The AZ-201 Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification exam tests and validates your expertise as an Azure Developer. This exam tests your expertise across all phases of the Azure development process; from solution design, to development and deployment, to testing and maintenance.

EXAM IS RETIRED: The AZ-203 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure exam was rolled out as a replacement for the AZ-200 + AZ-201 or AZ-203 exams for earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification. This was a move to simplify the process to earning this certifications based on feedback from those who have taken the exams while they were in a “Beta” state. Thanks to those early certification achievers, we all have a simplified process to follow now.

Certification Target Audience

The AZ-201 Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification exam is geared towards Azure Developers who advice stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions.

Candidates knowledge in all phases of Azure development, including:

• Solution design
• Development and deployment
• Testing and maintenance

Additionally, candidates should be proficient in developing applications and services using Azure tools and technologies including:

• Storage
• Security
• Compute
• Communications

Skills Measured

Here’s a very high level list of the skills and objectives measured on this AZ-201 Microsoft Azure Developer Advanced Solutions certification exam. The percentages next to each objective area represents the number of questions on the exam in that objective area.

Develop for an Azure cloud model (50-55%)

• Develop for asynchronous processing
  • May include but not limited to: Implement parallelism, multithreading, processing, durable functions, Azure logic apps, interfaces with storage, interfaces to data access, and appropriate asynchronous compute models
• Develop for autoscaling
  • May include but not limited to: Implement autoscaling rules and patterns (schedule, operational/system metrics, code that addresses singleton application instances, and code that addresses transient state
• Develop long-running tasks
  • May include but not limited to: Implement large-scale, parallel, and high-performance apps by using batches; implement resilient apps by using queues; implement code to address application events by using web hooks; address continuous processing tasks by using web jobs
• Implement distributed transactions
  • May include but not limited to: Identify tools to implement distributed transactions (e.g., ADO.NET, elastic transactions, multi-database transactions); manage transaction scope; manage transactions across multiple databases and servers
• Enable search of textual content
  • May include but not limited to: Create an Azure Search index by using code, Azure Portal, etc.; import searchable data by using code, Azure Portal, etc.; query the Azure Search index by using code
• Instrument an app or service and implement logging
  • May include but not limited to: Configure instrumentation in an app or service by using Application Insights and other tools; configure logging service by using Application Insights, Azure Alerts, Azure Dashboards, Metrics Explorer, and other tools (e.g., ELK)

Implement cloud integration solutions (25-30%)

• Manage APIs by using API Management (APIM)
  • May include but not limited to: Analyze recommendations on security center; create an APIM instance; configure authentication for APIs; create an API gateway; define policies for APIs
• Configure a message-based integration architecture
  • May include but not limited to: Configure an app or service to send emails, Event Grid, and the Azure Relay Service; create and configure a Notification Hub, an Event Hub, and a Service Bus; configure queries across multiple products; configure an app or service with Microsoft Graph
• Develop an application message model
  • May include but not limited to: Create a message schema and a message exchange; create an event model; create topics and subscriptions

Develop Azure Cognitive Services, Bot, and IoT solutions (20-25%)

• Integrate Azure Cognitive Services in an application
  • May include but not limited to: Develop solutions by using intelligent algorithms that identify items from images and videos; develop solutions by using intelligent algorithms related to speech, natural language processing, Bing Search, and recommendations and decision making
• Create and integrate bots
  • May include but not limited to: Create a bot by using the Bot Framework; create a natural language conversation flow; manage bots by using the Azure Portal; register a bot by using the Bot Framework
• Create and implement IoT solutions
  • May include but not limited to: Configure Azure Time Series Insights; configure Stream Analytics service for inputs and outputs; establish bidirectional communication with IoT devices by using IoT Hub; register devices with IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service

To view the full list of these exam objectives, and to schedule to take the exam, please reference the official AZ-201 exam page.

Azure Developer Associate Certification

This is one of a total of 2 exams required to pass in order to earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification. The other exam is the AZ-200 Microsoft Azure Developer Core Solutions exam. One you pass both individual exams, then you will earn the full Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification.

This Azure Developer Associate certification is part of a large restructuring of the Microsoft Certifications on a more job-role specific orientation.

Happy Studying!

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