MicrosoftAvailable
AZ-104
AZ-400 Exam Guide: Pipelines-First 8-Week Study Plan
Direct answer: AZ-400 (Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions) needs a score of 700 to pass, and half of it is build and release pipelines. Microsoft's list price is $165.00, and our voucher costs $44.99. Plan about 64 hours over 8 weeks, with roughly half spent on pipelines.
What AZ-400 proves and who it fits
AZ-400 proves you can design and implement Microsoft DevOps solutions. Passing it is part of the requirements for the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification. The official exam page is the place to confirm current details.
Microsoft describes the role as a developer or infrastructure administrator who also works with people, processes and products. The goal is continuous delivery of value. You cover continuous security, integration, testing, delivery, deployment, monitoring and feedback.
The exam suits you if you work on cross-functional teams with developers, site reliability engineers, Azure administrators and security engineers. Microsoft expects experience both administering and developing in Azure, with strong skills in at least one. You should also have experience implementing both GitHub and Azure DevOps solutions.
Skills measured and what each weight means for your time
The English version of the exam was updated on July 27, 2026. Make sure any course, book or notes match the "Skills measured as of July 27, 2026" in the official study guide.
Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
Design and implement processes and communications | 10–15% |
Design and implement a source control strategy | 10–15% |
Design and implement build and release pipelines | 50–55% |
Develop a security and compliance plan | 10–15% |
Implement an instrumentation strategy | 5–10% |
Pipelines carry more than half of the exam. A student who knows branching and wikis well but is weak on YAML pipelines is exposed.
The study guide splits the pipelines area into three groups:
Package management: GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts, feeds and views, and versioning with semantic versioning (SemVer) and date-based (CalVer).
Testing strategy: quality and release gates, unit, integration and load tests, test agents, and code coverage.
Pipelines: choosing between GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines, runner and agent infrastructure, triggers, and YAML.
The other areas include GitHub Flow, Azure Boards integration, dashboards with cycle time, lead time and time to recovery, wikis with Markdown and Mermaid, webhooks, branch policies, Git LFS, Scalar, and recovering or removing data with Git.
Exam format, languages and prerequisites
Passing score: 700.
Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional) and Italian.
Retirement date: none listed.
Localized versions: updated about eight weeks after the English version, though Microsoft says that schedule can slip.
Language support: if the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes.
Formal prerequisites: none listed. The experience above is the practical bar.
The bullets under each skill illustrate how Microsoft assesses it, and related topics may appear. Most questions cover generally available features. Preview features can appear if they are commonly used. Check the official exam page for current exam details before you book.
Microsoft recommends registering with a personal Microsoft account. If you use a work or school account, your exam records can be lost when you leave the organization.
Cost: Microsoft's list price against our voucher
Price depends on the country or region where you take the exam. Microsoft's USD list price is $165.00 (Microsoft official exam price, as published by the vendor). Our AZ-400 voucher costs $44.99.
Here is how the voucher works:
It is valid for 12 months and redeemed with Pearson VUE.
We email the code within 12 hours of payment. It also appears in your account.
You can cancel an order for a full refund before delivery.
A delivered code is non-refundable unless the test provider rejects it as invalid, already used or expired on first use.
In that case, contact support within 14 days with your order number and a screenshot. We replace or refund the code.
Full terms are on the refund and delivery pages. Buy only when your exam window fits inside the 12 months.
An 8-week study plan with weekly hours
This plan is a suggestion, not a Microsoft schedule. It assumes you already use Azure and Git at work and can give 8 hours a week, 64 hours in total. Pipelines get half the time because they carry 50–55% of the exam.
Week | Focus | Hours |
|---|---|---|
1 | Source control: branch strategies, pull request policies, LFS, permissions, tags | 8 |
2 | Processes and communications: GitHub Flow, Azure Boards, dashboards, wikis, webhooks | 8 |
3 | Package management: feeds, upstream sources, SemVer and CalVer | 8 |
4 | Testing in pipelines: test tasks, code coverage, quality gates | 8 |
5 | Pipelines in YAML: triggers, templates, GitHub Actions against Azure Pipelines | 8 |
6 | Runners and agents, release strategy, deployment patterns | 8 |
7 | Security and compliance plan | 8 |
8 | Instrumentation, then a practice assessment and review of weak areas | 8 |
If you are newer to Azure, stretch this to 12 weeks rather than raising weekly hours. Hands-on practice should take at least half of each week.
Use Microsoft's free resources alongside the plan:
Work through the AZ-400 exam prep videos and the study guide on Microsoft Learn.
Try the new Practice Assessment on AI Skills Navigator. It more closely matches the exam experience.
Open the exam sandbox to see the exam interface before test day.
The legacy Practice Assessment at https://aka.ms/AZ400-LearnPA is no longer updated, so treat it as secondary.
Git commands worth practicing
The study guide lists recovering and removing data with Git, plus large file handling. Run these in a throwaway repository until they feel routine.
git reflog
git switch -c recovered HEAD@{2}
git lfs track "*.psd"
git lfs ls-files
git tag -a v1.2.0 -m "Release 1.2.0"
git filter-repo --path secrets.txt --invert-pathsgit reflog helps you find a lost commit. git switch -c then restores it onto a new branch. git lfs track moves large binaries out of normal history. git filter-repo rewrites history to remove a file, so use it on a clone and never on shared work without a plan. Knowing when to revert and when to rewrite is the kind of judgment the exam tests.
For pipelines, write at least one YAML pipeline from scratch with a trigger, a test stage and a gated deployment. Then rebuild the same flow in GitHub Actions. Comparing both is faster than reading about them.
Common mistakes
Studying old material. The exam changed on July 27, 2026. Check every resource against the current skills list.
Spending equal time on every area. Pipelines are about half the exam, so weight your hours that way.
Knowing only one platform. Microsoft expects GitHub and Azure DevOps experience, so practice both.
Reading without building. Scenario questions are hard to answer if you have never fixed a failing pipeline.
Skipping the sandbox. Seeing the interface once removes avoidable stress on exam day.
Booking with a work account. Use a personal Microsoft account so your records stay yours.
After you pass: renewal and next steps
Microsoft associate, expert and specialty certifications expire annually. You renew by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn, as described on the renewal page. Connect your certification profile to your Microsoft Learn profile so you can share and print certificates.
If security is your next step, our AZ-500 exam guide covers Azure security skills. You can also browse our DevOps and development certifications.
Sources
Questions about this topic
Is AZ-400 hard for someone without DevOps experience?
It is demanding without hands-on work. Microsoft expects experience administering and developing in Azure, plus GitHub and Azure DevOps solutions. Build real pipelines in a free or trial environment before you book.
Which topic should I study first?
Start with source control, because branching and pull request policies feed into later pipeline work. Move to pipelines early after that, since they make up 50–55% of the exam.
Do I need a personal or work account to register?
Microsoft strongly recommends a personal Microsoft account. With a work or school account, your exam records can be lost and become unrecoverable if you leave your organization.
What happens if my voucher code is rejected?
If the test provider rejects it as invalid, already used or expired on first use, contact support within 14 days. Send your order number and a screenshot, and we replace or refund the code.
Can I take the exam in a language other than English?
Yes, nine other languages are listed, including German, French, Spanish and Japanese. Localized versions update about eight weeks after English. If yours isn't offered, you can request an extra 30 minutes.
