Updated for July 2026 Exam Objectives

AZ-400 Practice Test

Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert

AZ-400 is the exam for engineers who design pipelines, not just run them.

The path to the DevOps Engineer Expert certification tests architectural trade-offs across build/release pipelines, branching strategy, secrets management, and security scanning — not just tool syntax. Our 500 scenario-based questions are calibrated to that same design-decision difficulty, so exam day feels familiar.

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Updated for the July 2026 exam blueprint

AZ-400 Exam Details

What to expect on exam day

Questions

Duration

120 minutes

Passing Score

700

Exam Cost

$165

Exam Domains Covered

Master all topics tested on the AZ-400 exam

Design and implement processes and communications (10-15%)

Design and implement a source control strategy (10-15%)

Design and implement build and release pipelines (50-55%)

Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)

Implement an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)

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5 Free AZ-400 Questions

See how ready you are for the AZ-400 exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation so you learn as you go.

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Sample AZ-400 Practice Questions

10 real questions from the free AZ-400bank. Pick an answer in your head, then open “Show answer” for the explanation.

1. A team wants a dashboard widget that shows how long it takes work items to move from their creation date to a Completed state, so they can estimate delivery SLAs for customer-facing requests. Which widget should they add?
- A. The Cycle Time widget
- B. The Velocity widget
- C. The Lead Time widget
- D. The Cumulative Flow Diagram widget
Show answer
Correct answer: C
The Lead Time widget measures the elapsed time from a work item's creation until it reaches a Completed state, which is exactly what is needed to estimate delivery SLAs for customer requests. The Cycle Time widget measures elapsed time only from when a work item enters an active or in-progress state, not from creation, so it undercounts total delivery time. The Velocity widget reports story points completed per sprint, not elapsed time. The Cumulative Flow Diagram shows work item counts by state over time rather than a discrete lead time value.
2. A developer adds a Mermaid flowchart to an Azure DevOps wiki page to document a deployment decision tree. They author the diagram starting with a flowchart TB; declaration, the same way they would in GitHub, but the diagram fails to render in the wiki page preview even though the rest of the syntax, nodes, edges, and arrows, is otherwise valid Mermaid syntax. What should the developer change to make the flowchart render correctly in the Azure DevOps wiki?
- A. Replace the arrows with the LongArrow ----> syntax instead
- B. Replace flowchart with graph as the diagram type keyword
- C. Wrap the diagram in a <div class="mermaid"> HTML tag instead of the ::: container
- D. Add a subgraph block around the nodes before the diagram type declaration
Show answer
Correct answer: B
Azure DevOps wikis provide limited Mermaid syntax support and do not support the flowchart diagram-type keyword; the equivalent flowchart diagrams must instead use graph as the type keyword. The LongArrow ----> syntax is also unsupported, so switching to it would not fix rendering. Azure DevOps wiki Markdown uses the :::mermaid container or a fenced ``mermaid code block, not a raw HTML <div> tag, and interactive HTML is not supported at all. Links to and from a subgraph` diagram type are also unsupported, so adding one introduces a second unsupported feature rather than fixing the rendering issue.
3. A 60-developer engineering group recently split into six feature teams, each owning its own GitHub repository, while the product management organization insists on retaining a single Azure Boards project for portfolio-level roadmap reporting because the company already licenses Azure DevOps for 300 users. Compliance also requires that every merged pull request in each repository be traceable to a specific work item without developers manually pasting URLs. The architect has a $0 budget for new tooling. Which integration approach satisfies all of these constraints?
- A. Connect all six GitHub repositories to the single Azure Boards project and require the AB# mention syntax in pull request descriptions
- B. Create six separate Azure DevOps organizations, one per feature team, and connect each to its own GitHub repository
- C. Replace Azure Boards with GitHub Projects for portfolio reporting and drop the existing Azure DevOps licensing
- D. Connect each GitHub repository to a different Azure Boards project so each feature team manages its own roadmap
Show answer
Correct answer: A
Connecting all six GitHub repositories to the single existing Azure Boards project preserves the portfolio-level roadmap the product organization needs, reuses the Azure DevOps licensing already paid for, and the AB# mention syntax in pull request descriptions creates automatic, auditable links from merged pull requests to work items at no additional tooling cost. Creating six separate organizations fragments the portfolio view the product organization requires. Dropping Azure DevOps licensing for GitHub Projects discards the existing paid investment and loses the portfolio-reporting capability. Connecting each repository to a different Azure Boards project recreates the same fragmentation the single-project requirement was meant to solve.
4. A team wants to trace a specific bug work item forward to the exact commit, pull request, and build that fixed it, viewable directly from the work item form. Which Azure Boards feature provides this?
- A. The Velocity widget
- B. The Security overview Risk tab
- C. The sprint burndown chart
- D. The Development and Deployment sections of the work item form
Show answer
Correct answer: D
The Development and Deployment sections of a work item form show the branches, commits, pull requests, builds, and releases linked to that work item, giving direct forward traceability from a bug to the code and pipeline that fixed it. The Velocity widget tracks story points completed per sprint, not code-level traceability. The Security overview Risk tab summarizes Advanced Security alerts, not work item-to-commit links. The sprint burndown chart tracks remaining work during a sprint, not traceability to specific commits or builds.
5. An operations team wants a single Application Insights metric that reports the percentage of synthetic web tests that completed successfully, to track whether their production web application is reachable from multiple regions. Which metric should they monitor?
- A. Availability test duration
- B. Availability (availabilityResults/availabilityPercentage)
- C. Server response time
- D. Request rate
Show answer
Correct answer: B
The Availability metric, availabilityResults/availabilityPercentage, reports the percentage of web test runs that completed without detecting a problem, exactly the reachability signal the operations team wants. Availability test duration measures how long each web test took to run, not whether it succeeded. Server response time measures backend latency rather than synthetic test outcomes. Request rate measures traffic volume, not test success percentage.

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6. A financial-services company runs 40 developers against a single Azure Repos Git repository shared across six feature teams. The organization must comply with SOX change-control requirements that mandate every change to the default branch pass through an approved, auditable review. Teams currently batch work into monthly releases coordinated through a release branch, but leadership wants to move to multiple production deployments per day without abandoning the audit trail. Existing pipeline investment in Azure Pipelines YAML must be preserved. Which branching approach should the architect recommend?
- A. Migrate to GitFlow with dedicated develop, release, and hotfix branches to preserve a monthly release cadence
- B. Adopt GitHub Flow with branch policies that require pull request approval and passing builds before merging to main
- C. Adopt a fork-based workflow where each team maintains an independent fork merged quarterly
- D. Continue the release-branch workflow but add manual sign-off meetings before each monthly release
Show answer
Correct answer: B
GitHub Flow combined with Azure Repos branch policies that require pull request approval and successful build validation before merge supports frequent deployments while keeping every change to main auditable, satisfying the SOX control without discarding the Azure Pipelines YAML investment. GitFlow preserves the monthly cadence the company wants to move away from. A fork-based workflow reintroduces long merge delays that conflict with multiple daily deployments. Continuing the release-branch pattern with manual sign-off meetings does not remove the monthly batching problem the company is trying to solve.
7. A team configures the GitHubRelease@1 task to create a GitHub release in its pipeline, specifying the tag, title, and asset files, but does not set the addChangeLog input at all. What happens to the release notes when the pipeline runs?
- A. The release publishes with no release notes, since a changelog input was not explicitly configured
- B. The task fails validation, because addChangeLog is a required input with no default
- C. The task automatically generates a changelog of commits and issues since the comparison release and appends it to the release notes
- D. The task pauses the pipeline until a user manually approves the release notes content
Show answer
Correct answer: C
addChangeLog defaults to true, so unless it is explicitly disabled, the task automatically computes a changelog of commits and issues since the comparison release (the last full release, by default) and appends it to the release notes with no manual input needed. The first two options are wrong because they describe either no default behavior or a required input, when in fact a default of true applies automatically. The fourth option describes an approval gate, which is not part of this task's changelog generation behavior.
8. A support engineer opens a GitHub issue, a second engineer is later assigned to it, and a third engineer only views the issue without commenting or being assigned. Which engineer must manually select Subscribe to receive future notifications on that issue?
- A. The engineer who opened the issue, since authorship doesn't create a subscription
- B. The engineer who was assigned, since assignment doesn't create a subscription until the item is resolved
- C. The engineer who viewed the issue without commenting or being assigned
- D. The engineer who added a follow-up comment after the issue closed
Show answer
Correct answer: C
GitHub automatically subscribes a user to an issue when they open it, comment on it, or are assigned to it; simply viewing an issue without any of those interactions does not create a subscription, so that engineer must manually select Subscribe to get future updates. The engineer who opened the issue is auto-subscribed at creation, contradicting the premise that authorship doesn't subscribe them. The assigned engineer is auto-subscribed at assignment regardless of resolution state. The engineer who added a follow-up comment is auto-subscribed the moment they comment, even after the issue closes.
9. An engineering director overseeing 30 developers across two acquired codebases wants a development-stage metric that flags pipelines with a rising failure trend before they become a bottleneck, specifically identifying which individual pipeline tasks are responsible for the most failures, so the platform team can prioritize fixes without waiting for a quarterly retrospective. Both codebases already run on Azure Pipelines and the director has ruled out purchasing a new APM tool this quarter. Which built-in report should the platform team rely on?
- A. The Pipeline pass rate report, which trends failure rate over a configurable period and lists top failing tasks with their failed runs
- B. The Velocity widget, which trends story points completed per sprint across both codebases
- C. The Security overview Risk tab, which trends open, new, dismissed, and fixed alert counts
- D. The sprint burndown chart, which trends remaining work against the ideal trend line
Show answer
Correct answer: A
The Pipeline pass rate report trends pipeline failure rate over a configurable period, for example 7, 14, or 30 days, and lists the top failing tasks and their failed runs, giving the platform team the early, task-level failure signal they need without new tooling spend. The Velocity widget reports planning throughput, not pipeline health. The Security overview Risk tab trends security alert counts, unrelated to pipeline failures. The sprint burndown chart tracks sprint scope completion, not build pipeline reliability.
10. A retail company ships to three release environments, staging, canary, and production, using classic release pipelines and wants a single dashboard widget showing, for each environment, the current release status and how far each in-flight release has progressed, without building a custom report, given a $0 discretionary budget this quarter for new widgets or extensions. Which built-in widget satisfies this?
- A. The Release Pipeline Overview widget, showing the release as a series of environments with current status
- B. The Build History widget, showing a histogram of completed builds for the staging pipeline
- C. The Cycle Time widget, filtered to release work item types
- D. The Security overview Coverage tab
Show answer
Correct answer: A
The Release Pipeline Overview widget displays a release as a series of environments with the current status and progress of each, matching the requirement at no additional licensing cost since it ships with Azure DevOps dashboards. The Build History widget is a histogram of build runs for one pipeline and does not show environment-by-environment release progress. The Cycle Time widget reports work item elapsed time, not release environment status. The Security overview Coverage tab reports Advanced Security feature enablement, unrelated to release progress.

AZ-400 study resources

Why Practice with MSCertQuiz?

Microsoft Learn teaches concepts. We prepare you for the actual exam.

Scenario-based questions on pipeline design, branching strategy, and deployment patterns — not just YAML syntax recall

Deep coverage of the exam's heaviest domain (build and release pipelines, 50-55% of the exam) including multi-stage YAML, environments, and reusable templates

Explanations cover the architectural trade-offs Microsoft actually tests — why one deployment strategy or secrets pattern beats another under given constraints

Updated for the July 27, 2026 exam objectives, including current GitHub Advanced Security and Dependabot scope

Aligned to Microsoft's "skills measured as of" update: July 27, 2026

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What Our Users Say

89% pass rate — Based on users who completed at least 2 practice exams

“The multi-stage YAML pipeline and deployment strategy questions were exactly the kind of design-tradeoff thinking the real exam demands. Passed AZ-400 with 810.”

Daniel K.

DevOps Engineer Expert

“I came from AZ-104 and still underestimated how much of AZ-400 is architecture, not tooling. The security-scanning and secrets-management scenarios here matched the real exam closely.”

Lena T.

Passed AZ-400 first try

“The branching-strategy and release-gate questions forced me to actually reason through trade-offs instead of memorizing feature names. That's exactly what showed up on exam day.”

Omar M.

AZ-400 Certified

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AZ-400 Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the AZ-400 DevOps Solutions certification

What is AZ-400?

AZ-400 (Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions) is Microsoft's Expert-level exam covering DevOps process design and implementation across GitHub and Azure DevOps. It tests source control strategy, build and release pipeline design, package management, security and compliance scanning, and instrumentation — with an emphasis on the "why" behind architectural choices, not just tool configuration steps.

Do I need a prerequisite before taking AZ-400?

There is no enforced prerequisite to register for AZ-400, but the DevOps Engineer Expert certification requires you to also hold an active Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Azure Developer Associate certification. Microsoft designed AZ-400 assuming that operational Azure background, so most candidates take AZ-104 first.

How hard is the AZ-400 exam?

AZ-400 is an Expert-level exam and one of the more demanding Microsoft certifications. Over half the exam (50-55%) is the build and release pipelines domain, which tests multi-stage YAML pipelines, deployment strategies, and complex scenarios like hybrid pipelines and self-hosted agents — not simple recall. Most candidates with hands-on Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions experience spend 2-3 months preparing.

How much does the AZ-400 exam cost and how long is it?

The AZ-400 exam costs $165 USD and runs 120 minutes, with a passing score of 700 out of 1000. Pricing can vary slightly by country — confirm the exact current price on the official Microsoft Learn scheduling page for your region before booking.

What topics are covered on AZ-400?

AZ-400 covers five domains: Design and implement processes and communications (10-15%) — flow of work, GitHub Flow, and DevOps metrics/dashboards; Design and implement a source control strategy (10-15%) — branching strategy and repository management; Design and implement build and release pipelines (50-55%, the largest domain) — package management, pipeline testing, YAML pipelines, deployment strategies, infrastructure as code, and pipeline maintenance; Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%) — authentication/authorization, secrets management, and security scanning with GitHub Advanced Security and Microsoft Defender for Cloud; and Implement an instrumentation strategy (5-10%) — Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and KQL log queries.

What changed in the July 27, 2026 AZ-400 update?

The July 27, 2026 skills update is mostly a terminology refresh — telemetry services are now named with their full "Azure Monitor" / "Azure" prefixes (e.g., Azure Monitor Application Insights, Azure VM Insights). The one substantive scope change: the Dependabot bullet under security scanning narrowed to vulnerability detection only — license and version-compliance scanning are no longer part of that specific bullet's scope.

Is AZ-400 worth it in 2026?

Yes. AZ-400 leads to the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification, one of the most recognized Expert-level credentials for engineers who own CI/CD pipelines, release engineering, and DevSecOps practices. It signals you can design — not just operate — build/release pipelines, security scanning strategy, and deployment patterns across both GitHub and Azure DevOps, which is increasingly a distinct, higher-paid role from general cloud administration.

How is AZ-400 different from AZ-104 or AZ-305?

AZ-104 (Associate) tests implementing and managing Azure infrastructure. AZ-305 (Expert) tests designing Azure infrastructure architecture. AZ-400 (Expert) is a different axis entirely — it tests designing the DevOps process itself: source control strategy, CI/CD pipeline architecture, release gates, security scanning, and deployment patterns across GitHub and Azure DevOps. A candidate can be a strong Azure architect (AZ-305) without ever having designed a release pipeline, and vice versa — the two Expert exams test complementary but distinct skill sets.

Also Preparing For

Candidates studying AZ-400 often prepare for these certifications next.

AZ-104

Azure Administrator

Practice test →AZ-305

Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

Practice test →GH-900

GitHub Fundamentals

Practice test →