Azure Administrator AZ-104 Exam Preparation: A Practical Guide (2026 Skills Outline)
The AZ-104 exam (Microsoft Azure Administrator) has followed a new skills outline since April 17, 2026. Microsoft’s change log only says “Minor”, so we compared the study guide line by line with the archived previous version. The five domains and their weights did not change, but one objective was replaced: Configure Azure Disk Encryption is out and Configure encryption at host for Azure virtual machines is in. Below are the exact changes, exam-day rules most guides skip, and a 4-week plan.
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AZ-104 exam at a glance
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20-25% |
| Implement and manage storage | 15-20% |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20-25% |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15-20% |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10-15% |
You get 100 minutes and need a score of 700 or higher to pass. Microsoft does not publish a fixed number of questions; most of its exams have 40-60. Translated versions are updated about eight weeks after English, and if your language is not offered, you can request 30 extra minutes.
Exact changes on April 17, 2026
- Replaced: “Configure Azure Disk Encryption” became “Configure encryption at host for Azure virtual machines”. Microsoft plans to retire Azure Disk Encryption on September 15, 2028.
- Audience profile: “Azure Resource Manager templates” now reads “Azure Resource Manager templates or Bicep files”.
- Wording only: a file share “in Azure Files” (was “in Azure Storage”), a container “in Azure Blob Storage”, and “user-defined routes” (was “user-defined network routes”).
Nothing else was added or removed. Azure Container Apps, for example, was already listed before. For encryption at host, remember that it also encrypts temp disks and caches, does not use the VM’s CPU, cannot be turned on for a VM that ever had Azure Disk Encryption, and an existing VM must be deallocated before it gets encrypted.
Exam-day rules worth knowing
- Microsoft Learn is open during the exam. You can open learn.microsoft.com in a split screen, except Q&A, practice assessments and your profile. No extra time is added, so use it only for quick lookups.
- Breaks are one-way. After a break you cannot go back to any question you have already seen.
- Retakes: you wait 24 hours after the first failed attempt, then 14 days between later attempts, with a maximum of five attempts in 12 months.
Topics that are not in the outline
Popular AZ-104 guides still list VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Azure Firewall, AKS, Conditional Access or PIM. None of these appears in the current skills outline, so focus on the listed objectives.
A 4-week AZ-104 study plan
- Week 1 – identities and governance: Entra users and groups, RBAC scopes, Azure Policy, locks and management groups.
- Week 2 – compute: ARM and Bicep edits, VMs with encryption at host, scale sets, containers and App Service slots.
- Week 3 – networking and storage: peering, routes, effective NSG rules, private endpoints, SAS and redundancy.
- Week 4 – monitoring and backup: alerts, Site Recovery failover, then timed practice tests and Microsoft’s free practice assessment.
Renewal and practice
The certification is valid for 12 months. Renewal is free: a short, unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn you can take in the six months before expiry, as often as needed.
For timed practice, try our Azure Administrator (AZ-104) practice exam. The $1 trial is deducted when you upgrade, and every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee. AZ-104 also counts toward the new expert title described in our AZ-401 article.
Facts come from the official AZ-104 study guide (current and archived February 2026 versions) and Microsoft Learn policy pages. Always check Microsoft Learn before you book.
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