This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: develop Azure compute solutions; develop for Azure storage; implement Azure security; monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions; and connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services.

If you have completed AZ-204, you can complete the AZ-400 to get the Azure DevOps Expert certification, which tests your end-to-end cloud knowledge.

It depends on your experience and skills. If you are a beginner, it takes about 3-4 months and if you are intermediate then it may take you 2-3 months.

The average salary for Azure skills is $96,000 as per compensation data firm PayScale.

Here are some of the jobs you could expect to get after passing the Azure DevOps certification exam.

• Junior Azure Architect
• Cloud Architect/Cloud Engineer
• Senior Cloud and DevOps Architect

The certification exam costs $165 USD.

Microsoft is the second-biggest cloud provider in the market. It was launched in 2012 and has been emerging at an unprecedented rate since then. According to a study by Forbes, Microsoft Azure revenue developed 50% year-over-year in fiscal Q2, 2021. Cloud technology has taken the IT world by storm. More than 70% of the IT companies utilize the Cloud in one form or another, and this is going to enhance in the upcoming years. Hence, there is going to be a crucial shortage for Cloud professionals in the coming years. So gear up, and be ready!

You are allowed to take Azure cloud certification exam only for 5 times in a year. After exceeding the limit of 5 attempts, you can retake only after the completion of 12 months from the date of exhaustion of 5th attempt.

Microsoft certifications are structured into four levels: 

• Fundamentals
• Associate
• Expert
• Specialty

If you want to ace Azure Certification and to developing applications in Azure, you require knowledge of:

• Open-source frameworks like ASP.NET
• Programming languages like SQL Server, HTML5 and JavaScript

Other skills comprises the understanding of how core services like networking, databases, servers, and software perform in the cloud. If you have prior working experience with another cloud platform like AWS or Google Cloud, it will give you skills that transition to Azure.

Also, you must possess knowledge of handling Microsoft tools like Office 365 and PowerShell that will assists you comprehend how these services integrate with Azure.

The average azure DevOps engineer salary in the USA is $167,807 per year.

Major companies that are hiring Azure Developer certified professionals are:

• Microsoft
• IBM
• Facebook
• Walmart
• TCS
• KPMG

Below is a few possible paths that leads you to a career as a Cloud Architect.

The following are the responsibilities of a Cloud Architect:

• Establishing best practices for cloud practice within an organization
• Discussing real business problems and finding opportunities with cloud technologies
• Overseeing governance, AKA the rules and standards the cloud environment must stand by. 
• IT security task to control privacy and develop incident response procedures. 
• Plans to reduce any risks that security and governance might have helped identify.
• Evaluating cloud infrastructure costs and meeting budgets. 
• And of course, Plan and implement their cloud infrastructure.