Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Core Azure Services and Workloads Syllabus

Core Azure Services and Workloads syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Core Azure Services and Workloads in Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Azure Compute Services

   4 topics

   • Azure Virtual Machines
     • VM series, sizes and operating system choice
     • VM Scale Sets for elastic capacity
     • Availability sets and update/fault domains
   • Azure App Service
     • Web apps, API apps and deployment slots
     • App Service plans and pricing tiers
   • Containers in Azure
     • Azure Container Instances (ACI)
     • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
     • Azure Container Apps
   • Serverless compute
     • Azure Functions and event-driven execution
     • Consumption versus premium hosting plans
2. 2

   Azure Networking Services

   3 topics

   • Azure Virtual Networks (VNets)
     • Subnets and address spaces
     • VNet peering
   • Connectivity options
     • VPN Gateway for site-to-site and point-to-site
     • ExpressRoute private connectivity
   • DNS in Azure
     • Azure DNS public zones
     • Private DNS zones
3. 3

   Azure Storage Services

   3 topics

   • Storage account types and services
     • Blob, File, Queue and Table storage
     • Azure Disk Storage for VMs
   • Storage tiers and redundancy
     • Hot, cool, cold and archive access tiers
     • LRS, ZRS, GRS and GZRS redundancy options
   • Data migration tools
     • Azure Migrate
     • Azure Data Box and AzCopy
4. 4

   Identity, Databases and Analytics

   4 topics

   • Azure database services
     • Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance
     • Azure Cosmos DB
     • Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL
   • Big data and analytics
     • Azure Synapse Analytics
     • Azure Databricks and HDInsight
   • Internet of Things services
     • IoT Hub
     • IoT Central
   • Artificial intelligence services
     • Azure AI services (Cognitive Services)
     • Azure Machine Learning

Core Azure Services and Workloads flashcards for Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900)

18 of 50 cards from the Core Azure Services and Workloads deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is an Azure Virtual Machine (VM)?

   An IaaS offering that provides an on-demand, scalable virtualised server (compute), giving you full OS-level control over Windows or Linux machines running in Azure datacentres. You manage the OS, patching, and software, while Microsoft manages the underlying hardware.

2. In the Azure VM shared responsibility model, what does the customer manage versus Microsoft?

   Customer manages the guest OS, patches, applications, runtime, and data. Microsoft manages the physical hosts, physical network, and the hypervisor/virtualisation layer.

3. What are the main Azure VM series/families and their primary use cases?

   B-series (burstable, low-cost dev/test), D-series (general purpose, balanced CPU-to-memory), E-series (memory-optimised), F-series (compute-optimised, high CPU), and N-series (GPU-enabled for graphics/AI).

4. What is an Azure VM Scale Set (VMSS)?

   A service that lets you deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically increase or decrease (autoscale) in response to demand or a defined schedule.

5. What is an Azure Availability Set and what two concepts does it use to protect VMs?

   A logical grouping of VMs that reduces the impact of hardware failures and maintenance. It uses Fault Domains (groups of VMs sharing a power source and network switch) and Update Domains (groups rebooted together during maintenance).

6. What is an Azure Availability Zone and what SLA-related benefit does it give?

   A physically separate location within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Spreading VMs across zones protects against entire datacentre failure and can provide a higher uptime SLA (e.g. 99.99% for VMs across zones).

7. What is Azure App Service?

   A fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for building, deploying, and scaling web apps, REST APIs, and mobile backends without managing the underlying infrastructure. Supports .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, and containers.

8. What is an App Service Plan and what does it define?

   It defines the set of compute resources (region, number of VM instances, VM size, and pricing tier) on which your App Service apps run. All apps in the same plan share these resources.

9. Name the main App Service Plan pricing tiers from lowest to highest.

   Free and Shared (dev/test, shared infrastructure), Basic, Standard, Premium (PremiumV2/V3 — dedicated VMs, autoscale, more features), and Isolated (dedicated Azure environment via App Service Environment).

10. What is deployment slots feature in Azure App Service used for?

    Deployment slots are live apps with their own hostnames (e.g. a staging slot) that let you deploy and validate a new version, then swap it into production with zero downtime and instant rollback. Available in Standard tier and above.

11. What is a container, and how does it differ from a VM?

    A container packages an application with its dependencies and runs as an isolated process sharing the host OS kernel — making it lightweight and fast to start. A VM virtualises hardware and includes a full guest OS, making it larger and slower to boot.

12. What is Azure Container Instances (ACI)?

    The fastest, simplest way to run a single container in Azure without managing servers or orchestrators. It is serverless containers, billed per second, ideal for short-lived/burst workloads and simple apps.

13. What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?

    A managed Kubernetes container orchestration service. Azure manages the Kubernetes control plane (free), while you manage and pay for the worker/agent nodes. Used for complex, scalable, multi-container microservice applications.

14. What is Azure Container Apps and when is it preferred over AKS?

    A serverless container platform built on Kubernetes/KEDA/Dapr that runs microservices and containerised apps without you managing the cluster. Preferred when you want container orchestration features (scale-to-zero, revisions) without the operational overhead of managing Kubernetes directly.

15. What is Azure Container Registry (ACR)?

    A managed, private Docker/OCI registry service for storing and managing container images and related artifacts, integrated with ACI, AKS, and App Service for deployment.

16. What does 'serverless' compute mean in Azure?

    An execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages server allocation; you deploy only code/logic, it scales automatically (including scale-to-zero), and you pay only for actual execution/consumption rather than provisioned capacity.

17. What is Azure Functions?

    A serverless, event-driven compute service that runs small pieces of code ('functions') in response to triggers (HTTP, timer, queue, blob, etc.) without provisioning infrastructure. Billed per execution under the Consumption plan.

18. What is the difference between a trigger and a binding in Azure Functions?

    A trigger defines how a function is invoked (an event that starts it; each function has exactly one). A binding is a declarative connection to input or output data (e.g. read from a queue, write to a blob), removing the need for hardcoded data-access code.

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