How I pass the Azure Security Exam Az-500

In the past I have taken several Azure exams, and yesterday I took the Azure Security exam Az-500. I am really glad that I passed the exam. In this article I will give you a brief overview of the topics I saw in the exam and what materials I used to prepare for the exam. I can say directly that the best way to succeed in the exam is practice.

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General

The Azure Security exam covers a broad range of Azure topics and this makes the exam so difficult. You need a wide range of understanding how Azure works and which security features Azure has. But the exam doesn`t focus on Azure. There are some additional areas that the exam cover for instance Intune.

Which areas are in my exam?

Here are a list of areas that are covered in my exam and some additional infos in the brackets.

• Azure AD
  • How Azure AD works
  • RBAC concept (Admin, contributor, etc.)
  • What are App registrations
  • Difference between PTA and PHS (AAD Connect)
  • Conditional Access rules (How they work and how they interact)
  • Identiy Protection (difference to PIM)
  • Privileged Identity Management
• Network
  • Network Security Groups
  • Application Security Groups
  • Azure Firewall
  • Network concepts (Hub and spoke)
• Container
  • Kubernetes security with ASC
  • Network design
  • Threat protection possibilities
• Deployment
  • Completing ARM Templates
• Various topics
  • Azure Monitor (generate alerts, data store, etc.)
  • Azure Policy
  • Management Groups
  • Azure Blueprints
  • Subscription movement
  • Intune baseline management
  • Just-in-time VM access
  • Azure Security Center
  • Storage Account (SAS, Keys, etc.)
  • Difference between ER and S2S
  • Resource locks

This are a overview of the different topics that are adressed in my exam.

Some questions

• Which license did you need for PIM?
• Which modes are valid for resource locks?
• Can you use tags for NSGs?
• Which are valid Azure monitor data sources?
• What are Azure policy initiatives?
• Which event will create an alert from SQL ATP?

Which resources I use to practice?

For exam preperation there are a lots of materials available in the Internet.

Mainly I focused on practice the different exam topics and used study guides from different MVPs. Additional I booked a course from OpenEDX. Here`s a list of used ressources:

• Az-500 exam study guide from Thomas Thornton
  • Thomas has written a good study guide for preparation that includes additional links to the Microsoft Docs topics
• Az-500 exam study guid from Gregor Suttie
• Udemy
  • There are some good courses at Udemy. Udemy offers periodical price discounts for the courses. I recommend the following courses:
    • Azure Az-500 security technology practice test
    • Azure Az-500 certification
• Open Edx Azure security exam
  • has enrolled a new course for the exam that covers all exam topics. The course is free for the first 4 weeks after with a new account

The best way to take the exam succesfully is practice. Use the study guides and focus on each area with Microsoft docs and try the demo to get a unterstanding of each area and how they work together.

When you have questions please feel free to reach me via the comment or twitter.

Happy studying :)