The Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500) certification exam tests and validates a candidates expertise at implementing security controls, and maintaining security, and identity, access and protections within Microsoft Azure. This is the required exam necessary for earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification.

Certification Target Audience

The Microsoft Azure Security Technologies certification exam (AZ-500) is geared towards Security Engineers who implement security controls, maintain the security posture, manages identity and access, and protects data, applications, and networks. These candidates should be able to identify and remediate vulnerabilities by using a variety of security tools, implement threat protection, and respond to security incident escalations.

Azure Security Engineers will generally serve as part of a larger team that’s dedicated to managing cloud-based systems and security. They might also be involved in securing hybrid cloud environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.

Exam Objective Domains

Here’s a high level list of all the skills and objectives measured by the AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies certification exam. The percentages next to each exam objective area represents the portion of the exam that focuses on that particular objective area.

Manage Identity and Access (25-30%)

• Manage identities in Azure AD
• Manage authentication by using Azure AD
• Manage authorization by using Azure AD
• Manage application access in Azure AD

Secure networking (20-25%)

• Plan and implement security for virtual networks
• Plan and implement security for private access to Azure resources
• Plan and implement security for public access to Azure resources

Secure compute, storage, and databases (20-25%)

• Plan and implement advanced security for compute
• Plan and implement security for storage
• Plan and implement security for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance

Manage security operations (25-30%)

• Plan, implement, and manage governance for security
• Manage security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Configure and manage threat protection by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Configure and manage security monitoring and automation solutions

To view the most up-to-date list of these exam objectives, please reference the official AZ-500 exam page.

Exam Prep Session

Here’s a great exam prep session you can watch from John Savill over on YouTube. This exam prep takes you through many of the exam objectives at a high level. It was recorded in February 2022, so it’s a little older, and the exam objectives were updated in February 2023. As you prepare for the exam and watch this prep video, you’ll want to double check the AZ-500 exam objectives to make sure you are covering all of them appropriately.

Happy studying!

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