Tips for Microsoft Certification : Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions (70-532)

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Life is a continuous learning process and equally unlearning. Especially in the cloud space where everything is changing rapidly. I have been working with Azure since its inception. Much before Azure came into the market and got announced in PDC 2009 (if I recall), I was accessing it with early access. Back then it was only three things 1. Cloud Service 2. Storage 3. Data Services (grandfather of Azure SQL Database). I have seen so many enhancements and SDK releases. One of the breaking changes I did work with ISVs when SDK 2.0 got introduced and everything broke. Though backend still used to support 1.x but with limited capacity. Everyone were asked to change the code and move to SDK 2.x. Starting from connection string structure to API calls all were completely new. It was tough time. People who was using REST had little relief. I have seen Azure Connect going into deathbed. What did not change is constant promise and rock solid backend. Azure was known as Windows Azure Platform, it had a dream to get established as PaaS, complete PaaS. That time industry was not ready for it. Now every vendors are exploring it. This is the future and world is moving.

This is the right time, I thought myself tie into methodical learning beyond my day-to-day work. Because in my most of the interactions I have stopped working with Cloud Services for obvious reason. I don’t use OData URL for Azure Active Directory. So methodical study would help me get out of real scenario to curriculum based knowledge.

I learned from folks who cleared this particular exam and gather a lot of tips. I am going to share them,

Preparing for exam

  1. I have finished the book Exam Ref 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions. While I finish each chapter I noted things I don’t do hands on and reviewed. Then I did hands on. Also this book has tips which refers the Azure Documentation. You must note them and explore later.
  2. Since it is for developers you need basic development knowledge. This helps you to interpret the code written in book and understand. During my exam I found a lot of code which I have never written in my life, but think some of them required little common sense which you may earn from your development experience.
  3. Refer the website for what it covers in this exam. Updated information https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-in/exam-70-532.aspx
  4. This covers wide range of things also don’t cover some of the important services too. Know about it
    • Design and implement websites
    • Create and manage virtual machines
    • Design and implement cloud services
    • Design and implement a storage strategy
    • Manage application and network services
  5. There are practice tests available at the end of the study guide. Try to complete them as you finish each chapter.
  6. Make sure people leaving with you are prepared for this phase because sometimes you will behave like a zombie.

Study Resources

  1. Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions
  2. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
  3. Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: WebSites
  4. Exam Prep Session for Exam 70-532: Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions from Microsoft Ignite
  5. Azure Friday videos
  6. Channel9 Microsoft Azure videos
  7. Official Azure Documentation at www.azure.com

During the exam

  1. Never loose your patience
  2. Time matters
  3. If you are not sure of one thing skip it
  4. Review – it really matters
  5. Keep a tab on how many questions you are answering and you know how many in total. So balancing with the time would help.
  6. It is all about development so being a seasoned developer would help you guess things mainly in code area.

Namoskar!!!