Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert
The AZ-400 exam is designed for professionals who implement and configure Azure. It validates your ability to design and implement processes and communications, design and implement a source control strategy, design and implement build and release pipelines, develop a security and compliance plan, and implement an instrumentation strategy.
Exam details
- Certification
- Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert
- Exam code
- AZ-400
- Level
- Expert
- Duration
- Approximately 100 minutes
- Questions
- Typically 40–60 questions
- Passing score
- 700 out of 1000
- Cost
- USD $165 — typical price; the exact fee varies by country/region and currency, and local taxes may apply.
- Prerequisites
- Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) certification
- Languages
- English (also available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional) and Italian)
- Delivered by
- Pearson VUE
- Renewal
- Free online assessment, every 12 months
Skills measured
Design and implement processes and communications (10–15%)
- Design work flow, feedback, GitHub Issues, Azure Boards, and source or quality traceability.
- Design dashboards and metrics for planning, development, testing, security, and operations.
- Configure wikis, release notes, webhooks, and Teams or Azure Boards integrations.
Design and implement a source control strategy (10–15%)
- Design branching, pull requests, branch policies, and merge restrictions.
- Configure repository permissions, large files, tags, and recovery of Git data.
Design and implement build and release pipelines (50–55%)
- Design package feeds, versioning, quality gates, and pipeline testing.
- Implement YAML pipelines, GitHub Actions or Azure Pipelines, deployments, and IaC.
- Maintain pipeline health, cost, concurrency, artefact retention, and classic-to-YAML migration.
Develop a security and compliance plan (10–15%)
- Design authentication, permissions, service connections, and managed identities.
- Manage secrets in Key Vault, GitHub Actions, and Azure Pipelines without leakage.
- Automate security scanning with Defender for Cloud, GitHub Advanced Security, and Dependabot.
Implement an instrumentation strategy (5–10%)
- Configure Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and GitHub monitoring and alerts.
- Analyse infrastructure, application, tracing, and KQL log metrics.
Study resources & practice tests
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Frequently asked questions
Who should take AZ-400?
AZ-400 is for DevOps engineers, platform engineers, and site reliability engineers. Most work at software product companies, banks, retailers, and Microsoft partners. Microsoft awards it only after you hold Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate.
What is the average salary for a DevOps Engineer?
As of 2026, US DevOps and Azure DevOps engineer mid-level pay is commonly about $120,000 to $150,000. In the United Kingdom, IT Jobs Watch shows a median advertised salary of £65,000 for Azure DevOps roles. In western Europe, comparable DevOps engineers often earn about €70,000 to €110,000. There is no single published EMEA average.
Where do I find exam questions to practice?
You will find websites selling exam dumps or brain dumps that claim to be real AZ-400 questions. Those materials are not official. Microsoft treats using brain dumps as cheating. It can invalidate your score, revoke certifications you already hold, and ban you from future exams. Microsoft publishes a free Practice Assessment for AZ-400 on Microsoft Learn. Those questions are examples only, not the live exam. MeasureUp also sells the official practice test linked in the study resources on this page. You can try the Microsoft exam sandbox to see the question types and timer, but it does not use real exam questions. Practise the skills measured in a real product environment rather than memorising leaked items.
Does the exam include official labs I can use to practice?
AZ-400 is a design and architecture exam. It is typically assessed with case studies and traditional questions rather than a hands-on lab you can reuse afterwards. Microsoft still expects job-role experience. Practise in a subscription or trial, and official instructor-led AZ-400T00 training delivered by a Microsoft Learning Partner includes labs. Those labs are for the course, not a copy of the exam. The Microsoft exam sandbox shows traditional question types only. It does not give you the lab virtual machine.