This was my first mainstream exam after giving my transition exam (AZ-102) which aligns with the Microsoft certification changes. This has been pending for quite some time and after 1 month of preparation, I gave the exam and cleared it :)

In this post, I will post the material I used and the approach I used to prepare for the exam.

Pre-Requisites

I think that having the experience with Azure is must for this as not only it will help you in the long run but will also help a lot when you are trying to do the labs in the courses.

If you have prior experience in DevOps, it should be easy for you to grasp the concepts of Azure DevOps in general.

Reference Material

1. Microsoft OpenEdx (Free of Cost and includes questionnaires and lab exercises. Create a new account if you already don't have it.) -

   • Implementing DevOps Development Processes
   • Implementing Continuous Integration
   • Implementing Continuous Delivery
   • Implementing Dependency Management
   • Implementing Application Infrastructure
   • Implementing Continuous Feedback
   • Designing a DevOps Strategy

2. I read the documentation of unknown concepts and was able to find it over here - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/?view=azure-devops . The documentation is neatly done and will help you a lot!

Labs

1. Azure DevOps Labs is hands down the best set of labs which are out there. Although do note that these are only labs and they don't provide you with any Azure accounts so you would have to create them yourself (A free account should be enough in my opinion)
2. Parts Unlimited MRP are labs which are excellent as well. Again, you would need the Azure account as this lab doesn't provide any Azure account or the credits required. These labs are more focused on the infrastructure, CI/CD aspect of DevOps.
3. Parts Unlimited are labs which have the same above concept (They don't provide the Azure credits or any infrastructure or licenses to the tools) but are more focused towards the application aspect of DevOps like Feature Flags, package management etc.

Study Time

It took me almost a month of preparation, spending around 1-2 hours daily (Hey I have a Full time job!) and do all the associated above labs. I have the habit of writing down the important points and concepts so it could take a lot less for you. Doing the labs ensures that you really understand the concepts. I would strongly suggest you to go through all the material and the labs.

Does it really benefit?

Well YES! If your work involves DevOps, it would really help you. Sometimes, what I have seen is that (I am also one of them) we know the concept but don't really understand the why of it or we think we know the concept but in reality it is quite different...

I am really happy with Microsoft for doing a great job with reworking these certification exams as they really help in my day to day life.

I hope this helps you in your preparation and all the best!