Category: Microsoft

I took the Microsoft Certified Azure Network Engineer Associate exam recently and these are the study resources I used:

• Pluralsight Microsoft Azure Network Engineer: Design, Implement, and Manage Hybrid Networking (including labs)
• Microsoft Learning AZ-700 Designing and Implementing Microsoft Azure Networking Solutions (free)
• Official Microsoft Certified Azure Network Engineer Associate Practice Exam
• Microsoft Azure Reference Architectures
• Microsoft Azure Design Patterns
• Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
• Microsoft Azure Cloud Adoption Framework
• Microsoft Azure Assessments
• Microsoft Azure Podcast
• Having a generalist understanding of networking (CCNA level) is necessary to be successful with this certification (e.g. DNS, DHCP, RFC 1918 private networks, public networks – ARIN/RIPE, CIDR subnets, firewall rules, Static and BGP routing, NATing, Load Balancing, IEEE 802.1q VLANs, etc.).
• I do not have Azure ExpressRoute in my lab, this was the most challenging part of my study. I had to rely upon videos and documentation to learn about the service, where normally I learn by building, breaking and fixing a service.
• This exam is over 2 hours long and you should have plenty of time to fully read and review each of the 38 questions. Time management is important and using the Flag Question feature of the test platform is the best way to maintain your momentum by answering the questions you are completely sure of and then circling back later to the ones that require more thought (these are the ones you flag). NOTE: Flagging is not supported for all question types (see next point).
• This exam has a different format from the traditional content format you are used to. This exam has the following question types:
  
  1. Design scenario questions with customer requirements and current state information. Each question ties into the proposed scenario and asks you to make selections based upon the defined scenario. My exam had 8 questions related to the design scenario.
  2. Error scenario questions asking if a particular fix would solve the problem as a Yes/No response. Each question has the same error with a different fix for you to assess. My exam had 4 questions related to the error scenario. Question flagging not allowed.
  3. Standard single-choice/multi-choice questions.
  4. Drag and drop items into the correct order.
  5. Drop-down answers to select the correct value from a range.

In summary, I found this exam layout a pleasant surprise and really enjoyed taking this test. Microsoft is certainly focusing on designing exams that are varied with different question types and are less verbose by including succinct diagrams describing the scenario rather than pages of text.