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Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400) Exam Blueprint

AZ-400

Microsoft

40Questions
100 minDuration
700/1-1000Passing Score
$165Price
12Languages
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Exam Domains

Design and implement processes and communications Design and implement processes and communications 10%
  • Design and implement traceability and flow of workDesign and implement traceability and flow of work
    Design and implement a structure for the flow of work, including GitHub Flow; Design and implement a strategy for feedback cycles, including notifications and GitHub issues; Design and implement integration for tracking work, including GitHub projects, Azure Boards, and repositories; Design and implement source, bug, and quality traceability
  • Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for DevOpsDesign and implement appropriate metrics and queries for DevOps
    Design and implement a dashboard, including flow of work, such as cycle times, time to recovery, and lead time; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for project planning; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for development; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for testing; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for security; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for delivery; Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for operations
  • Configure collaboration and communicationConfigure collaboration and communication
    Document a project by configuring wikis and process diagrams, including Markdown and Mermaid syntax; Configure release documentation, including release notes and API documentation; Automate creation of documentation from Git history; Configure integration by using webhooks; Configure integration between Azure Boards and GitHub repositories; Configure integration between GitHub or Azure DevOps and Microsoft Teams
Design and implement a source control strategy Design and implement a source control strategy 10%
  • Design and implement branching strategies for the source codeDesign and implement branching strategies for the source code
    Design a branch strategy, including trunk-based, feature branch, and release branch; Design and implement a pull request workflow by using branch policies and branch protection rules; Implement branch merging restrictions by using branch policies and branch protection rules
  • Configure and manage repositoriesConfigure and manage repositories
    Design and implement a strategy for managing large files, including Git Large File Storage (LFS) and git-fat; Design a strategy for scaling and optimizing a Git repository, including Scalar and cross-repository sharing; Configure permissions in the source control repository; Configure tags to organize the source control repository; Recover specific data by using Git commands; Remove specific data from source control
Design and implement build and release pipelines Design and implement build and release pipelines 50%
  • Design and implement a package management strategyDesign and implement a package management strategy
    Recommend package management tools including GitHub Packages and Azure Artifacts; Design and implement package feeds and views for local and upstream packages; Design and implement a dependency versioning strategy for code assets and packages, including semantic versioning (SemVer) and date-based (CalVer); Design and implement a versioning strategy for pipeline artifacts
  • Design and implement a testing strategy for pipelinesDesign and implement a testing strategy for pipelines
    Design and implement quality and release gates, including security and governance; Design a comprehensive testing strategy, including local tests, unit tests, integration tests, and load tests; Implement tests in a pipeline, including configuring test tasks, configuring test agents, and integration of test results; Implement code coverage analysis
  • Design and implement pipelinesDesign and implement pipelines
    Select a deployment automation solution, including GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines; Design and implement a GitHub runner or Azure DevOps agent infrastructure, including cost, tool selection, licenses, connectivity, and maintainability; Design and implement integration between GitHub repositories and Azure Pipelines; Develop and implement pipeline trigger rules; Develop pipelines by using YAML; Design and implement a strategy for job execution order, including parallelism and multi-stage pipelines; Develop and implement complex pipeline scenarios, such as hybrid pipelines, VM templates, and self-hosted runners or agents; Create reusable pipeline elements, including YAML templates, task groups, variables, and variable groups; Design and implement checks and approvals by using YAML-based environments
  • Design and implement deploymentsDesign and implement deployments
    Design a deployment strategy, including blue-green, canary, ring, progressive exposure, feature flags, and A/B testing; Design a pipeline to ensure that dependency deployments are reliably ordered; Plan for minimizing downtime during deployments by using load balancing, rolling deployments, and deployment slot usage and swap; Design a hotfix path plan for responding to high-priority code fixes; Design and implement a resiliency strategy for deployment; Implement feature flags by using Azure App Configuration Feature Manager; Implement application deployment by using containers, binaries, and scripts; Implement a deployment that includes database tasks
  • Design and implement infrastructure as code (IaC)Design and implement infrastructure as code (IaC)
    Recommend a configuration management technology for application infrastructure; Implement a configuration management strategy for application infrastructure; Define an IaC strategy, including source control and automation of testing and deployment; Design and implement desired state configuration for environments, including Azure Automation State Configuration, Azure Resource Manager, Bicep, and Azure Machine Configuration; Design and implement Azure Deployment Environments for on-demand self-deployment
  • Maintain pipelinesMaintain pipelines
    Monitor pipeline health, including failure rate, duration, and flaky tests; Optimize a pipeline for cost, time, performance, and reliability; Optimize pipeline concurrency for performance and cost; Design and implement a retention strategy for pipeline artifacts and dependencies; Migrate a pipeline from classic to YAML in Azure Pipelines
Develop a security and compliance plan Develop a security and compliance plan 10%
  • Design and implement authentication and authorization methodsDesign and implement authentication and authorization methods
    Choose between Microsoft Entra service principals and managed identities for Azure resources (system-assigned and user-assigned); Implement and manage GitHub authentication, including GitHub Apps, GITHUB_TOKEN, and personal access tokens; Implement and manage Azure DevOps service connections and personal access tokens; Design and implement permissions and roles in GitHub; Design and implement permissions and security groups in Azure DevOps; Recommend appropriate access levels, including stakeholder access in Azure DevOps and outside collaborator access in GitHub; Configure projects and teams in Azure DevOps
  • Design and implement a strategy for managing sensitive information in automationDesign and implement a strategy for managing sensitive information in automation
    Implement and manage secrets, keys, and certificates by using Azure Key Vault; Implement and manage secrets and secretless authentication (for example, workload identity federation/OpenID Connect) in GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines; Design and implement a strategy for managing sensitive files during deployment, including Azure Pipelines secure files; Design pipelines to prevent leakage of sensitive information
  • Automate security and compliance scanningAutomate security and compliance scanning
    Design a strategy for security and compliance scanning, including dependency, code, secret, and licensing scanning; Configure Microsoft Defender for Cloud DevOps Security; Configure GitHub Advanced Security for both GitHub and Azure DevOps; Integrate GitHub Advanced Security with Microsoft Defender for Cloud; Automate container scanning, including scanning container images and configuring an action to run CodeQL analysis in a container; Automate analysis of licensing, vulnerabilities, and versioning of open-source components by using Dependabot alerts
Implement an instrumentation strategy Implement an instrumentation strategy 5%
  • Configure monitoring for a DevOps environmentConfigure monitoring for a DevOps environment
    Configure Azure Monitor and Azure Monitor Logs to integrate with DevOps tools; Configure collection of telemetry by using Application Insights, VM Insights, Container Insights, Azure Monitor for Storage, and Azure Monitor for Networks; Configure monitoring in GitHub, including enabling insights and creating and configuring charts; Configure alerts for events in GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines
  • Analyze metrics from instrumentationAnalyze metrics from instrumentation
    Inspect infrastructure performance indicators, including CPU, memory, disk, and network; Analyze metrics by using collected telemetry, including usage and application performance; Inspect distributed tracing by using Application Insights; Interrogate logs using basic Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries

Exam Details

Question TypesMultiple Choice, Multiple Response, Drag and Drop, Case Study, Build List, Hot Area, Repeated Answer Choices
FormatLinear
Online ProctoringAvailable
ID RequirementsOne valid, government-issued photo ID. Name on ID must match registration. For online: webcam required, room must be clear of people and materials.
RenewalRequired -- Microsoft certifications (Associate/Expert/Specialty) are renewed annually for free via a short renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn. Renewal assessment available 6 months before expiry. Fundamentals certifications do not expire.
PrerequisitesExperience administering and developing in Azure, with strong skills in GitHub and Azure DevOps solutions
Retake PolicyNo waiting period for first retake if score >= 500 on failed attempt. If score < 500: 14-day waiting period before retake. Maximum 5 attempts per exam per year (365 days). Free retake voucher sometimes included in official instructor-led training.
LanguagesEnglish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Indonesian

Official Study Resources

online courseMicrosoft Learn (free self-paced training) (free)
practice examMicrosoft Official Practice Assessment (free)
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