You have AZ-104 practice results in hand, and the next decision is whether to book. As a CramHQ rule of thumb, you are probably ready when two fresh, timed practice sets sit at about 80% or better and the questions you got wrong come from a handful of small gaps. You are not ready yet if one domain keeps producing the same kind of error, or if the explanations only make sense while you are reading them.
Microsoft gives candidates 100 minutes for AZ-104 (Microsoft AZ-104 exam page), and the exam covers five skill areas (Microsoft AZ-104 study guide): managing Azure identities and governance, implementing and managing storage, deploying and managing compute resources, implementing and managing virtual networking, and monitoring and maintaining Azure resources. Your result comes back on a scaled 1 to 1,000 score, with 700 required to pass. The scaled score may not equal 70% of the points (Microsoft exam scoring and score reports), so a practice percentage is a benchmark, not a pass line.
Only count practice tests that were actually new
Use your last two practice exams for this check. Count them only if:
- You had not seen the questions before.
- You finished each exam in one sitting.
- You did not use notes, documentation, or search.
- You used a realistic time limit.
- The questions were mixed across the full AZ-104 syllabus.
Repeated questions are useful for learning, but they are poor evidence of readiness. Once you remember that a particular question has "private endpoint" as the answer, it no longer proves that you could solve a new private-access scenario.
This is also why one strong result is not enough. A single test can lean toward topics you know well. Two fresh attempts make it less likely that the score came from a friendly question mix.
Audit every wrong answer
Do not just read the explanation and move on. For each wrong answer, answer three questions:
- What detail in the question should have led me to the right answer?
- Why was my answer wrong in this specific scenario?
- Could I solve a similar question tomorrow if the wording and resources changed?
Then label the wrong answer:
- Missing fact: You forgot a feature, limit, command, or setting.
- Concept confusion: You could not distinguish between two plausible Azure options.
- Reading mistake: You knew the material but missed a requirement such as least privilege, private access, regional failure, or minimizing administration.
A handful of missing facts is normal near the end of your preparation. Look them up, make a short note, and retest later.
Concept confusion is a bigger problem. If you repeatedly mix up RBAC and Azure Policy, NSGs and routes, or Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, reviewing the individual questions will not be enough. Compare the services directly: what each one controls, where it applies, and what wording should make you choose it.
Reading mistakes depend on frequency. One careless answer happens. Five in the same exam usually means you are rushing or failing to identify the main requirement before looking at the options.
Know what a weak domain looks like
Microsoft's current AZ-104 study guide lists these weights for skills measured as of April 17, 2026:
| Area | Exam weight | Signs you should keep studying |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20-25% | You confuse access control with compliance, ignore scope and inheritance, or use RBAC when the requirement calls for Policy, locks, or tags. |
| Implement and manage storage | 15-20% | You guess at redundancy options, cannot choose an appropriate SAS or identity-based access method, or mix up protection features such as soft delete, versioning, and replication. |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20-25% | You confuse availability sets, zones, and scale sets; App Service apps and plans; or the roles of Container Registry, Container Instances, and Container Apps. |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15-20% | You change an NSG without checking effective rules, confuse routes with security rules, or struggle to choose among peering, private endpoints, service endpoints, and load balancers. |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10-15% | You treat metrics, logs, diagnostic settings, and alerts as interchangeable, or choose Azure Backup when the requirement is disaster-recovery failover. |
These are the current published ranges, not a promise about the exact mix on an individual exam. Check the official AZ-104 study guide again near your test date because Microsoft updates the measured skills periodically.
You do not need identical scores in all five areas. You should be concerned, however, if one area keeps producing the same kind of mistake.
Networking deserves particular attention because several Azure components can affect the same connection. When you review a networking question, trace it in order: source, destination, name resolution, route, security rule, and whether the destination is public or private. Tracing the connection in that order finds the rule that actually blocks the traffic.
Check that you can work without answer choices
A practice question gives you several options. Real administration does not.
Cover the options and ask what you would configure. You should be able to give a sensible first answer to tasks such as:
- Give a user access to one resource group without granting access to the subscription.
- Find out why traffic is being blocked even though an NSG rule appears to allow it.
- Give an application temporary access to Blob Storage without sharing the account key.
- Deploy a new App Service version without sending production traffic to it immediately.
- Send resource logs to Log Analytics and notify a team when a condition is met.
- Protect a workload against a regional outage rather than an accidental deletion.
You do not need to recall every click or command from memory. You do need to know which resource owns the setting and what you would inspect first. The study guide says you should have experience with PowerShell, Azure CLI, the Azure portal, Azure Resource Manager templates or Bicep files, and Microsoft Entra ID.
If these tasks still feel abstract, spend an hour in the Azure portal or a sandbox. The study guide recommends training and hands-on experience before the exam, and a short lab often fixes confusion faster than another hour of videos.
Why the same score can mean two different things
Suppose two candidates score 78%.
The first misses a Bicep syntax question, one Azure Files setting, an alert-processing detail, and a few unrelated facts. After the test, they can explain each error and solve a similar question without reopening the explanation. They are probably close. A focused review and one more fresh result may be enough.
The second candidate gets most compute and storage questions right but misses nearly every networking scenario. They confuse NSGs with routes, public access with private endpoints, and peering with gateway transit. That 78% is hiding a serious weakness. They should wait.
After each practice exam, make one decision. Were the lost points scattered, or do they expose something you still do not understand?
When to book the exam
Schedule AZ-104 when all of the following are true:
- Two fresh, timed results are around 80% or better, or close enough that test difficulty reasonably explains the difference.
- No major domain repeatedly falls apart.
- You can explain your wrong answers without copying the explanation.
- You can solve a changed version of the questions you missed.
- You have enough portal, CLI, PowerShell, or lab experience to recognize the operations being tested.
- You can finish at a steady pace without guessing through the last group of questions.
Wait if your score drops sharply on unfamiliar questions, if one domain is responsible for most of your wrong answers, or if the explanations make sense only while you are reading them.
During the final few days, do not restart an entire course. Group recent mistakes, fix the two patterns costing you the most points, and take one final mixed exam. If those same mistakes return, move the date. If they do not, book the exam.
Get a more useful result than a percentage
CramHQ's AZ-104 course begins with a free assessment that takes no credit card. The Readiness Report it returns lists your top gaps and previews the first repair, so you can see which topics and administrator decisions are costing you points before you buy the path. The full path is $34.99 for 12 months of access, and the first repair task is free. The heart of the path is the Pass Plan, your ranked list of targeted repair tasks. CramHQ rebuilds that list from your practice over time rather than from the assessment alone: as you work the course, it finds new gaps, prices each one in exam points, and leads the plan with the gaps that cost the most. Every repair task shows the mistake that cost you the question, the rule that prevents it, a worked example, and a retest on fresh questions you have not seen. The practice tests and the timed final simulation support the plan, checking your readiness in the run-up to the exam.
Want only a baseline for now? Take the free CramHQ AZ-104 assessment.
FAQ
Is a 70% practice score enough for AZ-104?
No. A 70% practice score is not a booking threshold. Microsoft's 700 passing score is scaled, so 700 is not the same as 70% of the questions correct.
Is Microsoft Learn enough to pass AZ-104?
It can teach the syllabus, but completing the modules does not show that you can apply the material under time pressure. Add mixed scenario questions and some hands-on work in Azure.
Do I need to pass AZ-900 first?
No. The study guide's audience profile lists the experience the exam expects, and it does not list a prerequisite exam. If you already work with Azure at administrator level, move straight to AZ-104. If basic Azure and cloud terminology is still new to you, AZ-900 can help first.
When should I take my final practice exam?
One to three days before the real exam is a useful window. It gives you time to fix a narrow weakness without starting another broad study cycle.