Recently, Microsoft announced some major changes to their certification program. These changes include retiring many of the existing certifications and exams, and releasing brand new exams and certifications as replacements that follow more of a “job-role” oriented path. These new job-role based certification paths are really great, but this leaves many with existing certifications in a bit of a confused state. Fortunately, Microsoft is offering “Transition” exams that you can take to easily upgrade to the new certification paths if you have previously been certified in Microsoft Azure.
On December 31, 2018, the three existing primary Microsoft Azure certification exams are being retired. These are the 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions, 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Solutions, and 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exams. This can be frustrating for some, but this exam retirement is actually a good thing as these exams were merely a part of larger certifications previously, however, the new certification paths offer replacements that earn you a full certification for each of these 3 expertise areas.
If you have not previously passed the older exams (70-532, 70-533, and 70-535) then I would recommend focusing on the new certification paths instead. However, if you have already passed any of these 3 exams previously, then you have a different option that is the “Transition” exams from Microsoft. The “Transition” exams offer an upgrade path of sorts to go from the expertise proven by passing the old exams and proving your current Microsoft Azure expertise by passing a single exam to earn the latest related certification.
The “Transition” certification exams Microsoft is offering for Microsoft Azure certification is as follows:
- For IT Pros: The AZ-102 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Transition exam can be taken by individuals who have previously passed the old 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions exam. This will upgrade, or Transition, your certification to the newer Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.
- For Developers: The AZ-203 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure certification exam can be taken to earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification. Regardless if you’ve taken 70-532 or not, this single exam will earn the new certification.
- For Architects: The AZ-302 Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Certification Transition exam can be taken by individuals who have previously passed the old 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam. This will upgrade, or Transition, your certification to the newer Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
For those of you who have previously passed the 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam, there is no upgrade / transition path. The 70-534 exam content was too outdated and is the reason why it was replaced with the 70-535 exam about a year ago. The difference between what was covered on the 70-534 and the current AZ-100/AZ-101 exams for the latest certification are too great, so you are better off just taking the latest exams to prove and demonstrate your expertise anyway.
For those of you who have passed one of the more Data and Big Data focused Microsoft Azure exams, there isn’t any upgrade / transition option available yet. The reason for this is that there has not been any new role-based Data or Big Data focused certification paths announced by Microsoft yet. We will all just have to wait a bit longer to hear more about what Microsoft has planned for Data Professionals.
Keep in mind that these Transition exams are only available for a limited time. Originally, Microsoft announced plans to retire the 2 Transition exams listed above on March 31, 2019. However, based on community feedback, Microsoft has announced that they changed plans and are now looking to retire the Transition exams on June 30, 2019. If you’re looking to upgrade / transition your Microsoft Azure certifications, then you’ll want to take the Transition exam for your path before they are retired. Once the retirement date passes, you will no longer be able to take the Transition exams, and will need to instead take the 2 required exams for the certification path you are pursuing.
I hope this clears up some confusion people have about the Transition exams for the new job-role based Microsoft Azure certifications from Microsoft. Happy studying, and good luck on your exam(s)!
For developers is the transition AZ-202 which retires on March 31 and not AZ-203 which is new certification. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/azure-exams.aspx#exam-az-301-section
The AZ-202 transition exam has been retired and replace with just the single AZ-203 exam to earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer certification. This is just a single exam to pass regardless of your previous certifications to earn this new certification path.
Anton is correct, AZ-202 is the transition exam and it will retire on Mar. 31st. By then, may be a replacement exam become available or just relying on AZ-203
Actually Microsoft retired the AZ-200, 201, and 202 exams early since the path to certification wasn’t great. Instead they introduced the AZ-203 exam as a single exam to earn the Azure Developer certification instead. I know there’s some confusion around this, but it really is better this way. Thanks!
Hello Chris i am new to Azure and wish to take exams AZ-100 & AZ-101 please let me know will i be MCP or Azure administrator after passing the above exams.
Also as AZ-102 is retiring what are the other exams that i need to take to be cloud architect?
The Azure Architect path is the AZ-300 and AZ-301 exams. If you are new to Azure, then I’d recommend you take the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam first, before you pursue the more difficult AZ-30x Azure Architect exams.
Hello Chris! I’m MCSE on server 2003 and MCSA on server 2008. I need to upgrade my skills. What azure certifications can i take? I don’t know anything on Azure but i’m very interested.
If you’re new to Azure, and want to pursue Azure certification, then with a Windows Server background I’d recommend the Azure Administrator certification. However, with being new to the cloud, I’d also recommend taking the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam first as a primer to get ready for the Azure cloud before you begin studying for the more difficult AZ-103 exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator certification.
Hi Chris, I was about to take AZ-100 and 103 exams but now these exams are about to retire. I can give before last day. So I have below doubts:
Should i take this exam?
Are there any replacement of these exams?
Exam AZ-103 offers just a single exam to earn the certification. I’d probably just do that. Also, if you fail then you can just retake the same exam you tried the first time. Keep studying up, you can do it!