AZ-104

Everything that goes with The Lowdown Lab’s AZ-104 book and video course: the exam as it stands today, the free hands-on labs, corrections, and how to report a mistake.

It changes when Microsoft changes the exam, so it’s worth bookmarking.

The exam today

Book and video course

Both cover the same exam objectives. The book comes as a PDF and as a paperback.

Hands-on labs

Fifteen free labs on GitHub. Fourteen deploy real resources into your own Azure subscription from a Bicep template. Lab 15 runs from a script instead, because Entra users and groups aren’t Azure resources. Every lab has deploy, check and cleanup steps in its README, and a portal walkthrough that tours what it built.

Open the AZ-104 labs on GitHub →

Lab	Exam area	Cost
1. Custom RBAC roles and scope hierarchy	Identities and governance	Free
2. Azure Policy: initiatives and remediation	Identities and governance	Free
3. Resource locks, cost budgets and resource moves	Identities and governance	Near-free
4. Storage security: SAS, network rules and CMK	Storage	Near-free
5. Storage lifecycle, versioning and object replication	Storage	Free
6. VM deployment, availability zones and managed disks	Compute	Billed hourly
7. VM scale sets and custom autoscale	Compute	Billed hourly, per instance
8. Containers: registry, instances and Container Apps	Compute	Near-free if deleted promptly
9. App Service: deployment slots and VNet integration	Compute	Billed hourly (Standard tier)
10. VNet peering and user-defined routes	Virtual networking	Near-free
11. NSGs, ASGs, Bastion and private endpoints	Virtual networking	Billed hourly: the most expensive lab
12. Standard Load Balancer and Azure DNS	Virtual networking	Near-free
13. Log Analytics, diagnostic settings and KQL	Monitor and maintain	Near-free
14. Recovery Services vault, backup and restore	Monitor and maintain	Near-free (more with the optional Site Recovery part)
15. Microsoft Entra users, groups and licensing	Identities and governance	Free

Before you start

• An Azure subscription. A free trial or pay-as-you-go account both work, but read each lab’s cost line first.
• The AZ-900 labs, or the same level of Azure familiarity. AZ-900 companion page.
• The Azure CLI, installed and signed in with az login. Bicep comes with it; run az bicep install if prompted.
• Labs 1 and 2: Owner or User Access Administrator at the scope you work in, to create custom roles and policy assignments.
• Lab 15: Microsoft Entra User Administrator (or Global Administrator), to create users, groups and guests.

Watch the hourly labs

Unlike AZ-900, several of these labs bill by the hour: 6, 7, 9 and 11. Lab 11’s Azure Bastion is the most expensive. Delete each one right after you finish, and never leave them running overnight.

• Every lab ends with a cleanup step, in the order that works.
• Lab 2: delete the policy initiative before its definitions.
• Lab 3: remove the lock before it blocks a move or delete.
• Lab 14: disable backup protection, or the vault won’t delete.

Those last three are worth noticing: resources that resist deletion come up on the exam.

If a deployment fails on a resource’s API version, Azure has moved on since the lab was written. Check the Azure Resource Manager template reference for the current version, and email info@thelowdownlab.com so the lab gets fixed.

What’s changed since publication

When Microsoft revises the AZ-104 skills outline after the book is out, the changes and the parts of the book they affect are listed here. The panel at the top of this page shows when the outline has moved on.

Nothing yet.

Errata

Corrections to the book, the course and the labs. Page numbers are for the paperback; the PDF has the same section headings.

Where	It says	It should say	Posted
—	No corrections yet.

Report an error

Email info@thelowdownlab.com. Problems with the labs go to the same address. Include:

• Which format: PDF, paperback, video course or lab, and its edition or version.
• Where: the chapter and section, plus the page number, the video timestamp, or the lab number and step.
• What’s wrong, and what you think it should say. A link to Microsoft’s documentation helps.

Confirmed corrections go into the errata table above.

Microsoft’s official resources

• AZ-104 study guide: the skills outline this page tracks, and Microsoft’s change log.
• Certification page: where you schedule the exam.
• Free practice assessment: questions from the team that writes the exam, with explanations. Take it as many times as you like.
• Exam sandbox: try the exam interface before the real thing.
• Passing score: 700 or more on Microsoft’s scaled score.
• Renewal: Associate certifications expire after a year. You renew free by passing a short, open-book online assessment on Microsoft Learn during the six months before it expires.

Where AZ-104 fits

AZ-104 is where Azure knowledge turns into configuration skill. The security and architecture exams both assume it.

• Before: AZ-900, Azure Fundamentals, or equivalent familiarity.
• Next, for security: SC-500, Cloud & AI Security Engineer.
• Next, for architecture: AZ-305, Azure Solutions Architect.

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