Do I Need to Learn AZ-900 Before Taking AZ-104?

You don’t really need AZ-900 before AZ-104 if you're aiming for admin work. It’s more of a general overview. If you already have some IT background, you could get through AZ-104 fairly quickly with intensive studying, but it does cover a lot. Just a heads up, the job market's pretty competitive right now, so keep that in mind! Good luck on your journey!

Microsoft Learn is a great resource, and you should definitely utilize the free Azure credits they give to new users. The AZ-900 can help familiarize you with the platform if you're starting from scratch. That said, AZ-104 is pretty demanding, especially without any professional experience, but it's still possible to succeed if you prepare well!

AZ-900 is mostly about understanding licenses and features, which is good but not necessarily job-ready knowledge. For AZ-104, having some hands-on Azure experience is crucial. Practical use is key—knowing how to manage the platform rather than just where things are located. You can absolutely learn from YouTube; John Savill has fantastic content for getting your head around these concepts!

Starting with AZ-900 helps with the foundational knowledge if you're totally new. I did it and found it prepared me well for AZ-104. It's not a must, but definitely a good stepping stone. Once you're through with AZ-900, definitely try out the practice exams for AZ-104; they'll really orient you to the structure of the actual test!

While AZ-900 isn't mandatory, I went through it to get a solid overview, and it took me about a month to learn AZ-104 after that. I started with John Savill's videos and dove into hands-on practice with an Azure subscription. Having some cloud experience helped, but if you stick to it, you can definitely manage both!