AZ-400 Practice Test

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.