Certifications
Exam-by-exam study guides written against the current Microsoft skills-measured outlines, including what changed and what retired.
Microsoft changes this landscape faster than most study material keeps up with. SC-400 retired in May 2025. AZ-500 retired on 31 August 2026. MS-102 retires on 30 November 2026. SC-500 only became generally available in July 2026 and Microsoft has not yet released a practice assessment for it.
Each guide is written against the current published skills-measured outline for that exam, and says plainly when an exam is not worth starting because it is about to disappear.
What happens to the certification you already hold, why it can no longer be renewed, and what SC-500 changes about the scope.
Read the guideEvery skill area broken down, including the AI security objectives that no existing study material covers properly.
Read the guideSentinel, Defender XDR and KQL, weighted the way the exam weights them rather than the way training courses order them.
Read the guideEntra ID end to end. The exam that maps most directly to the thing that actually gets organisations compromised.
Read the guideThere are six, they overlap, and the recommended order depends entirely on the job you do rather than on the numbering.
Read the guideAn expert-level design exam that punishes product knowledge without architectural judgement. What it actually tests, and why people who know the tools still fail it.
Read the guideThe exam that replaced SC-400 in 2025. Purview end to end, with a heavier weighting toward data security than the exam it replaced.
Read the guideThe most useful non-security exam in the catalogue, and a prerequisite in practice for everything that follows in Azure.
Read the guideTenant, identity, threat protection and compliance in one exam. Broad rather than deep, and that breadth is what people underestimate.
Read the guideRole-based certifications expire annually and renew free online. What the assessment is like, when to take it, and what happens if you miss it.
Read the guideA design exam that assumes AZ-104. Where the security content sits, and why administrators who know Azure well still fail it.
Read the guideIt depends entirely on who you are. For one group it is genuinely valuable, for another it is an afternoon that proves nothing.
Read the guideMost of what you need is free. What to use, what actually costs money, and how to avoid the Azure bill people get caught by.
Read the guideNothing here yet that answers your question?
Tell us what you are trying to decide and it moves up the queue. The order these get written in is driven by what people ask for.
Ask for a guidePublished Microsoft dates, not estimates. Bars end on the announced retirement date.
AZ-500 has under two months left. If you are studying it now, SC-500 is the exam to switch to.