As cloud computing becomes the backbone of modern IT, Microsoft Azure continues to lead the way in helping organizations scale, secure, and manage their infrastructure in the cloud. For this reason, Azure Administrators are in high demand, and the AZ-104 certification is often the first major step toward a career in cloud administration.
Whether you’re applying for your first Azure Admin role or preparing to level up in your current one, this blog has you covered. We’ve compiled the Top 50 AZ-104 interview questions and answers, covering everything from identity management and networking to storage, compute, and automation. These questions reflect real-world scenarios and concepts you’ll likely face in both technical interviews and daily cloud operations.
Let’s get you interview-ready—and Azure certified.
What does an AZ-104 Azure Administrator Do?
If the cloud were a city, the Azure Administrator would be the one making sure the lights stay on, traffic flows smoothly, and every building is secured and well-maintained. It’s a hands-on role—part technician, part architect, part problem-solver.
In real terms, Azure Admins are responsible for deploying, configuring, and managing Azure resources like virtual machines, storage accounts, networks, and databases. They handle user identity and access control through Azure Active Directory, enforce security policies, and make sure only the right people have the right level of access.
They also monitor system health, set up alerts, optimize performance, and ensure that workloads are backed up, resilient, and cost-efficient. Whether it’s spinning up a new server, troubleshooting a connectivity issue, or automating a deployment with PowerShell or Azure CLI, it’s a role that keeps you close to the heart of cloud operations.
At its core, being an Azure Administrator means being the person your team counts on to make sure everything in the Azure cloud works exactly as it should—securely, reliably, and at scale.
About the AZ-104 Certification Exam
The AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate certification is designed for IT professionals who manage cloud services covering compute, storage, networking, identity, and governance in Microsoft Azure. It’s the go-to certification for proving your hands-on expertise with day-to-day Azure administrative tasks.
Unlike entry-level cloud certifications, AZ-104 goes deeper—it expects you to know how to deploy and manage Azure resources, configure virtual networks, monitor environments, and apply security controls in real-world scenarios. If you’re aiming for a role as an Azure Administrator, Cloud Support Engineer, or Infrastructure Specialist, this exam is a must-have milestone.
AZ-104 Exam Format
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Exam Code | AZ-104 – Microsoft Azure Administrator |
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Question Format | Multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, scenario-based case studies |
| Number of Questions | Typically 40–60 |
| Passing Score | 700 out of 1000 |
| Delivery Method | Online proctored exam or in-person at authorized test centers |
| Cost | $165 USD (may vary by region) |
| Languages Available | English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, and others |
| Certification Validity | 1 year (renewable online for free via Microsoft Learn renewal assessments) |
Let’s now move on to the questions for cracking the interview.
Core Azure Concepts Interview Questions
These questions assess your foundational understanding of AZ-104 Microsoft Azure—its architecture, services, and resource management.
- What is Microsoft Azure?
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services including virtual machines, databases, storage, networking, identity management, AI, and more. It allows organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications globally via Microsoft-managed data centers. - What is the difference between Azure Resource Group and Azure Subscription?
A Subscription defines the billing boundary and access control for Azure services.
A Resource Group is a logical container for grouping related Azure resources like VMs, NICs, storage accounts, etc. It helps manage and monitor resources collectively. - What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM)?
ARM is the deployment and management framework for Azure. It enables you to create, update, and delete resources as a group using declarative templates (ARM templates), PowerShell, or CLI. It provides role-based access control, tagging, and dependency handling. - What are Availability Sets and why are they important?
Availability Sets ensure high availability for VMs by distributing them across fault domains (hardware) and update domains (maintenance cycles). This helps minimize downtime during planned maintenance or unexpected failures. - What is Azure Region and Availability Zone?
A Region is a geographical area where Microsoft hosts its data centers (e.g., East US, West Europe).
Availability Zones are physically separate locations within a region, designed for high availability. Deploying across zones ensures resilience against data center-level failures. - What are Azure Tags and why are they used?
Tags are key-value pairs attached to Azure resources to help organize, manage, and track costs. For example, you can tag resources by department, project, or environment (e.g.,Env:Production). - What is the difference between Azure Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud models?
- Public Cloud: Hosted by Microsoft, shared with other tenants (e.g., Azure).
- Private Cloud: Azure Stack or other private deployments on-premises for exclusive use.
- Hybrid Cloud: A combination of on-prem infrastructure and Azure services, allowing data and apps to move between environments.
- What are Azure Blueprints?
Azure Blueprints allow you to define a repeatable set of governance tools, policies, RBAC assignments, and resource templates. It helps ensure consistency and compliance when deploying environments at scale. - What is Azure Marketplace?
Azure Marketplace is an online store offering thousands of pre-built applications and services (from Microsoft and third-party vendors) that can be directly deployed into your Azure environment—saving time and simplifying integration. - How do you estimate costs for Azure resources?
Use the Azure Pricing Calculator or Azure Cost Management to estimate and track usage-based costs. You can set budgets, create cost alerts, and analyze spend by resource, department, or tag.
Identity and Governance Interview Questions
This section focuses on managing access, securing identities, and enforcing governance policies in an Azure environment.
- What is Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)?
Azure AD is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) service. It helps manage users, groups, and devices, enabling secure access to Azure resources, Microsoft 365, and third-party applications through SSO, MFA, and conditional access. - What is the difference between Azure AD and on-prem Active Directory?
Azure AD is designed for cloud-native applications and provides identity services over the internet, supporting SSO, OAuth, SAML, and REST APIs.
On-prem AD is domain-based, uses Kerberos, and is mainly designed for local networks. Azure AD doesn’t support Group Policy or machine trust by default. - What is Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)?
RBAC lets you assign fine-grained access to Azure resources based on roles. You can grant users or groups roles like Reader, Contributor, or Owner at different scopes (subscription, resource group, or individual resource). - What are the built-in roles in Azure RBAC?
Some common built-in roles include:
- Owner: Full access including permission management
- Contributor: Can create and manage resources but not assign permissions
- Reader: Can view resources but not modify them
- User Access Administrator: Can manage access permissions but not the resources themselves
- How do you assign a role to a user in Azure?
Navigate to the resource (or scope) > Access Control (IAM) > Add Role Assignment. Choose the role, select the user/group, and assign the role. Roles can also be assigned using Azure CLI, PowerShell, or ARM templates. - What is Conditional Access in Azure AD?
Conditional Access allows you to control how and when users can access apps and data. You can set policies based on conditions like user location, device status, app being accessed, or sign-in risk—commonly used with MFA. - What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM)?
PIM helps manage, control, and monitor access to sensitive roles. It enables just-in-time (JIT) access, approval workflows, MFA enforcement, and access reviews, reducing the risk of standing admin access. - What are Azure Policies and how are they used?
Azure Policies enforce rules and effects on Azure resources. For example, a policy might restrict VM sizes in a subscription or enforce tagging. They help with compliance, governance, and environment standardization. - What’s the difference between Azure Policy and RBAC?
- RBAC controls who can perform actions on resources.
- Policy controls what resources can and cannot be created or configured, regardless of who is acting.
They often work together to enforce governance and access.
- What is a Management Group in Azure?
Management Groups allow you to organize subscriptions into a hierarchy for unified policy and RBAC application. For example, you can apply a security policy across all production subscriptions in a single management group.
Azure Networking Interview Questions
These questions help assess your understanding of how Azure handles connectivity, security, and traffic between services, users, and environments.
- What is an Azure Virtual Network (VNet)?
An Azure VNet is a logically isolated network in the Azure cloud. It allows Azure resources like virtual machines and services to securely communicate with each other, the internet, or on-premises networks. It’s similar to a traditional on-premises network but cloud-based. - What are Network Security Groups (NSGs)?
NSGs are used to control inbound and outbound traffic to Azure resources in a VNet. They act like virtual firewalls, allowing or denying traffic based on rules defined by source, destination, protocol, and port. - What is Azure VPN Gateway?
Azure VPN Gateway enables secure site-to-site or point-to-site connectivity between on-premises networks and Azure VNets over the internet using IPsec/IKE protocols. It’s commonly used in hybrid cloud setups. - What is the difference between a Public IP and a Private IP in Azure?
- Public IPs allow resources to be accessed from the internet.
- Private IPs are used for internal communication within a VNet.
You can assign both static and dynamic versions of these IPs.
- What is Azure ExpressRoute?
ExpressRoute allows private, dedicated connections between your on-premises network and Azure, bypassing the public internet. It offers higher security, lower latency, and better reliability—ideal for large enterprises. - What is an Application Gateway?
Azure Application Gateway is a layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancer that includes features like SSL termination, session affinity, and web application firewall (WAF) for secure, scalable web traffic distribution. - How is a Load Balancer different from an Application Gateway?
- Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP), ideal for distributing network traffic.
- Application Gateway operates at Layer 7, suitable for HTTP/HTTPS-based workloads with routing and security logic.
- What is DNS in Azure and how is it managed?
Azure DNS is a hosting service for domain name system (DNS) domains, allowing you to manage your DNS records using the same credentials and billing as your Azure services. You can create private DNS zones for internal resolution within VNets. - What are Service Endpoints and Private Endpoints?
- Service Endpoints allow resources in a VNet to connect to Azure services via a private link while using the public IP range.
- Private Endpoints assign a private IP to a resource from your VNet, completely bypassing the public internet.
- What is Azure Traffic Manager?
Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that distributes traffic globally across Azure regions. It uses routing methods like performance-based, priority, and geographic to ensure high availability and fast response times.
Compute and Storage Interview Questions
This section tests your knowledge of deploying and managing virtual machines, scaling resources, configuring storage accounts, and ensuring availability.
- What are the main types of Azure virtual machines (VMs)?
Azure VMs come in several series designed for different workloads:
- B-Series: Economical burstable VMs
- D-Series: General-purpose computing
- E-Series: Memory-optimized
- F-Series: Compute-optimized
- N-Series: GPU-enabled for AI and graphics workloads
- What is a Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)?
VMSS lets you deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs. It supports auto-scaling and is ideal for high-availability applications that need to scale based on demand. - What is the difference between Managed Disks and Unmanaged Disks?
- Managed Disks: Azure handles storage account management, scalability, and performance.
- Unmanaged Disks: You manage your own storage account, which has limits and higher overhead.
Managed disks are the recommended approach today.
- What are the types of Azure Storage accounts?
- General-purpose v2 (default and most versatile)
- General-purpose v1 (legacy)
- Blob Storage (optimized for unstructured data)
- Premium Storage (for high-performance workloads)
Each offers different performance tiers and access features.
- What’s the difference between Standard and Premium storage in Azure?
- Standard: Backed by HDDs or standard SSDs, suitable for dev/test workloads.
- Premium: Backed by high-performance SSDs, designed for I/O-intensive production workloads.
- What is Azure Blob Storage and what are its tiers?
Azure Blob Storage is optimized for storing unstructured data like images, videos, logs, and backups.
Blob tiers:
- Hot: Frequent access
- Cool: Infrequent access
- Archive: Rare access, long-term storage (lower cost, higher retrieval time)
- What is an Availability Set vs. Availability Zone?
- Availability Set: Groups VMs within the same data center across fault and update domains
- Availability Zone: Physically separate data centers in the same region, providing greater redundancy
Zones offer higher fault tolerance than sets.
- How do you back up a VM in Azure?
Use Azure Backup. Enable backup in the Recovery Services Vault, configure a backup policy, and apply it to the VM. Azure Backup supports point-in-time recovery, retention policies, and instant restore. - What is Azure Files and when would you use it?
Azure Files provides fully managed file shares in the cloud, accessible via SMB protocol. It’s useful for lift-and-shift applications, user profiles, and shared storage across VMs. - What is Azure Disk Encryption?
Azure Disk Encryption uses BitLocker (Windows) or dm-crypt (Linux) to encrypt OS and data disks. It integrates with Azure Key Vault to store and manage keys securely, ensuring data protection and regulatory compliance.
Monitoring, Security, and Automation Interview Questions
These questions assess how well you understand Azure’s tools for monitoring, securing, and automating cloud infrastructure.
- What is Azure Monitor and what can it track?
Azure Monitor collects, analyzes, and acts on telemetry from Azure and on-premises environments. It tracks metrics, logs, diagnostics, alerts, and performance data across resources, helping admins detect issues and optimize performance. - What are Log Analytics and the Kusto Query Language (KQL)?
Log Analytics is a feature of Azure Monitor that lets you query and analyze collected logs using KQL, a structured query language. It helps in diagnosing problems, creating dashboards, and detecting anomalies in real time. - What is Azure Security Center?
Azure Security Center (now part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud) is a unified security management system that helps you prevent, detect, and respond to threats. It provides security posture assessments, compliance checks, and threat protection across your resources. - How do you enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in Azure?
You can enable MFA via Azure AD > Security > MFA settings or through Conditional Access policies. It adds a second layer of security for user logins using authentication apps, SMS, or phone calls. - What is the difference between Azure Policy and Azure Blueprints in terms of compliance?
- Azure Policy enforces individual rules on resources (e.g., require tags, restrict VM sizes).
- Blueprints bundle policies, RBAC roles, and ARM templates for deploying entire compliant environments consistently.
- What is Azure Update Management?
It’s a feature in Azure Automation that lets you schedule and deploy OS updates across Windows and Linux VMs, both in Azure and on-prem. It helps track compliance and reduces security risks from unpatched systems. - What are Azure Automation Runbooks?
Runbooks are scripts written in PowerShell or Python that automate repetitive tasks in Azure. Common uses include stopping/starting VMs, cleaning up resources, or triggering alerts. They’re part of Azure Automation. - What is Azure Key Vault?
Key Vault securely stores secrets, keys, and certificates used by apps and services. It integrates with disk encryption, TLS/SSL management, and RBAC, allowing centralized secret management with audit logging. - What is Just-In-Time (JIT) VM Access?
JIT, part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, temporarily opens ports to a VM only when needed. This reduces the attack surface by closing RDP/SSH ports unless explicitly requested by an authorized user for a set duration. - How can you automate the deployment of Azure resources?
You can use ARM templates, Bicep, Terraform, PowerShell scripts, or Azure CLI to define and deploy infrastructure as code. These tools help ensure repeatability, version control, and consistency across environments.
Preparatory Guide for the AZ-104 Exam
Preparing for the AZ-104 exam isn’t just about memorizing terms or ticking off topics from a checklist. It’s about truly understanding how to manage, secure, and optimize resources in a live Azure environment, just like you would on the job.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get there:
Step 1: Know What You’ll Be Tested On
Start by reviewing the official Microsoft exam skills outline. The key domains include:
- Managing Azure identities and governance
- Implementing and managing storage
- Deploying and managing Azure compute resources
- Configuring and managing virtual networks
- Monitoring and maintaining Azure resources
Understanding these domains will help you focus your energy where it matters most.
Step 2: Get Hands-On with Azure
Theory will only take you so far. Set up a free Azure account (or use your organization’s sandbox) and start practicing:
- Create VMs and storage accounts
- Configure role-based access control (RBAC)
- Set up virtual networks, NSGs, and VPNs
- Deploy Azure Monitor and alerts
Microsoft wants admins who’ve actually clicked the buttons and written the scripts.
Step 3: Learn the Tools of the Trade
Familiarize yourself with the Azure Portal for GUI-based tasks, but also get comfortable with:
- Azure PowerShell for automation and scripting
- Azure CLI for fast, command-line-based management
Many real interview questions assume you know both visual and scripted approaches.
Step 4: Practice with Mock Tests & Case Studies
Use practice tests to simulate real exam pressure and reinforce weak areas. Also, review scenario-based questions—the kind where you need to choose the best solution, not just the right answer.
Step 5: Use Trusted Study Resources
Here are some solid places to start:
- Microsoft Learn – Free, official, and interactive
- Whizlabs, Tutorials Dojo, and ExamTopics for mock tests
- YouTube channels like John Savill’s Technical Training and Azure Academy for visual learners
Stay consistent. Keep practicing. And remember—the more you build in Azure, the less likely you are to be caught off guard on exam day.
Must-Know Tools & Services for Azure Admins
Azure administrators don’t just configure resources—they rely on a set of tools to monitor, automate, troubleshoot, and optimize everything in the cloud. Whether you’re preparing for the AZ-104 exam or managing real environments, these tools are your go-to toolkit.
| Tool / Service | Purpose / Use Case |
|---|---|
| Azure Portal | Web-based UI to manage all Azure services, monitor resources, and deploy solutions. |
| Azure PowerShell | Scriptable interface for automating and managing Azure resources via command line. |
| Azure CLI | Cross-platform command-line tool to create and manage Azure resources. |
| Azure Resource Manager (ARM) | Deployment framework for managing resources via templates (ARM or Bicep). |
| Azure Monitor | Centralized service for collecting metrics, logs, and setting alerts for resources. |
| Log Analytics | Query-based insights into logs from multiple Azure services using Kusto Query Language. |
| Azure Advisor | AI-driven recommendations for cost optimization, performance, and security. |
| Azure Automation | Automate routine tasks using runbooks and Update Management. |
| Azure Security Center / Defender for Cloud | Unified platform for threat detection, compliance, and security posture management. |
| Azure Cost Management | Track, analyze, and optimize cloud spend using dashboards and alerts. |
| Azure Key Vault | Securely manage secrets, keys, and certificates used in apps and services. |
| Azure Migrate | Scriptable interface for automating and managing Azure resources via the command line. |
These tools aren’t just helpful—they’re essential. Mastering them can boost your efficiency, reduce costs, and give you a serious edge in both exams and real-world Azure administration.
Conclusion
Preparing for the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator interview is more than just studying facts—it’s about understanding how to apply your knowledge in real environments, under pressure, and with clarity.
The questions in this guide are designed not only to test your technical knowledge but to reflect the kind of real-world problems you’ll solve as an Azure Admin. From configuring virtual networks and managing role-based access to automating deployments and securing data, this role demands both precision and flexibility.
As you move forward, keep practicing in the Azure portal, stay curious about new services, and get comfortable with both command-line tools and scripting. Combine hands-on experience with strong fundamentals, and you’ll not only ace your interview but you’ll also be ready to thrive on the job.
