MY EXPERIENCE WITH AZURE 70-534 EXAM

I have appeared for 70-534: Architecting Azure Solutions recently. I am glad to say that I successfully completed the exam. In the next few sections I shall share my experiences about this exam.

What do you need to know?

The skills covered by the exam have been updated on November 22, 2016. The focus has firmly shifted to the Resource Manager model and the related technologies, tools and techniques. At the point of writing this blog the following are the areas covered:

Design Azure Resource Manager (ARM) networking (5–10%)
Secure resources (20–25%)
Design an application storage and data access strategy (5–10%)
Design advanced applications (20–25%)
Design Azure Web and Mobile Apps (5–10%)
Design a management, monitoring and business continuity strategy (20–25%)
Architect an Azure Compute infrastructure (10–15%)

Having said that, you are advised to review the Exam objectives frequently before you actually appear for the exam as these are subject to change any time. Click here for the latest exam objectives.

What does Azure Solutions Architect exam all about ?

The crux of the exam tests your ability to design Public and (mostly) Hybrid Cloud Solutions. The expectation is that you fully understand the big picture view of the Cloud Services ( if not all at least the once in scope for this exam) that are available and can compare and contrast the service(s) and pick the right one for the given scenario. That remains the broader theme of the exam. It would be important to know the “Why” aspect of the services thoroughly than the “How” of it. In other words, your Design and Architecture skills have to come to the fore. You won’t need to flex your coding skills for the most part.

One Example: When would you choose Azure Storage Queue Vs Azure Service Bus Queue.

exam pattern and my experience with it

Exam Experience: The overall exam is split into multiple sections. The exam had 65 questions and you have 150 mins to complete it. The sections broadly fall into three patterns.

You will have Case Study based questions, where you are presented with a case study in form of Overview, Business Requirements, Technical Requirements, Security Requirements etc. There will be a series of 4 to 8 questions for each scenario. One catch for these case study questions is (currently as of this writing) you cannot track your overall progress. When you are in a given case study section you only get to see your progress within the section. Also, each case study section doesn’t have a time limit. So, if you are not careful enough you could spend too much time on a given section and be gasping later. Another catch, once you are finished with a scenario section, you cannot return to it. You can mark for review within that section but once you are Finished, you are done with that section.

The second pattern, is also scenario based questions. However, in this case for the same scenario, each question will provide a possible solution to the problem statement with a different of services or approach in each question. You need to pick through Yes or No, True or False if the provided solution fits the bill. The exact same problem statement will be repeated for all the questions in this pattern. For example, the scenario presented may be on – The ability to provide reliable messaging between two components with ordered delivery of messages and the choice of solution given in one question could be Azure Storage Queue and in the second question using Azure Service Bus Queue. To me this section was a breather in the exam, in the overall context as the scenarios weren’t that hard.

The third pattern, is a series of single independent questions. I think they form about 20+ questions. The topics covered here vary broadly across the syllabus that includes touching on Machine Learning, ASM vs ARM VNETs integrations.

MY APPROACH for case study questions

I will now revisit the Case Study (Scenario) questions and explain how I approached them. The overall requirements for the Case study shall be provided in a series of tabs with the names like: Overview, Business Requirements, Security Requirements etc.

For each Case Study I quickly skimmed through all the tabs and directly jump to the first question and look for the problem statement. I now hunt for the likely section where I can get specific pointer that will help me nail down the answer. For sure, there will be one or more lines in the requirements that will allow us to do this. Example: In the requirement, you will read something like “The Customer is looking for a Hybrid Cloud Solution. The Customer needs a fast and reliable connection that does not go over the Public internet “. Immediately the bells should start ringing and you would take out Site-to-Site and Point-to-Site scenarios out of the equation as they rely on public internet connectivity and think more on ExpressRoute lines.

How far is the coverage of ASM deployment model?

Short answer – Negligible. If you are any one like me, who began working only with the Resource Manager model, this is good news. You wouldn’t need to worry about understanding and preparing for the now Legacy ASM Model.

After the November 22, 2016 refresh to the exam, you would find that ARM Model and related areas like ARM Templates take the maximum pie.

How to Prepare for Architecting Azure solutions exam

The best way to prepare will be understand each Azure Service from a conceptual and design perspective and how we can apply them to real world scenarios. Hands on experience in setting up solutions by bringing together the various Azure services will

Cloudthat conducts a boot camp that will help you gear up for the certification. If you are interested to attend, please click here and fill out the form.

If you have any specific questions do post them as comments and I shall reply back at the earliest opportunity.