Microsoft Certifications Explained for Beginners

How the exams actually work

Mechanics common to essentially all Microsoft certification exams:

• Delivery: through Pearson VUE, either at a test centre or online-proctored from home. Students and educators can additionally schedule some fundamentals exams via Certiport.
• Scoring: every technical exam is scored on a scale of 1–1,000 with a passing score of 700. This is a scaled score, not 70% — questions carry different weights, so you cannot convert 700 into "number of questions right".
• Question counts: Microsoft does not publish them, whatever forum posts claim. The official quantities are time limits: 45 minutes for fundamentals exams, 100 minutes for the associate-level exams we verified. Expect a mix of question styles, including interactive components; Microsoft's Exam Sandbox demonstrates the formats.
• Pricing: set per country ("price based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored"). Commonly cited US figures are around US$99 for fundamentals and US$165 for associate and expert exams, but these are third-party numbers — check the exam page for your country before budgeting.
• Retakes: fail and you can rebook after 24 hours; the waiting period lengthens on later attempts. Microsoft also periodically offers Exam Replay-style retake bundles via its offers page.

Because you cannot calibrate against a published question count or percentage, practice exams do a job the official materials cannot: a timed, full-length simulation tells you whether you can sustain accuracy for 100 minutes and which objective domains lag. Free sample questions for the AZ-900 exam and the rest of the Microsoft catalogue on ExamPractice let you test that machinery before committing to an exam fee; subscribers get fuller question sets and the timed simulation mode.

Renewal: the one-year rule that surprises everyone

Here is the policy that most separates Microsoft from other certification bodies, and the one beginners most often get wrong: role-based certifications (associate, expert and specialty) expire after one year — but renewal is free.

Within a six-month window before expiry, Microsoft Learn offers an online renewal assessment for each certification you hold. It is unproctored, open book, costs nothing, and can be retaken as many times as needed before the expiry date. Pass it and your certification extends for another year; miss the window and the credential lapses, after which the only route back is re-sitting (and re-paying for) the full exam.

Fundamentals certifications are exempt: they never expire and need no renewal. And whatever happens, everything you have ever earned remains visible on your transcript — an expired certification shows as historical rather than vanishing.

Two related misconceptions to clear while we are here: Microsoft certifications do not last three years (that is another vendor's policy), and the renewal assessment is nothing like the original exam in stakes — it is a low-pressure knowledge refresh, not a proctored retest.

The families beyond Azure

Azure dominates the conversation, but the same three-level, role-based machinery covers Microsoft's other platforms:

• Security, compliance and identity (SC codes) — from SC-900 fundamentals up to associate roles in security operations (SC-200) and identity administration (SC-300).
• Data and analytics (DP and PL codes) — DP-900 fundamentals, the Fabric-based DP-700 for data engineering, and PL-300 for Power BI data analysis.
• Microsoft 365 and endpoint (MS and MD codes) — headlined at associate level by MD-102 Endpoint Administrator. Note that the MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals certification has been retired, so ignore older beginner guides that start there.
• Dynamics 365 (MB codes) — business-applications roles, a separate world from Azure with the same structure.

The relationships worth internalising: Microsoft is the provider for all of these; each certification belongs to one family and one level; each maps to a role; and the Azure family is the only one currently carrying expert-tier credentials with mandatory prerequisites.

The 2026 overhaul: why old guides will mislead you

Any beginner researching Microsoft certifications in 2026 will hit contradictory information, because Microsoft is executing its largest catalogue overhaul since 2019. Between March 2025 and September 2026 it retired a swathe of role-based certifications — among them Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204), Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102), Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100), Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-203, replaced in role by DP-700) and, from 31 August 2026, Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) — while introducing new AI-centred replacements whose details were still stabilising at the time of writing. Retired certifications cannot be earned or renewed, though existing holders keep them on their transcripts permanently, and Microsoft has published no automatic migration or discount to the successors.

For a newcomer, the operational takeaway is a single habit: the Microsoft Learn certification page is the only source of truth for whether a credential is currently earnable. A retirement banner at the top of the page overrules every roadmap, course catalogue and blog post — including, eventually, this one. As of this writing, safe currently earnable examples include AZ-900, SC-900, DP-900, AZ-104, AZ-305, AZ-400, AZ-700, SC-200, SC-300, PL-300, DP-700 and MD-102.

Reading a certification page like a practitioner

Pull up any credential on Microsoft Learn and check, in order: (1) any retirement banner; (2) the required exam code and its "last updated" date, since objectives shift within a code; (3) the skills-measured outline and its linked study guide, which carries the official domain weightings; (4) prerequisites, if any; (5) the renewal note. Five checks, two minutes, and you know more than most forum threads will tell you. That habit — going to the primary page rather than to folklore — is the real skill this article is trying to install.

A worked example of the habit paying off: an office administrator decides in 2026 to move towards IT and finds a well-reviewed 2024 course recommending MS-900 as "the beginner Microsoft cert". Thirty seconds on the Learn page reveals the retirement banner; two minutes more shows AZ-900 and SC-900 as live fundamentals alternatives, each with a 45-minute exam, no prerequisites and no expiry. The course reviews were not wrong when written — the catalogue simply moved, as it always does, and the primary page caught what the secondary material could not.

Where to go from here

You now hold the grammar of the system: three levels, prefix-coded families, 700-to-pass scaled scoring, one-year renewable role certs and evergreen fundamentals. The natural next steps depend on your goal — the Azure certifications roadmap maps the largest family in full, the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals guide covers the most common first exam in single-exam depth, and when you are weighing which credential deserves your study hours, the ranking question is handled in our best-Microsoft-certifications piece. Whichever door you pick, you will at least now be able to read the signs on it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to take the fundamentals exam before an associate exam?

No. Fundamentals certifications are optional at every level — AZ-104, for example, has no prerequisites. Only the two expert certifications (Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer) carry mandatory prerequisite certifications.

Are Microsoft certification exams multiple choice?

They use a mix of question styles and may include interactive components; Microsoft demonstrates the formats in its official Exam Sandbox rather than publishing a fixed structure or question count.

How much does a Microsoft certification cost in total?

One exam fee (priced by country) plus nothing thereafter for fundamentals, or plus free annual online renewal for role-based certifications. There is no charge to maintain a credential you keep renewing on time.

What happens if my certification expires?

It moves to historical status on your transcript and stops counting as active. Reinstating it means passing the full current exam again at full price, which is why the free six-month renewal window is worth a calendar reminder.

Is a Microsoft certification the same as a Microsoft Applied Skill?

No. Applied Skills are free, narrower, scenario-based credentials with no expiry; certifications are broader, exam-based, levelled credentials. They complement rather than replace each other.