Azure Security Engineer AZ-500 Certification Exam Prep

I recently got the Azure Security Engineer AZ-500 certification and received a number of questions about exam preparation.

This was a tough exam not only because of the Azure knowledge that is required but the diversity of question types with case studies, building ordered lists, drag and drop, and completing commands.

Make sure to download the latest exam skills outline document. While preparing for the exam I noticed that the outline changed quite a bit and have now noticed it will be changing again very slightly.

You really need to know how to implement and execute the items mentioned in the outline. Hands on experience with Azure, the console, and the various services is extremely valuable. Fortunately, I was familiar with a number of items (but not all) from prior experience and other SANS courses.

For studying I read many pages of Microsoft Azure documentation which is fortunately very well written. I also found Microsoft's free online course to be extremely helpful. It has good overviews of the various topics with links for further study. I also took the AZ-500 class from A Cloud Guru.

Probably the most beneficial thing for me was taking a variety of practice exams. I found the official Microsoft practice exam to be the best. It has good examples of the types of questions that you'll encounter in the real exam. I also took the WhizLabs practice exams which were useful because they had additional types of questions. Make sure to read all the explanations to the practice exam questions even if you get the question correct. They really help with the thought process of eliminating the incorrect answers.

As I was taking the online courses and practice exams I spent a lot of time collecting various links to the Microsoft documentation and associating them with the topics on the exam skills outline. The process of researching and gathering information definitely helped solidify the material in my mind.

Hope this helps and good luck with your certifications!

P.S. Please share any study tips that have worked for you.