Last updated: October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. We re-opened every course below on Udemy, Pluralsight, Coursera, Microsoft Learn and MeasureUp on 22 October 2026 and read its rating, enrollment, length and last-update date from the provider’s own page that day. 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★, 13,402 ratings) and pair it with the free Microsoft Learn modules. Then take Microsoft’s free AZ-400 practice assessment before you book. The single biggest predictor of passing is not which course you buy; it is how many real pipelines you build.
- Best overall (AZ-400 prep): Udemy AZ-400 — Alan Rodrigues
- Best hands-on labs: Pluralsight AZ-400 path (cloud sandboxes on Cloud+ and Complete)
- 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: Microsoft updated the skills measured on July 27, 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.
Two more facts changed in 2026. The prerequisite: to receive the DevOps Engineer Expert certification you must also hold either the Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or the Azure Developer Associate. Microsoft has now retired the Azure Developer Associate certification and its renewal assessment (see our AZ-204 page), so for anyone starting today the practical route is AZ-104 first. And renewal is free: the certification expires annually, and you renew it by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn.
The 27 July 2026 update was small. Microsoft’s own comparison table marks the changed areas, traceability and flow of work, security scanning, monitoring and metrics, as “Minor”, with the domain weights unchanged. Study material from 2025 still covers the exam; check the study guide’s skills list for the handful of new bullets, most of which add GitHub equivalents (GitHub Flow, GitHub Issues and Projects, GitHub Packages) next to the Azure DevOps ones.
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★ (13.4k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| Pluralsight Azure DevOps path | Labs + cloud sandboxes | Path (6 courses, 36 hours) | $21–$39/mo (yearly) |
| Microsoft Learn | Free official material | Official | Free |
| CI/CD Pipelines (Aylward) | Pipelines deep dive | 4.5★ (6.2k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| GitHub Actions (Academind) | GitHub Actions CI/CD | 4.7★ (12.5k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| AKS on Azure (Daida) | Containers / Kubernetes | 4.7★ (6.6k) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| Coursera AZ-400 (Whizlabs) | Coursera format + certificate | 4 courses, ~20 weeks | Coursera subscription |
| Udemy AZ-400 (Christopher Nett) | Most recently updated | 4.6★ (42) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| Udemy AZ-400 practice tests | Exam-style questions | 4.4★ (367) | ~$15–20 on sale |
| Microsoft practice assessment | Free official questions | Official | Free |
| MeasureUp AZ-400 practice test | Official practice-test partner | 139 questions | $199 list |
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★ (13,402 ratings, 87,612 students) · 20.5 hours · last updated September 2025 · 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. It was last updated in September 2025, before Microsoft’s 27 July 2026 skills update; because that update was rated “Minor” across the board, the course still covers the exam, but read the study guide’s new GitHub bullets alongside it.
2. Azure DevOps Engineer Path — Pluralsight
Best for: Learners who want structured paths plus hands-on labs (often employer-funded).
Pluralsight’s Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) path bundles six courses and 36 hours, one per exam domain, and Pluralsight includes hands-on labs on every plan, with cloud sandboxes, which spin up temporary Azure environments, on Cloud+ and Complete. The path page notes it is being refreshed with exam updates dating from July 2024. For a discipline where most learning happens through trial and error, that lab access is the differentiator. The catch is price: $21 a month for Core Tech, $24.50 a month for Cloud+ (which carries the A Cloud Guru library and the cloud sandboxes) or $39 a month for Complete, all billed yearly; month-to-month plans cost more, and Pluralsight does not refund individual subscriptions. It makes most sense if your employer covers it or you will use it across several certifications. See our Pluralsight pricing guide for every plan. 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 four courses (7, 5, 7 and 6 hours) over roughly 20 weeks at 2 hours a week; Coursera shows only 6 reviews so far. It’s structured purely around passing AZ-400, with practice questions throughout. Each course offers a free preview of its first module; the full specialization and the shareable certificate need a Coursera subscription; an annual Coursera Plus subscription currently costs $319.20 (normally $399). 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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Udemy runs frequent sitewide sales. If a course shows full price, it’s usually worth waiting a few days — or checking back — for the discounted rate.
Affiliate partnership — we may earn a commission when you enroll via these links, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend courses we’d send a friend to.
5. CI/CD Pipelines using Azure DevOps — Udemy
Best for: Engineers who want to master the single largest exam domain — pipelines. Rating: 4.5★ (6,187 ratings, 35,041 students) · 7 hours · updated July 2025 · 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★ (12,451 ratings, 98,315 students) · 10.5 hours · updated November 2025 · 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★ (4,096 ratings, 21,910 students) · 8.5 hours · last updated April 2022 · Instructor: Edward Viaene.
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. One caveat: it was last updated in April 2022, so expect newer Terraform and AzureRM provider versions than the videos show, and check HashiCorp’s documentation for current syntax.
8. Azure Bicep: Mastering Infrastructure as Code — Udemy
Best for: Azure-only teams who want native Microsoft IaC tooling. Rating: 4.5★ (726 ratings, 4,146 students) · 3 hours · updated August 2023 · 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: 4.7★ (6,613 ratings, 53,800 students) · 28 hours · updated March 2026 · 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: 4.5★ (1,026 ratings, 9,070 students) · 3.5 hours · updated July 2026.
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: 4.6★ (22 ratings, 4,694 students) · 9.5 hours · updated October 2025 · 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.
12. AZ-400: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (Christopher Nett) — Udemy
Best for: Candidates who want material written after the July 2026 skills update. Rating: 4.6★ (42 ratings, 609 students) · 10 hours · updated August 2026.
This is the most recently updated full AZ-400 course on Udemy that we found, refreshed in August 2026. Its review base is still small, so we rank it below Rodrigues’ much larger course, but if you want the newest walkthrough of the exam blueprint, including the GitHub objectives, it is a reasonable choice or a complement.
13. AZ-400 Practice Tests: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions Exam — Udemy
Best for: Exam-style question practice at Udemy prices. Rating: 4.4★ (367 ratings, 9,388 students) · updated March 2025.
A practice-test course is the cheapest way to find your weak domains before booking. Use it after a full course, not instead of one, and treat any question bank as practice rather than a preview of the real exam: Microsoft prohibits exam dumps, and r/AzureCertification removes posts that recommend them.
View the practice tests on Udemy →
14. Microsoft AZ-400 Practice Assessment — Free
Best for: A free, official check of readiness before you book.
Microsoft publishes a free practice assessment for AZ-400 on the exam’s Learn page, with questions in the style, wording and difficulty of the real exam. Take it once early to find gaps and again a week before your exam date. It costs nothing and it is the most reliable signal of whether you are ready.
Microsoft’s practice assessments page lists every exam’s free assessment.
15. MeasureUp AZ-400 Official Practice Test
Best for: A large, domain-weighted question bank from Microsoft’s official practice-test partner.
MeasureUp’s AZ-400 practice test has 139 questions split by domain, with 70 on build and release pipelines to match the exam’s weighting, and both a certification mode and a learning mode. It lists at $199 and showed $129.35 on 22 October 2026. We have no affiliate relationship with MeasureUp; it is here because it is the closest thing to the real exam you can buy.
16. John Savill’s Technical Training — YouTube (Free)
Best for: Free, in-depth explanations of Azure services to go with your course.
John Savill’s YouTube channel is the free resource named most often in r/AzureCertification pass reports, alongside the Microsoft Learn path and the practice assessment. His videos explain Azure services in depth, which helps when a course demo moves faster than you can follow.
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).
- Most current AZ-400 course: #12 (Nett, updated August 2026).
- Final exam check: #14 (free Microsoft practice assessment), then #13 or #15 for more questions.
How much does Azure DevOps cost?
Azure DevOps Services itself, the tool you learn in these courses, is free to start. Microsoft’s pricing page on 22 October 2026:
| Plan or item | Price |
|---|---|
| Basic plan (Repos, Pipelines, Boards, Artifacts) | First 5 users free, then $6 per user per month |
| Basic + Test Plans | $52 per user per month |
| Stakeholders | Free |
| Azure Pipelines, Microsoft-hosted | 1 free parallel job with 1,800 minutes a month; $40 per extra job |
| Azure Pipelines, self-hosted | 1 free parallel job with unlimited minutes; $15 per extra job |
| Azure Artifacts | First 2 GiB free, then from $2 per GiB |
For learning, that means you can build real pipelines on a personal organization at no cost. The costs you will actually pay are a course (often $15–$20 on Udemy) and the $165 exam; the Azure resources your pipelines deploy to are billed separately, so delete practice resources when you finish.
A study plan for AZ-400
- Check the prerequisite. If you do not hold AZ-104 yet, start there; the AZ-400 material assumes administrator-level Azure knowledge.
- Weeks 1–4: a full course (#1 or #12) alongside the free Microsoft Learn AZ-400 path, building every demo yourself in a free Azure DevOps organization.
- Weeks 5–6: go deeper on pipelines (#5), which carry 50–55% of the exam, and on GitHub Actions (#6), which the 2026 objectives name throughout.
- Week 7: fill the security and instrumentation domains (#10), and read the study guide’s skills list line by line.
- Week 8: the free Microsoft practice assessment (#14), then practice tests (#13 or #15) on your weakest domains, then book.
People in r/AzureCertification who passed recently stress hands-on work: the exam can include lab-style tasks in which you configure a service or write a template, and one pass report notes that no amount of video replaces having built the pipelines yourself.
AZ-400 vs AZ-104 vs AZ-305: which Azure exam do you need?
| Exam | Certification | Level | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AZ-104 | Azure Administrator Associate | Associate | Running Azure: identity, networking, storage, compute. The prerequisite for both expert certifications. |
| AZ-400 | DevOps Engineer Expert | Expert | Building and automating delivery: pipelines, source control, IaC, security scanning. |
| AZ-305 | Azure Solutions Architect Expert | Expert | Designing Azure solutions: architecture, governance, reliability. Requires AZ-104. |
If you build and ship software, AZ-400 is the one. If you design systems for others to build, it is AZ-305. Many engineers hold all three, in the order AZ-104, then whichever expert exam matches their job. AZ-400 costs $165 in the US; Microsoft prices every exam by country, so check each exam page at booking. For the full exam guide, including domains and booking, see our AZ-400 certification guide.
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. Microsoft last updated the skills measured on July 27, 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, and AZ-104 is now the practical prerequisite for the certification.
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.
Is the AZ-400 certification worth it?
For engineers working in Microsoft and Azure shops, yes: it is the expert-level credential that Azure DevOps job listings name, it proves you can build and secure delivery pipelines, and renewal is free each year. It is less useful if your employer runs on AWS or Google Cloud, where their own DevOps certifications carry more weight.
Do I need AZ-104 before AZ-400?
You can sit AZ-400 at any time, but to receive the DevOps Engineer Expert certification you must also hold the Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or the Azure Developer Associate. Microsoft has retired the Azure Developer Associate, so for new candidates AZ-104 is the practical prerequisite.
Is Azure DevOps free?
Azure DevOps Services is free for the first five users on the Basic plan, with one free Microsoft-hosted pipeline job of 1,800 minutes a month. Additional users cost $6 per user per month, and Basic + Test Plans costs $52 per user per month.
Related: Pipelines often run PowerShell scripts. Our guide to the best PowerShell courses covers PowerShell 7 for sysadmins, Azure PowerShell and the free options, all checked in October 2026.
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