click on ‘Finished.
The second pattern includes scenario-based questions. Each question will offer a solution to the problem statement for the same scenario. However, each question may use a different approach or service. If the solution is suitable, you will need to choose Yes / No or True/False. This problem statement will be repeated for each question in the pattern. For example, the scenario could be: The ability to provide reliable messaging among two components with ordered delivery. In one question, Azure Storage Queue is the solution and in the second, Azure Service Bus Queue is the answer. This section was a break in the exam. The scenarios were not that difficult.
The third pattern is a series or single questions. It may have more than 20+ questions. There are many topics that are covered in this syllabus, including Machine Learning and ASM vs ARM Virtual Networks Integrations.
My approa
