You are probably ready for AZ-104 when you can choose the Azure administrator action before you look at the answer choices. A practice score helps. The better test is whether you can explain the configuration boundary: RBAC or Azure Policy, ZRS or GRS, availability set or zone, private endpoint or service endpoint, metric alert or log query, backup or Site Recovery.
Microsoft's current AZ-104 study guide lists skills measured as of April 17, 2026 across identity and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitor/backup/recovery, and notes that most questions cover generally available features (Microsoft AZ-104 study guide). Microsoft's certification page says AZ-104 is an intermediate Azure Administrator credential and gives candidates 100 minutes for the exam; Microsoft reports technical exam scores on a 1 to 1,000 scale, with 700 or greater required to pass (Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate, Microsoft exam scoring).
The AZ-104 Readiness Shortcut
Use this rule before you schedule: you should be able to solve administrator scenarios across all five domains without turning every miss into a new study topic. One weak domain can be fixed. A pattern of confusing service boundaries means you need another practice loop.
Strong readiness looks like this:
Identity and governance: You can choose the smallest useful RBAC scope, explain inherited role assignments, and separate access control from compliance enforcement. RBAC scope runs from management group down to resource, and lower scopes inherit permissions from higher scopes (Azure RBAC scope).
Storage: You can decide when a storage account needs ZRS, GRS, GZRS, or read-access geo-redundancy, and you can choose the right SAS type without handing out account keys unnecessarily. Read access to a secondary region requires RA-GRS or RA-GZRS (Azure Storage redundancy).
Compute: You can read a VM, VM scale set, App Service, or container scenario and pick the operational move: size, disk, zone, availability set, scale rule, deployment slot, backup, TLS, DNS, or networking. App Service deployment slots need Standard, Premium, or Isolated tiers, and slot settings control what stays pinned during swaps (App Service slots).
Networking: You can troubleshoot from the packet path instead of memorizing product names. VNet peering connects virtual networks over Microsoft's private backbone, and gateway transit lets a peered VNet use a VPN or ExpressRoute gateway (VNet peering).
Monitor, backup, and recovery: You can choose metrics, logs, diagnostic settings, alert rules, action groups, backup policy, restore, and failover without mixing them together. Diagnostic settings route platform metrics, resource logs, or activity log data to destinations such as Log Analytics (diagnostic settings).
What Your Practice Results Should Prove
Do not use one raw percentage as the whole decision. A high score from repeated questions can hide a weak administrator model. A lower score with clean explanations can be easier to fix.
Use four checks:
- You can explain why the correct answer is right.
- You can explain why the tempting wrong answer is wrong.
- You can perform or outline the Azure configuration step without watching a walkthrough.
- Your misses are concentrated enough that you can fix them in one focused pass.
If you miss one storage question because you forgot RA-GZRS terminology, that is a quick fix. If you keep choosing policy when the task is access control, CDN when the task is private PaaS access, or backup when the task is regional failover, you are not ready yet.
A Worked Readiness Example
Suppose your final week practice set looks like this:
Score: 78%.
Misses: three identity/governance, two storage, four networking, one compute, one monitor/backup.
At first glance, 78% looks close. The pattern matters more than the number.
The identity misses are all different: one role assignment at the wrong scope, one tag enforcement question answered with RBAC, and one resource lock question where you ignored delete protection. That says your governance model is still blurry. Fix it before scheduling because AZ-104 puts identity and governance at 20-25% of the exam (Microsoft AZ-104 study guide).
The storage misses are narrow. You selected GRS when the question required read access during a primary-region outage, and you chose an account SAS when a user delegation SAS was available. Those are small fixs: know when read access requires RA-GRS or RA-GZRS, and know why a user delegation SAS is safer when it is available.
The networking misses are the real blocker. You chose VNet peering when the requirement was private access to Azure Storage from a subnet, you changed an NSG rule without checking effective rules, you picked a public load balancer for an internal app, and you missed a gateway transit clue. Those four misses all point to the same packet-path problem.
The useful decision is concrete:
- Delay scheduling for a few days.
- Rebuild the governance model: RBAC controls who can do actions; Azure Policy controls compliant resource state.
- Drill storage redundancy and SAS decisions until the trigger words are obvious.
- Spend most of the fix time on networking path decisions: public vs private endpoint, subnet/NIC NSGs, peering/gateway transit, and internal vs public load balancer.
- Retest with new questions. Schedule only if the networking misses drop and you can explain each remaining miss without rereading the docs.
For AZ-104, readiness means the same mistake pattern should not survive into the real exam.
The Mistake Patterns That Mean Wait
You choose the product before the requirement. AZ-104 answers often hinge on one constraint: scope, region, private access, read access, recovery target, or traffic direction. If you jump to the familiar service name first, you will miss the exact administrator action.
You treat Microsoft Learn completion as proof. Microsoft's AZ-104 prerequisite learning path is useful, and it points learners through identities, governance, storage, compute, networking, and monitor/backup paths (AZ-104 prerequisites). Completion is not the same as readiness. You still need scenario practice where the wording changes.
You cannot state the scope. If an answer involves RBAC, policy, budgets, tags, locks, diagnostic settings, backup policies, alerts, or network rules, ask: at what scope does this apply? Many wrong AZ-104 answers are correct tools placed at the wrong boundary.
You have never practiced what the portal or command looks like. Microsoft expects familiarity with PowerShell, Azure CLI, the Azure portal, ARM templates or Bicep files, and Microsoft Entra ID for AZ-104 (Microsoft AZ-104 study guide). Skip memorizing every command; know what the operation looks like and which resource owns it.
When You Are Ready To Book
Book AZ-104 when your misses are small, explainable, and no longer clustered around a core administrator boundary. A good final check is this:
Can you read a scenario and answer these questions before seeing the options?
- Who needs access, and at what scope?
- Is the requirement governance compliance or identity authorization?
- Is storage protecting against local hardware, zone, or regional failure?
- Is compute asking for resilience, scaling, deployment safety, or OS control?
- Is the network path public, private, peered, load-balanced, or blocked by rules?
- Is the operation monitoring, alerting, backup restore, or disaster-recovery failover?
If yes, schedule. If no, fix the decision boundary first.
Use CramHQ For The Fix Loop
Start the free AZ-104 assessment. The Readiness Report shows the administrator decisions CramHQ would repair first, and the Pass Plan preview gives you the first part of that path before you spend another week rereading everything.
If the report shows one tight gap, fix it and move into targeted practice questions. If it shows scattered misses across identity, storage, compute, networking, and monitor/backup, slow down and rebuild your administrator model.
CramHQ is independent exam-preparation software. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, it does not use exam dumps, and it does not guarantee a pass. Its job here is to help you decide what to fix next.
FAQ
Is AZ-104 mostly hands-on administration?
Yes. AZ-104 expects administrator judgment across identity, governance, storage, compute, networking, monitoring, backup, and recovery. You do not need to memorize every portal blade, but you should know which Azure resource owns the setting or action.
What practice score means I am ready for AZ-104?
No practice score guarantees readiness. Treat a score as useful only when it comes from fresh mixed questions, honest timing, and misses you can explain without rereading the answer key.
Is Microsoft Learn enough for AZ-104?
Microsoft Learn is a strong base, but completion is not the same as exam readiness. Add scenario practice that forces you to choose the exact administrator action instead of recognizing the service name.
Should I take AZ-900 before AZ-104?
AZ-900 can help if you are new to cloud terminology. If you already understand Azure fundamentals, move into AZ-104-style configuration and troubleshooting practice instead of spending too long on beginner definitions.
What should I do if I am unsure today?
Start with the free AZ-104 assessment. Use the Readiness Report to decide whether to book, fix one administrator decision area, or run a final timed simulation after the same miss pattern stops repeating.