Your Roadmap to passing the AZ-900, AI-900, and SC-900 exams

Starting a journey into the cloud can feel overwhelming. With so many services and concepts, where do you even begin? Microsoft’s “900-level” Fundamentals exams are the perfect entry point, providing a solid foundation in Azure, AI, and Security. But what’s the most effective way to prepare without getting lost in a sea of resources?

Your simple 3-step study plan

1. LEARN: Complete the full Microsoft Learn path for your chosen exam.
2. PRACTICE: Go through the official GitHub labs to gain hands-on experience.
3. VALIDATE: Use a practice test to check your readiness and study any areas where you scored poorly.

By following this focused approach, you are not just memorizing facts; you are building a genuine understanding of the fundamentals. This strategy will not only help you pass the exam with confidence but also give you the solid foundation needed for your future in the cloud. Good luck!

I. AZ-900 exam – Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

1. How to prepare for the Microsoft AZ-900 Exam? – link
2. AZ-900 Study Guide: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (Thomas Maurer)- link
3. Study guide for Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals – link
4. Microsoft Azure Tutorial | Azure Tutorial for Beginners – link
5. AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Free Full Course and Study Guide – link
6. AZ-900 | Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Full Course, Free Practice Tests, Website and Study Guides – link
7. AZ-900T00 and AZ-900T01: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (Preview) – link

II. AI-900 exam – Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals

1. Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals – link
2. Practice assessment – link
3. Azure AI Fundamentals Exercises – link
4. Introduction to AI in Azure – link
5. Microsoft Learn 30 Days Plan – link

III. SC-900 exam – Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals

1. How to prepare for the Microsoft SC-900 Exam? – link
2. Become Microsoft Certified – link
3. Study guide that maps the Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals to the Microsoft Skills Measured PDF (Rick Kotlarz) – link
4. Study guide for Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals – link
5. SC-900 Labs – link
6. Practice Assessment for Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals – link
7. SC-900-Microsoft-Security-Compliance-and-Identity-Fundamentals labs – link
8. Course SC-900T00-A: Introduction to Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity – link
9. Certification Microsoft Certified: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals – link
10. SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Study Cram V2 – link
11. SC-900 Practice Quiz – link
12. Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900) – Pass the Exam With This Free 3.5 Hour Course – link
13. Microsoft Security Academy – link

IV. Microsoft Azure

1. VPN Gateway documentation – link
2. Azure DDoS Protection documentation – link
3. Azure Front Door and CDN documentation – link
4. Azure Firewall documentation – link
5. Azure Key Vault documentation – link
6. Azure Key Vault Managed HSM documentation – link
7. Azure Private Link documentation – link
8. Azure Application Gateway documentation – link
9. Web Application Firewall documentation – link
10. Azure Policy documentation – link
11. Azure Backup service documentation – link
12. Azure Blob Storage documentation – link
13. Azure Information Protection (AIP) documentation – link
14. Azure API Management documentation – link
15. Azure confidential computing documentation – link
16. Azure Network Watcher documentation – link
17. 15 Crucial Azure Tools You Need To Know Now – link
18. Azure Data Community – link
19. Azure Monitor documentation – link
20. Azure security fundamentals documentation – link

V. KQL (Kusto Query Language)

1. Microsoft 365 Defender- Advanced Hunting KQL Queries with Bulk Actions | by Mary Becken – link
2. Sergio Albea’s blog – https://sergioalbea.com/
3. Advance Kql by Rakesh Gahir – https://kql-by-rakesh-gahir.netlify.app/
4. Rod Trent’s articles on substack.com – link
5. KQL Search – Search engine for KQL Queries – link
6. LearningKijo/KQL – Threat Hunting query in Microsoft 365 Defender, XDR. Provide out-of-the-box KQL hunting queries – App, Email, Identity and Endpoint – link
7. Kusto Detective Agency – link

VI. Microsoft Security

1. Microsoft Security (Youtube channel) – link
2. Microsoft | Open Source Featured Projects – link
3. Microsoft Graph documentation – link
4. Implementing security operations processes – link
5. Microsoft Security – link
6. Microsoft Security Experts Blog – link
7. PS Rules for Azure – link

VII. Microsoft Defender XDR

1. Microsoft Defender XDR documentation – Microsoft Defender XDR | Microsoft Learn – link
2. Microsoft Defender XDR – link
3. Microsoft Defender XDR Blog | Microsoft Community Hub – link
4. Microsoft Incident Response Ninja Hub – link
5. Mastering Microsoft Defender XDR Deployment (e-book) – link
6. Microsoft Defender Experts Ninja Hub – link
7. All the Microsoft Ninja Training I Know About (Rod Trent) – link

VIII. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

1. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint documentation – link
2. Defender for Endpoint Archieven – Jeffrey Appel – Microsoft Security blog – link
3. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Blog | Microsoft Community Hub – link

IX. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

1. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps – Ninja Training | Microsoft Community Hub – link
3. Getting started with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Part 1 – link
4. Getting started with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps- Part 2 – link

X. Microsoft Defender for Identity

1. Microsoft Defender for Identity documentation – link
2. Leveraging Microsoft Defender for Identity – link
3. Simplified deployment with Defender for Identity – link

XI. Microsoft Defender for IoT

1. Microsoft Defender for IoT documentation for organizations – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Identity | Microsoft Community Hub – link
3. Microsoft Defender for Identity blog – Jeffrey Appel – link
4. Microsoft Defender for Identity – Blog Sonne’s Cloud – link

XII. Microsoft Defender for Office 365

1. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 – link
3. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Blog – link
4. Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Security Guide – link

XIII. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

1. Microsoft Defender for Cloud documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Cloud –link
3. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Blog – link

Microsoft Defender for Cloud plans:

– Microsoft Defender for AI services

1. Microsoft Defender for AI services documentation – link
2. Microsoft Mechanics Blog – link

– Microsoft Defender for APIs

1. Defender for APIS documentation – link
2. API Security with Defender for APIs | Defender for Cloud in the Field – link

– Microsoft Defender for App Service

1. Microsoft Defender for App Service documentation – link
2. Intro to Microsoft Defender for App Service – link

– Microsoft Defender for Containers

1. Microsoft Defender for Containers documentation – link
2. AKS DevSecOps Workshop – link
3. Ensure That Microsoft Defender for Containers Is Set To ‘On’ (Automated) – link

– Microsoft Defender for Databases

1. Microsoft Defender for Databases – link
2. Microsoft Defender for SQL – link
3. Enable Microsoft Defender for SQL and Data Classification – link

– Microsoft Defender for Key Vault

1. Microsoft Defender for Key Vault documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Key Vault – link

– Microsoft Defender for Resource Manager

1. Microsoft Defender for Resource Manager documentation – link

– Microsoft Defender for Servers

1. Defender for Servers documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Servers Cheat Sheet & FAQ – link

– Microsoft Defender for Storage

1. Microsoft Defender for Storage documentation – link
2. Microsoft Defender for Storage – Techielass – a blog by Sarah Lean – link

XIV. Microsoft Intune

1. Intune Newsletter – Andrew Taylor – link
2. WinTuner – package and deploy any store or WinGet application to Intune in seconds – link
3. IntuneMacAdmins – link
4. Free Intune documentation generator – Microsoft Intune PDF Export Tool – link
5. Automating Microsoft Sentinel: Playbook Fundamentals – link

XV. Microsoft Sentinel

1. Microsoft Sentinel documentation – link
2. Microsoft Sentinel – link
3. Microsoft Sentinel Blog – link
4. sentinel.blog – Making Security SIEMlessly Simple – link
5. Jeffrey Appel’s blog – link

XVI. Microsoft Purview

1. Microsoft Purview documentation – link
2. Secure sensitive data with Microsoft Purview Ninja training scenarios – link
3. Microsoft Purview compliance portal – link
4. Microsoft Purview – link
5. Microsoft Purview Blog – link

XVII. Microsoft Entra

1. Microsoft Entra documentation – link
2. Microsoft Entra ID documentation – link
3. Microsoft Entra – link
4. Microsoft Entra Blog – link
5. Microsoft Entra admin center – link
6. Microsoft Entra fundamentals documentation – link
7. Microsoft Entra monitoring and health documentation – link
8. Getting started with the Microsoft Entra Suite – link
9. ENTRA ID PERMISSIONS – Permission Management Interface (tool) – link
10. Entra ID overview (diagram) – link
11. Microsoft Entra Conditional Access documentation – link
12. Microsoft Entra authentication documentation – link
13. Privileged Identity Management documentation – link
14. Microsoft Entra Domain Services documentation – link
15. Microsoft Entra ID Protection documentation – link
16. Microsoft Entra External ID Documentation – link
17. Microsoft Entra ID Governance training hub – link
18. Microsoft Entra Identity Platform – Dev Blog – link
19. Microsoft Entra device identity documentation – link
20. Entra.News – weekly dose of Microsoft Entra – link
21. Application and HR provisioning documentation – link
22. Microsoft Entra RBAC documentation – link
23. Microsoft Entra architecture icons – link

XVIII. Microsoft 365 Copilot

1. Microsoft 365 Copilot – link
2. Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog –link
3. Microsoft Copilot Blog – link
4. Security for AI Assessment | Microsoft 365 Copilot – link

XIX. AI

1. Prompt Engineering Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Generative AI – link
2. Ray Reyes’ series Mastering Microsoft Purview on Linkedin – link

XX. Blogs

1. The Sysadmin channel – blog about PowerShell Office 365, Azure, VMWare, SCCM, Active Directory – link
2. charberlnemnom.com – blog about Cloud & CyberSecurity – – link
3. Cyberdom blog – another day of Cybersecurity – link
4. Secured IAM – Security, Identity & Access Management – link
5. Identity Man – link
6. Monitoring Cloud and Datacenter by Tao Yang – link
7. Azure blog – Identity and Azure Cloud – Robert Przybylski’s blog – link
8. Azure Weekly – link
9. IT Professor – link
10. Cloudbrothers – blog about Azure – link

Also please check out my Github and add any resources you think should be on this list.