AZ-400 Is Retiring: What the New AZ-401 Agentic DevOps Engineer Expert Means for You
Microsoft has announced a new certification, the Agentic DevOps Engineer Expert, and the new AZ-401 exam, which is now in beta. General availability is expected in December 2026. The current AZ-400 exam and the DevOps Engineer Expert certification retire on February 1, 2027. This date comes from Microsoft’s official announcement. The AZ-400 exam page does not show a retirement date yet. To earn the new expert title, you must pass the AZ-401 exam and either GH-300 (GitHub Copilot) or AZ-104 (Azure Administrator).
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What is the AZ-401 exam?
The full name is Designing and Implementing Microsoft Agentic DevOps Solutions. It tests AI-assisted DevOps across Azure DevOps and GitHub, with GitHub Copilot at the center. For now, the exam is available in English only, and you need a score of 700 to pass. Beta exams are not scored right away, so you get your result only after the exam goes live.
Microsoft expects practical skills in YAML, KQL and Bicep. You should also have experience with Azure DevOps and GitHub solutions that use Microsoft and GitHub AI tools.
Skills measured and weights
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Design and implement processes and communications | 15-20% |
| Design and implement a source control strategy | 10-15% |
| Design and implement build and release pipelines | 35-40% |
| Design and implement a security and compliance plan | 15-20% |
| Implement an instrumentation strategy | 15-20% |
Pipelines carry the most weight by far, so plan most of your study time there.
What is new compared with AZ-400?
The five domain names are the same as in AZ-400. The big change is AI. The study guide adds MCP servers for Azure DevOps and GitHub, GitHub Agentic Workflows, and quality gates built with GitHub Copilot. It also covers Azure SRE Agent and Azure Copilot Observability Agent for monitoring. If you still want AZ-400, you must take it before February 1, 2027.
How to prepare today
Start with the official AZ-401 study guide. It lists every skill the exam may test. Microsoft also suggests the Learn plan Optimize DevOps with AI agents on Azure.
However, AZ-401 learning paths, courses and the official practice assessment are not available yet. Microsoft says practice assessments usually come within 8 weeks after an exam leaves beta. Beta topics can still change before the exam goes live.
Start with the second exam now
You can already prepare for the other half of the certification. Practise with our GitHub Copilot (GH-300) practice exam or our Azure Administrator (AZ-104) practice exam. To see what changed in GH-300 this year, read our GH-300 skills outline update.
Our AZ-401 practice exam is coming as soon as Microsoft releases the official learning modules.
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