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Microsoft Azure Certification Exams Get Major ARM Refresh

By | November 7, 2016 - 9:43 AM EST (15:43 UTC)
Categories: Architecture, Certification, Development, Infrastructure & Compute

Microsoft Azure Certification Exams Get Major ARM Refresh

Over the last 2 years, since the 3 core Microsoft Azure certification exams were originally published there have been a tremendous amount of changes to the Microsoft Azure platform and ecosystem. These 3 core exams targeted towards Architecture, Infrastructure, and Developer roles were originally published before Azure Resource Manager (ARM) existed and fully covered Azure Service Manager (ASM). Not only has ARM been released since then, but also a very large number of new Microsoft Azure services have been released too! Newer services like Azure Functions, Logic Apps, DocumentDB, and others weren’t covered on these original exams.

However, these core Azure certification exams have been updated a couple times over the last 2 years. This has kept them relevant over the years, but the most recent previous update was published in March 2016, and it didn’t even full cover Azure Resource Manager (ARM) as well as a few other features and services. Since that latest update was about 8 months ago, it really is time for another refresh, and hopefully one that add much more than the last.

Luck is in our favor, as Microsoft will be publishing another new update / refresh to these 3 core Microsoft Azure certification exams on November 22, 2016. This update will include major ARM updates, including the removal of the old Azure Service Management (ASM) APIs, as well as the inclusion of Azure Functions, Logic Apps, DocumentDB, and other newer Azure services.

Microsoft will be publishing another new update / refresh to these 3 core Microsoft Azure certification exams on November 22, 2016.

For a full listing of the new exam objectives on these exams, see these links:

In addition to these 3 core Microsoft Azure exams, there have been 2 additional Big Data focused exams released. These 2 exams have been out for about a year now, and are not getting updated right now. I would expect these to be updated sometime in the next few months, perhaps. Here’s links to further information on these 2 Big Data focused exams:

Also, Microsoft recently announced some major changes to the Microsoft Certification program that greatly embeds the Azure exams into the various certification tracks. Along with these announcements was the release of the brand new Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Cloud Platform and Infrastructure certification,and a few Microsoft Certified Solution Associates (MCSA) certifications it builds on top of.

There’s been lots changing technology-wise, as well as many major certification changes lately!

Happy studying!

About the Author

Microsoft MVP

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.
HashiCorp Ambassador Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect

8 Comments

  1. Oliver Asmus (@OliverAsmus)
    Oliver Asmus (@OliverAsmus) on November 7, 2016 at 9:53 am

    Thanks for the great summary post! I recently passed the 532 and 533 exams and have spent the last few weeks focused on 534. Was planning on taking it early December, but now it looks like I may have to push this out to study for the ARM topics.

    • Chris Pietschmann
      Chris Pietschmann on November 7, 2016 at 9:59 am

      Thanks! Yeah, unless you can cram it in before Nov 22; but that may be a bit difficult. 🙂

  2. glenn
    glenn on November 7, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    Hello. Do you recommend any up to date study guides/books for 70-533. Also, do you know if MSFT with be updating their MOC courseware as a result

    • Chris Pietschmann
      Chris Pietschmann on November 7, 2016 at 8:47 pm

      I don’t know if / when Microsoft will be updating their MOC courseware, or when we might see more updated exam prep material on the Microsoft Virtual Academy either. This goes for all 3 of the Azure certification exams. However, Opsgility (http://opsgility.com) has a lot of training content that’s updated much more frequently.

      The current 70-533 exam guide book is really outdated, and I don’t know of any plans for MS Press to be updating the book either. The exam prep materials for these exams are in rough shape at the moment, but like I mentioned Opsgility has lots of training content that’s worth looking at.

  3. Andrew Specterman
    Andrew Specterman on November 15, 2016 at 6:42 pm

    Thank you for the heads up – already passed 533 & 534 over the past 6 weeks with 532 booked for this Friday!

    Not a fan of all the scripts having spent the last 18 months in ARM – so here’s hoping I pass otherwise I’ll be having to resit the new 532 exam for ARM, but at least now I am prepared for the change – considered a reschedule for next week, but will attempt the older exam first.

  4. Peter P
    Peter P on November 15, 2016 at 9:54 pm

    I am definitely interested in seeing this space as I was about 50% of the way through understanding the 70-532 (first exam I was going to pursue)…but now I am uncertain if I need to pivot.