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Microsoft AZ-400 Study Guide

Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert AZ-400

Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) is the expert level exam for people who deliver continuous integration, delivery, security and monitoring with Azure DevOps and GitHub. It covers processes and communications, source control, build and release pipelines, security and compliance, and instrumentation. It suits developers and administrators who already work in Azure and want to automate how software reaches production.

  • Exam code AZ-400
  • Expert level
  • 5 exam domains

This guide is free, with no sign-up. It explains every Microsoft AZ-400 exam topic in plain English, one chapter at a time. Read them in order or jump straight to the topic you need.

  • 10chapters
  • 25topics
  • 9diagrams and exhibits
  • 2 h 16 minfast track
Start with Design and implement processes and communications
  • Every topic follows the same simple pattern: what it is, how it works, common mistakes
  • Diagrams and real command output where a picture explains it best
  • Exam tips and worked subnetting and IPv6 practice, with answers

How the exam is weighted

Each domain is worth roughly this share of the exam. The exam provider publishes a range for each domain, so the bar marks the middle of it. Spend your study time in proportion, and select a domain to open its chapter.

Chapters

Open a chapter to see its topics and how long each takes.

1Design and implement processes and communications3 topics · 15 min fast trackFlow of work, traceability, DevOps metrics, dashboards, documentation and team integrations.
  1. 1Traceability and Flow of Work5 min
  2. 2Metrics, Dashboards and Queries for DevOps5 min
  3. 3Documentation, Webhooks and Collaboration Integrations5 min
Read the chapter overview →
2Design and implement a source control strategy3 topics · 15 min fast trackBranching strategies, pull request policies, large files, repository scale, permissions, tags and recovering data.
  1. 1Branching Strategies and Pull Request Policies5 min
  2. 2Large Files, Repository Scale, Permissions and Tags5 min
  3. 3Recovering and Removing Data with Git5 min
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3Pipelines: package management strategy2 topics · 11 min fast trackAzure Artifacts and GitHub Packages, feeds, views, upstream sources, and dependency and artifact versioning.
  1. 1Package Management Tools, Feeds and Upstream Sources6 min
  2. 2Dependency and Artifact Versioning5 min
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4Pipelines: testing strategy2 topics · 10 min fast trackQuality and release gates, a layered test strategy, test tasks and agents, load tests and code coverage analysis.
  1. 1Quality Gates and Release Gates5 min
  2. 2Testing Strategy, Test Tasks and Code Coverage5 min
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5Pipelines: design and implement pipelines3 topics · 16 min fast trackActions versus Azure Pipelines, hosted and self-hosted agents, GitHub integration, YAML triggers and templates.
  1. 1Deployment Automation Tools and Agent Infrastructure6 min
  2. 2GitHub Integration, YAML Pipelines and Triggers5 min
  3. 3Reusable Pipeline Elements, Checks and Approvals5 min
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6Pipelines: design and implement deployments3 topics · 17 min fast trackBlue-green, canary and ring strategies, hotfix paths, feature flags, and deploying containers, scripts and databases.
  1. 1Deployment Strategies and Minimizing Downtime6 min
  2. 2Hotfix Paths, Resiliency and Feature Flags6 min
  3. 3Deploying Containers, Binaries, Scripts and Databases5 min
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7Pipelines: infrastructure as code2 topics · 11 min fast trackBicep, ARM and Terraform, configuration management, desired state, Machine Configuration and ADE.
  1. 1Configuration Management and IaC Strategy5 min
  2. 2Desired State Configuration and Azure Deployment Environments6 min
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8Pipelines: maintain pipelines2 topics · 11 min fast trackHealth and flaky tests, optimizing cost, time and reliability, retention, and migrating classic pipelines to YAML.
  1. 1Pipeline Health and Optimization5 min
  2. 2Artifact Retention and Migrating Classic Pipelines6 min
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9Develop a security and compliance plan3 topics · 18 min fast trackService principals and managed identities, GitHub and Azure DevOps access, secrets, OIDC and security scanning.
  1. 1Authentication and Authorization Methods6 min
  2. 2Managing Secrets and Secretless Authentication6 min
  3. 3Security and Compliance Scanning6 min
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10Implement an instrumentation strategy2 topics · 12 min fast trackAzure Monitor, Application Insights, pipeline alerts, metrics, distributed tracing and basic KQL.
  1. 1Configuring Monitoring for DevOps6 min
  2. 2Analyzing Metrics, Logs and Traces6 min
Read the chapter overview →

Ready for more practice?

The full Microsoft AZ-400 question bank has 766 questions, with timed practice exams and an explanation for every answer.

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