Azure DevOps Engineer Expert Certification (AZ-400): 2026 Exam Guide, Cost and Best Prep

By Josh Hutcheson, founder of OnlineCourseing. Exam facts are from Microsoft Learn (the credential page, the AZ-400 study guide, and the exam duration, retake and renewal policies); every course rating and price was read on the provider’s own page on October 11, 2026. Last updated: October 11, 2026. We earn a commission from some links on this page; it never changes the ranking, and we name free options we earn nothing from when they are the better fit. How we review.

This guide covers what the Azure DevOps certification is, how the prerequisite works now that AZ-204 has retired, what AZ-400 tests after the July 2026 update, how long and how hard the exam is, the retake and renewal rules, and the prep resources worth your time. Every exam fact is from Microsoft Learn, read on October 11, 2026.

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AZ-400 at a glance

Sources: Microsoft’s DevOps Engineer Expert credential page, the AZ-400 study guide and its exam duration and retake policies.

The prerequisite, now that AZ-204 has retired

Passing AZ-400 alone does not make you a DevOps Engineer Expert. Microsoft’s credential page requires at least one of two associate certifications: Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate.

• Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) is the only prerequisite a new candidate can still earn.
• Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) retired on July 31, 2026, and Microsoft has also retired its renewal assessment. If you already hold it, it still appears on the AZ-400 prerequisite list until it expires.
• AI-200, which Microsoft names as AZ-204’s replacement, earns a different credential: Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate. On October 11, 2026 that credential was not on the AZ-400 prerequisite list.

In practice: if you do not hold AZ-104, plan for it first. It also covers the Azure administration knowledge AZ-400 assumes.

What AZ-400 tests after the July 2026 update

Microsoft refreshed the AZ-400 skills outline on July 27, 2026. The changes inside each area were described as minor, but the weighting is what most study guides, including an earlier version of this page, get wrong: pipelines are now half the exam and instrumentation is the smallest area. Use these numbers, from the current study guide:

Note how much of the outline names GitHub. Microsoft expects you to work in both Azure DevOps and GitHub, so a course that only covers Azure Pipelines will leave gaps.

1. Processes and communications (10–15%)

• Flow of work with GitHub Flow, GitHub Issues and Projects, Azure Boards, and traceability from source to bug to release.
• DevOps metrics and dashboards: cycle time, lead time and time to recovery.
• Documentation and integration: wikis with Markdown and Mermaid, release notes, webhooks, and connecting Azure Boards, GitHub and Microsoft Teams.

2. Source control strategy (10–15%)

• Branching strategies (trunk-based, feature and release branches) and pull request workflows with branch policies and protection rules.
• Repository management: Git LFS and git-fat for large files, Scalar for scaling, permissions, tags, and recovering or removing data with Git commands.

3. Build and release pipelines (50–55%)

• Package management with GitHub Packages and Azure Artifacts, feeds and views, and versioning with SemVer and CalVer.
• Testing strategy: quality and release gates, unit, integration and load tests in a pipeline, and code coverage.
• Pipeline design: choosing GitHub Actions or Azure Pipelines, runner and agent infrastructure, YAML pipelines, templates, variable groups, multi-stage pipelines, and checks and approvals.
• Deployments: blue-green, canary, ring, progressive exposure, feature flags with Azure App Configuration, slot swaps, hotfix paths and database tasks.
• Infrastructure as code: Bicep, ARM templates, Azure Automation State Configuration, Azure Machine Configuration and Azure Deployment Environments.
• Maintenance: pipeline health and flaky tests, cost and concurrency, artifact retention, and migrating classic pipelines to YAML.

4. Security and compliance plan (10–15%)

• Service principals versus managed identities, GitHub Apps and GITHUB_TOKEN, Azure DevOps service connections, and permissions in both platforms.
• Secrets in Azure Key Vault, secretless authentication with workload identity federation (OpenID Connect), and secure files.
• Scanning: GitHub Advanced Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud DevOps security, CodeQL for containers and Dependabot alerts.

5. Instrumentation strategy (5–10%)

• Azure Monitor and Log Analytics, Application Insights, VM and Container Insights, and monitoring and alerts in GitHub.
• Analyzing CPU, memory, disk and network metrics, distributed tracing, and basic KQL queries.

How hard is AZ-400?

Hard, for three reasons. It is an expert exam built on scenarios and case studies rather than definitions. It spans two platforms, Azure DevOps and GitHub, with overlapping features you have to choose between. And half of it is pipelines, which are easy to read about and hard to reason about if you have not built them. Microsoft publishes no pass rate.

Two things help. Associate and expert exams let you open Microsoft Learn from inside the exam, so you can look up a detail you have forgotten, though the clock keeps running and the questions are written so that you cannot look up every answer. And the free practice assessment on Microsoft Learn uses the real question style.

Exam day, retakes and renewal

• Booking. Schedule from the credential page through Pearson VUE, online or at a test center. Microsoft recommends a personal Microsoft account rather than a work account, because exam records tied to a work account are lost if you leave the employer.
• Breaks. You can take unscheduled breaks, but the clock keeps running and you cannot go back to questions you saw before the break.
• Retakes. Wait 24 hours after a first failure, then 14 days between later attempts, with a maximum of five attempts in 12 months.
• Renewal. The certification lasts one year. Renewal is a free, unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn, available in the six months before expiry; you can retake it until you pass. Source: Microsoft Certification renewal.

Best prep for AZ-400

Ranked on coverage of the July 2026 outline, hands-on practice and value. Use Microsoft Learn as the spine, one paid course for explanation, and one practice-test set for the final weeks.

1. Microsoft Learn: free, official, and current

Microsoft’s AZ-400 course on Microsoft Learn is free and is organized as learning paths that follow the skills outline, from Development for Enterprise DevOps through CI with Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions to release strategy and infrastructure as code. The credential page also offers a free practice assessment and an exam sandbox that shows the interface. Because Microsoft updates these when the exam changes, they are the safest base after the July 2026 update.

2. Whizlabs on Coursera: structured exam prep

The Exam Prep AZ-400 specialization is a four-course series by Whizlabs, one course per area of the outline, rated advanced, with 140,896 learners. Coursera estimates about 20 weeks at two hours a week. It suits people who want deadlines and quizzes and already pay for Coursera Plus.

3. Pluralsight (A Cloud Guru): labs

Pluralsight’s AZ-400 path is part of its Cloud+ plan ($35 a month, or $24.50 a month billed yearly). Its value for AZ-400 is the hands-on labs and sandboxes, which let you build pipelines without running up an Azure bill.

4. Udemy: the budget video course

Alan Rodrigues’s AZ-400 Designing and Implementing DevOps Certification course is rated 4.5 from 13,390 ratings, with 87,467 students. It was last updated in September 2025, before the July 2026 outline change, so cross-check its coverage of GitHub Actions and security scanning against the study guide.

5. Practice exams: MeasureUp or Whizlabs

Microsoft’s free practice assessment is the first check. For more questions, MeasureUp is Microsoft’s official practice-test provider ($99 list; it showed 35% off on October 11) and Whizlabs sells a cheaper AZ-400 set with labs. We have no affiliate relationship with either.

6. Free video: John Savill’s DevOps Master Class

John Savill’s DevOps Master Class on YouTube is a free 11-part series on DevOps foundations, Git, pipelines and infrastructure as code. It is a concepts course rather than an AZ-400 exam cram and is several years old, so use it for understanding and the study guide for coverage.

For portfolio depth: Udacity

If you also want projects to show employers, Udacity’s Cloud DevOps using Microsoft Azure Nanodegree is intermediate, about 54 hours, rated 4.3 from 83 reviews, and was updated in August 2026. It covers infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines and quality assurance on Azure through mentor-reviewed projects. Udacity charges $249 a month, $846 for four months, or $999 for the single program. It is not exam prep; Microsoft Learn is enough for the exam. See our Cloud DevOps Nanodegree review.

See the AZ-400 exam prep series →

A 10-week AZ-400 study plan (if you hold AZ-104)

1. Week 1: Read the study guide end to end. Take the free practice assessment cold to find your gaps.
2. Weeks 2 and 3: Processes, communications and source control on Microsoft Learn. Set up a GitHub repository and an Azure DevOps project and practice branch policies and pull requests in both.
3. Weeks 4 to 7: Build and release pipelines, the half of the exam that decides your result. Build the same pipeline twice, once in Azure Pipelines YAML and once in GitHub Actions, with tests, an artifact feed, an approval gate and a staged deployment.
4. Week 8: Security and compliance: Key Vault, workload identity federation, GitHub Advanced Security and Dependabot.
5. Week 9: Instrumentation: Application Insights, Log Analytics and a few basic KQL queries.
6. Week 10: Practice tests, then the practice assessment again. Book when you are scoring well above the pass mark on unseen questions.

Without AZ-104, add six to eight weeks for it first; see our AZ-104 guide.

Is the Azure DevOps certification worth it?

For people already doing DevOps work in a Microsoft or GitHub environment, yes: it is the credential that matches the job, it is one of only two Azure expert certifications, and renewal costs nothing. For beginners, no: it assumes experience it cannot replace, and you would be better served by AZ-104 and a portfolio of real pipelines.

No trustworthy source isolates the pay effect of AZ-400, so we do not quote one. For context, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2025 median of $135,980 for software developers and $99,130 for network and computer systems administrators; DevOps engineers typically sit between and above these as they gain seniority.

AZ-400 compared with the alternatives

Not sure which cloud to commit to? Our AWS vs Azure comparison covers the job market and certification paths, and our Azure DevOps courses roundup covers learning the platform beyond the exam.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Azure DevOps certification?

Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert. You earn it by passing exam AZ-400 (Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions) and holding one prerequisite associate certification. It is one of Microsoft’s two Azure expert credentials, alongside Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305).

What is the prerequisite for AZ-400?

To receive the DevOps Engineer Expert certification you must also hold Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204). AZ-204 retired on July 31, 2026, so new candidates can only use AZ-104. Its successor, AI-200, earns a different credential, Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate, which was not on the AZ-400 prerequisite list on October 11, 2026.

How much does the AZ-400 exam cost?

$165 in the United States. Microsoft prices exams by the country where they are proctored, so the fee is lower in many countries, including India. Renewing the certification each year is free.

How many questions are on AZ-400 and how long is it?

Microsoft does not publish an exact count for AZ-400. Its general guidance is that most certification exams have 40 to 60 questions. Associate and expert exams without labs give you 100 minutes; exams that may contain labs give you 120 minutes.

What score do you need to pass AZ-400?

700 or higher on Microsoft’s scaled score. Microsoft does not publish pass rates, so treat any percentage you see online as a guess.

Is AZ-400 open book?

Partly. In associate and expert exams Microsoft lets you open Microsoft Learn from inside the exam, but the timer keeps running and there is no extra time, so it only helps on a handful of lookup questions. Renewal assessments, by contrast, are fully open book.

How hard is AZ-400?

It is an expert-level exam built on scenarios and case studies, and half of it covers build and release pipelines. Most candidates find it hard unless they have built pipelines in both Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions. Microsoft expects experience both administering and developing in Azure.

Does AZ-400 expire?

The DevOps Engineer Expert certification expires every year. You renew it for free by passing a short online assessment on Microsoft Learn during the six months before it expires, and you can retake the assessment as often as you need until then.

What happens if I fail AZ-400?

You can retake it after 24 hours. After a second failed attempt you wait 14 days between tries, and you can sit the same exam at most five times in 12 months. Each attempt is paid unless you bought a retake offer.

Is AZ-400 being retired?

No. Microsoft lists its retirement date as none. It updated the skills measured on July 27, 2026, so make sure your study material matches the current study guide.

AZ-400 or AWS DevOps Engineer Professional: which should I take?

Follow your employer’s cloud. AZ-400 suits Microsoft and GitHub shops and needs AZ-104 alongside it. AWS’s DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) costs $300, is valid for three years, and needs no prerequisite certification.

Is the Azure DevOps certification worth it?

It is worth it if you already do DevOps work on Azure or GitHub and want a credential that matches it, or if you target Microsoft-heavy employers. It is not a good first certification; take AZ-104 and build real pipelines first.

Related guides

• AZ-104 Azure Administrator guide
• AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert guide
• AZ-204 (retired) and AI-200
• AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals guide
• AWS DevOps Engineer Professional guide
• Best cloud certifications compared

Related guide: best Microsoft Azure courses.