Just recently, I took the exam AZ-900 to receive Azure Fundamentals certification. For most people working in IT, especially in the cloud computing, this means nothing special. In fact, this certification only has a meaning (just a little) when you just start out a career and apply for an entry-level in the IT industry (which gave me more pressure not to fail this one, so I might over-prepare it a bit). To my defense, I took this exam because I had received a free voucher from an event I attended a year ago. I’m the kind of person who constantly looks for ways in either saving money to the max or taking full advantages of anything (or both).

But I also have other reasons why I took this exam and took some lessons along the way, both from a personal and technical point of view.

Personal Point of View

Constant learning is one of my life mottos. You are never too smart not to learn anything from anyone, anywhere. Even though I’ve been working in IT field for 20 years now, I can always learn something new. Perhaps because of that. IT evolves very quickly. What is trending now, could be considered old-fashioned a few years later. So I never take anything for granted.

The next reason is I’m a very curious person, and I have never had a technical certification before. I’m certified in Project Management, IT Process, and Leadership. All are management. Sure, I also possess a Google Analytics certification, but there is nothing technical about it. So, as basic as it is, I got the sense of achievement because Azure Fundamental Certificate is my first ever technical certification.

Speaking of basic, it gets me to my third reason. When I learn something, I like to start from the basic. I need to know why things are made or developed as they are. If you build something without a foundation (aka basic understanding), you rely on luck, not knowing whether you build it on a solid fundament or on a dirt.

Technical Point of View

I already mentioned above, that I might be over-prepared for this exam, because I read each of the learning paths suggested by Microsoft. If there are a few points to take, the most basic ones are very important to master on top of our heads (all sources and content are from Microsoft learning paths).

I’m not saying the other ones are not important; they are very specific and depending on your skills (architect, AI engineer, database developer, project manager, etc.).

Have an overview of Azure subscriptions, management groups and resources

Link: Overview and the difference between Azure tenant, account, and subscription

Understand the cloud service models

Link: Categories of Cloud Services

Understand Azure regions and availability zones

Link: Azure regions and availability zones