Yesterday I cleared the **70-532 Develping Microsoft Azure Solutions **exam, and I want to share with you tips about the exam and the resources I used to study:

Should you take the exam?

If you are a Developer or Software Architect looking to validate your Microsoft Azure skills then this exam is for you. Also note that Microsoft expects you to:

  • Be proficient with Azure development tools and techniques.
  • Have experience developing scalable and resilient solutions with Azure.

Skills measured:

  • Design and implement websites (15-20%)
  • Create and manage virtual machines (20-25%)
  • Design and implement cloud services (20-25%)
  • Design and implement a storage strategy (20-25%)
  • Manage application and network services (15-20%)

Books:

  • Exam Ref 70-532 Develping Microsoft Azure Solutions as all Exam Ref books it’s an important resource for studying but it’s not a complete Training Guide so reading and practicing with other resources is important.
  • Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure and Microsoft Azure Essentials Azure Web Apps for Developers, both great introductory books that you can find in the Microsoft Virtual Academy along with many other free e-books

Courses:

The Microsoft Virtual Academy is a place filled with great training material and best of all it’s free! Here is the list of courses I completed before the exam:

  • Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions
  • Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
  • Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: WebSites

Practice tests:

Just like for any certification exam, studying with practice tests is key to success.

  • MesureUp 70-532 Practice Test: contains 152 questions.

Hands On:

Be sure to get some hands on experience!

  • Learn those PowerShell commands and don’t forget that Azure CLI does exists.
  • Developing AzureBus was key to understand and master Azure Service Bus Topics, Queues and Subscriptions concepts.
  • I also created my own storage samples to get experience with Shared Access Signatures (SAS) and custom policies.

Hope it helps!