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The official AZ-104 exam objectives, organized into five skill domains. This page covers every exam topic, how each domain is weighted, and what kinds of questions to expect — based on the latest Microsoft Azure Administrator exam guide.
The AZ-104 exam syllabus is divided into five domains, each representing a core area of Azure administration. Microsoft publishes the percentage weighting for each domain — this tells you how many questions to expect from each area and where to focus your study time. Domain 01 (Identities & Governance) and Domain 03 (Compute) are jointly the highest-weighted, together accounting for up to 50% of the exam.
This domain covers how identities are created and managed in Microsoft Entra ID, how access is controlled using Azure RBAC, and how Azure governance tools keep environments compliant and well-governed.
Expect questions on creating and managing users, groups, and licenses; configuring self-service password reset; assigning built-in and custom roles at different scopes; interpreting access assignments; implementing Azure Policy; configuring resource locks; and managing subscriptions and management groups.
This domain covers the full lifecycle of Azure storage accounts — from creation and configuration to securing access, managing data, and implementing protection features for blobs and files.
Expect questions on storage account types and redundancy options; configuring firewalls and virtual network rules; creating and using SAS tokens and stored access policies; managing access keys; configuring encryption; blob lifecycle management; object replication; and using AzCopy and Storage Explorer.
The largest domain in the exam covers virtual machines, containers, and App Services — including deploying resources via ARM templates and Bicep, managing VM configurations, and understanding autoscaling.
Expect questions on interpreting and modifying ARM templates and Bicep files; deploying VMs and configuring disks, encryption, and availability; managing VM scale sets with autoscale rules; working with Azure Container Registry, Container Instances, and Container Apps; and configuring App Service plans including scaling, slots, backups, and networking.
This domain covers Azure virtual network design, connectivity between networks, traffic control, and securing network resources using NSGs, Azure Bastion, and private endpoints.
Expect questions on creating VNets and subnets; configuring VNet peering including cross-subscription and cross-tenant scenarios; managing public IP addresses and user-defined routes; creating and evaluating NSG rules; implementing Azure Bastion; configuring private and service endpoints; and working with Azure DNS for both public and private zones.
This domain covers how to keep Azure environments observable, protected, and recoverable — using Azure Monitor for metrics and logs, and Azure Backup and Site Recovery for data protection.
Expect questions on interpreting Azure Monitor metrics; configuring Data Collection Rules; querying Log Analytics workspaces; setting up alert rules, action groups, and alert processing rules; configuring backup policies and performing restore operations; creating Recovery Services and Backup vaults; and using Site Recovery for regional failover.
Questions candidates commonly ask about the AZ-104 exam domains, topic weightings, and how to prioritise study time.
The AZ-104 exam covers five domains: (01) Manage Azure Identities and Governance (20–25%), (02) Implement and Manage Storage (15–20%), (03) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (20–25%), (04) Implement and Manage Virtual Networking (15–20%), and (05) Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources (10–15%).
Domains 01 and 03 — Manage Azure Identities and Governance, and Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources — are each weighted at 20–25%, making them jointly the highest-weighted domains. Together they account for up to 50% of the exam. Domain 05 (Monitor and Maintain) has the fewest questions at 10–15%.
Domain 04 (Implement and Manage Virtual Networking) is widely considered the most difficult by candidates. It requires reasoning through multi-step network configurations, NSG rule priority logic, VNet peering constraints, and DNS resolution across complex topologies. Domain 03 (Compute) is a close second due to its breadth — ARM templates, containers, and App Services all appear together.
The AZ-104 exam objectives were last updated in 2025. The current syllabus reflects the updated skill weightings and includes topics such as Azure Container Apps, Bicep file authoring, deployment stacks, and updated identity and governance tooling under Microsoft Entra ID. Microsoft updates the exam periodically — always verify the current objectives on Microsoft Learn before studying.
The networking domain (Implement and Manage Virtual Networking) is weighted at 15–20% of the exam, meaning roughly 8–12 questions out of 50–60 will come from this domain. Networking questions are scenario-heavy and often involve multi-step configurations, making preparation time disproportionately important relative to the weight.
The identities and governance domain is weighted at 20–25% — the joint highest weighting along with compute. Expect roughly 10–15 questions covering Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, Azure Policy, resource locks, subscriptions, and management groups.
Most study guides recommend starting with Domain 01 (Identities and Governance) because it establishes the access control model that underpins all other domains. Then Domain 02 (Storage), Domain 03 (Compute), Domain 04 (Networking), and Domain 05 (Monitor and Maintain). Prioritise time based on weighting — spend roughly 25% of your study time on each of the two highest-weighted domains.
No. Microsoft weights each domain by a percentage range, but within domains, certain sub-topics appear more frequently based on real exam reports from candidates. Sub-topics like Azure RBAC, NSG rules, VNet peering, lifecycle management policies, and ARM/Bicep templates are among the most consistently tested across real exam sittings.
Share how you reason through topics on this page. You can also share your feedback on this guide.
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