AZ-400 vs AZ-104: which exam first?
Take AZ-104 first unless you already hold the Azure Administrator Associate certification. AZ-104 tests whether you can configure and operate Azure resources; AZ-400 tests whether you can design and run the delivery process around them with GitHub, Azure DevOps and pipelines. Microsoft’s DevOps Engineer Expert page requires AZ-400 plus an associate certification, and for a new candidate the administrator certification, earned with AZ-104, is the practical one.
The two exams side by side
| AZ-104 | AZ-400 | |
|---|---|---|
| Exam title | Microsoft Azure Administrator | Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions |
| Certification | Azure Administrator Associate | DevOps Engineer Expert |
| Level | Associate (intermediate) | Expert |
| Prerequisite certification | None | Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate (the latter is retired) |
| Passing score | 700 | 700 |
| Languages offered | 10 | 10 |
| Renewal | Free, every 12 months | Free, annually |
| Main verb in the objectives | Configure, create, manage | Design, implement, configure |
Domains compared
| AZ-104 domain | Weight | AZ-400 domain | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20-25% | Develop a security and compliance plan | 10-15% |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20-25% | Design and implement build and release pipelines | 50-55% |
| Implement and manage storage | 15-20% | Design and implement a source control strategy | 10-15% |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15-20% | Design and implement processes and communications | 10-15% |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10-15% | Implement an instrumentation strategy | 5-10% |
The rows are not equivalents; they only line up by weight order. AZ-104 spreads its weight across five Azure areas. AZ-400 puts more than half on pipelines.
What AZ-104 gives you for AZ-400
- Identity. Role assignments, Microsoft Entra ID and managed identities underpin service connections, federated credentials and Key Vault access in pipelines.
- Compute and deployment targets. App Service and deployment slots, containers, and ARM or Bicep templates are what AZ-400 pipelines deploy to and with.
- Monitoring. Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and KQL basics reappear in the instrumentation domain.
- Governance and cost habits. Policies, locks and budgets help you design safe environments for pipelines.
What AZ-104 does not give you
AZ-104 has no questions on YAML pipelines, GitHub Actions, branching strategies, pull request policies, package feeds, deployment strategies or code scanning. Those make up most of AZ-400. An administrator with no CI/CD practice should expect to learn them from scratch; see the AZ-400 study plan.
Which first?
| If you are | Start with |
|---|---|
| New to Azure, without the administrator certification | AZ-104, then AZ-400 |
| An Azure administrator who already holds AZ-104 | AZ-400 |
| A developer who owns pipelines but has not held AZ-104 | AZ-104 first, for the certification requirement |
You can study for both in parallel, since the identity, compute and monitoring ideas overlap. Check the prerequisite details before you book.
Where to go next
Read the AZ-104 section for the prerequisite, the AZ-400 exam format for the mechanics, and AZ-305 vs AZ-400 if you are also weighing the architect route.