Should I Skip AZ-900 and Pay for AZ-104 Instead?

You don’t need AZ-900 before taking AZ-104. AZ-900 mainly confirms fundamental cloud knowledge and helps beginners build confidence, but it isn’t usually required for the administrator certification. If you can demonstrate the fundamentals, putting your exam budget toward AZ-104 makes sense.

Your existing experience with Azure provisioning and ARM templates is a good starting point, but make sure it covers the full AZ-104 scope. Passing it would generally demonstrate the foundational knowledge tested by AZ-900 as well, so skipping the introductory exam is fine as long as you’re genuinely ready for the associate-level material.

Use the free official learning material for AZ-900 concepts, then concentrate on AZ-104. The administrator exam focuses much more on practical scenarios, so build and manage resources in an Azure environment and practice applying the concepts rather than memorizing definitions.

If you already understand the basic Azure terminology, skipping AZ-900 is reasonable. AZ-104 is generally more valuable on a résumé, but the difficulty jump is significant—probably several times harder. Make sure your preparation includes real hands-on work with virtual machines, VNets, storage accounts, identity, monitoring, ARM templates, and troubleshooting instead of just reading study material.