Last updated: June 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. We checked every course below on Udemy, Pluralsight, Coursera, and Microsoft Learn this month — live enrollment, current ratings, and what each actually covers. See our review methodology.
QUICK VERDICT
Bottom line: If you want one course that maps to the AZ-400 exam and the day job, start with Alan Rodrigues’ AZ-400 course on Udemy (4.5★, 13,200 ratings) and pair it with the free Microsoft Learn modules. The single biggest predictor of passing isn’t which course you buy — it’s how many real pipelines you build.
- Best overall (AZ-400 prep): Udemy AZ-400 — Alan Rodrigues
- Best hands-on labs: Pluralsight Azure DevOps path (sandbox subscriptions)
- Best free + official: Microsoft Learn
- Best for CI/CD pipelines specifically: CI/CD Pipelines using Azure DevOps (Udemy)
- Skip if: you have no cloud or Git basics yet — start with AZ-900 then AZ-104 first.
See Our #1 Azure DevOps Course →
An Azure DevOps engineer automates how software gets built, secured, shipped, and monitored on Microsoft Azure. The role sits between cloud administration and software engineering: you write infrastructure-as-code (ARM, Bicep, Terraform), build CI/CD pipelines (Azure Pipelines and increasingly GitHub Actions), wire in security scanning, and stand up observability. It’s a well-paid specialty — public salary aggregators consistently place DevOps engineering among the better-compensated cloud roles, with US pay commonly reported in the low-to-mid six figures and senior engineers higher. Exact numbers vary widely by region, employer, and equity, so treat any single figure with caution.
This guide ranks the courses we’d actually recommend in 2026, organized around the credential that anchors the field — the AZ-400 — plus the specialization courses (Terraform, Bicep, GitHub Actions, AKS, security) that fill the gaps a single cert course leaves. Every rating below was pulled this month; every link points to a live course we verified by hand. Where a course is thin on reviews or aimed at a narrow audience, we say so.
The AZ-400 Certification: What It Is and How to Prep
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Most serious Azure DevOps roles list one certification by name: AZ-400, “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions,” which earns the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert badge. It’s an expert-level exam, so Microsoft expects you to already hold (or know the material for) an associate cert like AZ-104 before sitting it.
WHAT THE EXAM ACTUALLY TESTS
| Exam domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Design & implement build and release pipelines | 50–55% |
| Design & implement processes and communications | 10–15% |
| Design & implement a source control strategy | 10–15% |
| Develop a security and compliance plan | 10–15% |
| Implement an instrumentation strategy | 5–10% |
A few facts worth knowing before you book: the English version of the exam was refreshed on April 24, 2026, so use current study material; the passing score is 700 (on Microsoft’s 1–1000 scale); and Microsoft prices the exam by region — it’s around $165 in the US, so confirm your local price at booking. Notice that build and release pipelines alone are over half the exam — if you’re short on time, that’s where to concentrate.
Our recommended path: work the free Microsoft Learn AZ-400 modules (they’re built directly against the exam objectives), use a structured video course like #1 or #2 below for explanation and pacing, then build three to five real pipelines of your own. The hands-on practice is what actually moves you from “watched the course” to “passed the exam.”
Azure DevOps Course Comparison
| Course | Best for | Rating | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Udemy AZ-400 (Rodrigues) | Full AZ-400 exam prep | 4.5★ (13.2k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| Pluralsight Azure DevOps path | Hands-on sandbox labs | Path (25+ courses) | ~$299/yr |
| Microsoft Learn | Free official material | Official | Free |
| CI/CD Pipelines (Aylward) | Pipelines deep dive | 4.3★ (6.1k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| GitHub Actions (Academind) | GitHub Actions CI/CD | 4.7★ (11.7k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| AKS on Azure (Daida) | Containers / Kubernetes | 4.6★ (6.4k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
The Best Azure DevOps Courses, Ranked
1. AZ-400: Designing and Implementing DevOps Certification — Udemy
Best for: Anyone preparing for the AZ-400 exam who wants one comprehensive course. Rating: 4.5★ (13,200 ratings, 83,000+ students) · Instructor: Alan Rodrigues.
This is the course most AZ-400 candidates land on, and for good reason: it walks the full exam blueprint — Azure DevOps Services, source control with Git, build and release pipelines, ARM/Bicep, Terraform basics, monitoring, and security automation — with demos you follow along in a real Azure tenant. At ~$15–20 on Udemy’s frequent sales it’s the highest-value single purchase here. Its one weakness is breadth over depth: you’ll still want focused practice on pipelines (the largest exam domain) beyond what any single course gives you.
2. Azure DevOps Engineer Path — Pluralsight
Best for: Learners who want structured paths plus hands-on sandbox labs (often employer-funded).
Pluralsight’s Azure DevOps path bundles 25+ courses and, crucially, sandbox labs that spin up ephemeral Azure environments so you practice against the real thing instead of slides. For a discipline where most learning happens through trial and error, that lab access is the differentiator. The catch is price — roughly $299/year — so it makes most sense if your employer covers it or you’ll use it across multiple certs. The path covers the AZ-400 material plus adjacent monitoring and security courses.
3. Microsoft Learn Azure DevOps Modules — Free
Best for: Self-directed learners who want the official, exam-aligned source at no cost.
Microsoft Learn’s AZ-400 learning paths are free, genuinely good, and structured directly against the exam objectives — with hands-on exercises in Microsoft’s free Azure sandboxes. There’s no reason not to use these. The only thing they lack is the narrative pacing and “here’s how to think about it” explanation that a strong video instructor provides, which is why we recommend pairing them with course #1 rather than choosing one or the other.
4. Exam Prep AZ-400 Specialization — Coursera (Whizlabs)
Best for: Learners who prefer Coursera’s format and want a shareable certificate.
This four-course specialization is produced by Whizlabs (a third-party exam-prep provider, not Microsoft itself — worth knowing) and runs roughly 20 weeks at 2 hours/week. It’s structured purely around passing AZ-400, with practice questions throughout. You can audit the material free; the shareable certificate requires Coursera Plus. Reach for it if Coursera’s interface and pacing suit you better than Udemy’s; otherwise the Udemy course covers similar ground for less.
RECOMMENDED PARTNER — UDEMY
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5. CI/CD Pipelines using Azure DevOps — Udemy
Best for: Engineers who want to master the single largest exam domain — pipelines. Rating: 4.3★ (6,052 ratings) · Instructor: Charles Aylward.
Since build and release pipelines are over half the AZ-400, a focused pipelines course is the highest-leverage supplement to a broad cert course. This one covers classic and YAML multi-stage pipelines, release strategies, approvals, and templates in depth. Treat it as a companion to #1 rather than a standalone — it goes deep on pipelines but doesn’t try to cover the whole exam.
6. GitHub Actions — The Complete Guide — Udemy
Best for: Teams using GitHub Actions alongside (or instead of) Azure Pipelines. Rating: 4.7★ (11,655 ratings) · Instructor: Academind / Maximilian Schwarzmüller.
GitHub is Microsoft-owned, and many Azure shops now run CI/CD through GitHub Actions — the updated AZ-400 explicitly covers it. This is the highest-rated GitHub Actions course on Udemy, and it’s thorough: workflows, custom actions, matrix builds, secrets, and deployment to cloud targets including Azure. If you can only add one non-cert course, the value here is hard to beat.
7. Terraform on Azure — Udemy
Best for: Engineers who want portable, multi-cloud infrastructure-as-code skills. Rating: 4.5★ (3,911 ratings).
Terraform is the dominant IaC tool across multi-cloud environments, so learning it pays off on AWS and GCP work too — not just Azure. This course covers Terraform fundamentals, the Azure provider, modules, state management, and CI/CD integration with Azure Pipelines. Choose this over Bicep (#8) if you expect to work across more than one cloud.
8. Azure Bicep: Mastering Infrastructure as Code — Udemy
Best for: Azure-only teams who want native Microsoft IaC tooling. Rating: 4.4★ (650 ratings) · Instructor: Paulo Dichone.
Bicep is Microsoft’s cleaner, domain-specific language that compiles to ARM templates — the native choice if your environment is Azure-only. This course covers Bicep fundamentals, modules, parameter files, and Azure DevOps integration. It has a smaller review base than the Terraform course, which reflects Bicep’s narrower (Azure-only) audience rather than a quality gap. Many engineers learn both: Terraform for cross-cloud, Bicep for Azure-specific work.
9. Azure Kubernetes Service with Azure DevOps and Terraform — Udemy
Best for: Container-focused engineers running AKS workloads. Rating: 4.6★ (6,383 ratings) · Instructor: Kalyan Reddy Daida.
Container orchestration with AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) is core to modern Azure DevOps work, and this course ties it together better than most: AKS clusters, storage, networking, and security, then deploying to them via Azure Pipelines and Terraform. It’s the rare course that connects containers, IaC, and CI/CD in one practical project. A strong complement to AZ-400 prep once you have the fundamentals down.
10. DevSecOps with Azure DevOps — Udemy
Best for: Engineers adding security automation to their pipelines. Rating: 4.4★ (956 ratings).
Security and compliance is its own AZ-400 domain, and the industry has firmly merged DevOps with DevSecOps. This course covers shifting security left in the pipeline: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, secret management with Key Vault, and security scanning inside CI/CD. Pair it with #1 to cover the security-and-compliance objectives properly rather than skimming them.
11. Azure DevOps CI/CD: Pipelines & Automation Projects — Udemy
Best for: Engineers who want project practice after the fundamentals. Rating: 4.5★ (newer course, ~17 ratings) · Instructor: Tareq Tech.
A project-based course that builds end-to-end Azure DevOps deployments rather than teaching concepts in isolation — useful once you’ve covered the basics and want to assemble a portfolio. It’s a newer course with a small (but strong) review base, so we list it as a project supplement, not a primary learning path. If you prefer learning by building, it’s a low-cost way to get reps.
How to Choose the Right Course
- Targeting AZ-400: Start with #1 (Udemy, Rodrigues) + #3 (free Microsoft Learn), then add #5 for pipeline depth.
- Employer pays for training: #2 (Pluralsight) for the sandbox labs.
- CI/CD with GitHub Actions: #6 (Academind) — increasingly the default in Azure shops.
- Multi-cloud IaC: #7 (Terraform). Azure-only IaC: #8 (Bicep).
- Containers / Kubernetes: #9 (AKS, Daida).
- Security focus: #10 (DevSecOps).
- Learn by building: #11 (projects).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Azure DevOps, and what do Azure DevOps engineers do?
Azure DevOps is Microsoft’s suite for the software delivery lifecycle: source control (Repos), CI/CD (Pipelines), project management (Boards), testing (Test Plans), and package management (Artifacts). Azure DevOps engineers automate how applications get built, secured, deployed, and monitored on Azure — writing infrastructure-as-code, building pipelines, automating security, and wiring up observability.
What is the AZ-400 certification?
AZ-400, “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions,” is the exam that earns the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert credential. It tests Git source control, build and release pipelines (the largest domain, at 50–55%), infrastructure-as-code, security and compliance, and instrumentation. The English version was updated April 24, 2026, and the passing score is 700. Most senior Azure DevOps roles list AZ-400 as preferred or required.
How much does the AZ-400 exam cost?
Microsoft prices its exams by region. In the US, AZ-400 is around $165, but the exact price depends on the country where you take it, so confirm your local rate when you book. Microsoft Learn material is free, so course fees (often ~$15–20 for a Udemy course on sale) and the exam itself are usually your only costs.
Should I learn Azure Pipelines or GitHub Actions for CI/CD?
Both, ideally — and the current AZ-400 covers both. Many Microsoft-shop teams now run CI/CD through GitHub Actions (GitHub is Microsoft-owned), while plenty of existing systems still run on Azure Pipelines. If you can only pick one to start, GitHub Actions is the more future-leaning skill; Azure Pipelines is the one you’ll meet in established deployments.
Should I learn Terraform or Bicep for Azure IaC?
Terraform if you’re multi-cloud (AWS + Azure, or GCP + Azure) — the same skills carry across providers. Bicep if you’re Azure-only and want native Microsoft tooling with cleaner syntax than raw ARM templates. Many engineers learn both: Terraform for cross-cloud work, Bicep for Azure-specific projects.
How long does it take to become an Azure DevOps engineer?
A realistic timeline is 6–12 months at 10–15 hours per week if you already have basic cloud or developer fundamentals; pure career changers should plan for 12–18 months. The gating factor isn’t finishing courses — it’s hands-on practice. Build three to five substantial Azure DevOps projects on GitHub so you can demonstrate, not just claim, the skills.
Can I become an Azure DevOps engineer without prior cloud experience?
It’s possible but harder. Most roles assume you already understand cloud fundamentals (AZ-900, then AZ-104) and basic software development (Git, plus scripting in PowerShell or Bash). If you’re starting from zero, work the Azure Administrator path (AZ-104) before targeting the AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert — the DevOps material assumes that foundation.
What’s the difference between Azure DevOps and AWS DevOps?
Same role, different cloud. Azure DevOps engineers use Microsoft tooling (ARM/Bicep, Azure Pipelines); AWS DevOps engineers use AWS tooling (CloudFormation/CDK, CodePipeline). The underlying patterns — CI/CD, IaC, monitoring, security — are the same; the specific services differ. Many engineers learn both clouds because large enterprises commonly run hybrid Azure + AWS estates.