LEARN. PRACTICE. GROW.AZ-400: DevOps from delivery to operations
AZ-400 preparation covering Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, releases, identity, and observability. Original lessons and decisions.
Objectives and progression
Eight lessons, 50 questions, and eight fictional cases connect pipelines to production decisions. Questions follow five domains with distribution 7/6/26/7/4 within official ranges. The internal assessment contains 32 decisions in 60 minutes. A full mock is only planned. This initial pass does not claim exhaustive exam-task coverage. English AZ-400 objectives dated 2026-07-27. Localized versions can lag. The credential page requires AZ-400 and Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate; AZ-204 has retired. AI-200 is not assumed to replace that prerequisite. Exact question count and AZ-400-specific duration were not confirmed in inspected pages. General Microsoft guidance is not a fixed format for this exam. This path does not reproduce labs or every official interactive format.
Audience: DevOps engineers, developers, Azure administrators, L3 support, and technical delivery managers.
Prerequisites: Practical knowledge of Git, Azure, pipelines, and application support; Azure administration and development experience with depth in one area. The Expert credential also requires one of Microsoft’s listed prior certifications. For new candidates, confirm the Azure Administrator route because AZ-204 is no longer available.
375 estimated study minutes
- Measure flow and retain traceability through RUN.
- Protect revisions and promote identified artifacts.
- Design pipelines, gates, and release recovery.
- Apply scoped identity and interpret useful telemetry.
Modules
- Flow, traceability, and handover
- Git, review, and recovery
- Artifacts, dependencies, and agents
- YAML, conditions, and approvals
- Release, slots, and data effects
- IaC, reliability, and total elapsed time
- Identity, secrets, and pipeline dependencies
- Instrumentation and KQL
Continue learning
References and version
AZ-400 objectives 2026-07-27
- DevOps Engineer Expert credential prerequisites · 2026-09-29
- AZ-400 exam · 2026-09-29
- AZ-400 July 2026 study guide · 2026-09-29
- Microsoft exam duration and experience · 2026-09-29
- Approvals and checks · 2026-09-29
- Pipeline conditions · 2026-09-29
- Azure service connections · 2026-09-29
- Lead and cycle time widgets · 2026-09-29
- Branch policies · 2026-09-29
- Upstream package sources · 2026-09-29
- Pipeline agents · 2026-09-29
- Pipeline caching · 2026-09-29
- Pipeline artifacts · 2026-09-29
- Runtime parameters · 2026-09-29
- Secret variables · 2026-09-29
- YAML templates · 2026-09-29
- Pipeline jobs · 2026-09-29
- Flaky test management · 2026-09-29
- App Service deployment slots · 2026-09-29
- Bicep what-if · 2026-09-29
- Application Insights OpenTelemetry overview · 2026-09-29
- KQL common operators · 2026-09-29
- Sensitive data in Git history · 2026-09-29
- GITHUB_TOKEN authentication · 2026-09-29
- GitHub Actions secure use · 2026-09-29
- Git revert · 2026-09-29
- Git LFS · 2026-09-29
- Microsoft exam scoring and score reports · 2026-09-30
What you will explore
0 / 8Flow, traceability, and handover
Connect business need to the delivered version and support.
Git, review, and recovery
Protect final code and respond to regressions and exposed secrets.
Artifacts, dependencies, and agents
Build and promote identifiable outputs in reproducible environments.
YAML, conditions, and approvals
Control dependencies, states, and access to protected environments.
Release, slots, and data effects
Separate exposure, configuration, identity, and functional recovery.
IaC, reliability, and total elapsed time
Use previews and metrics without hiding validation gaps.
Identity, secrets, and pipeline dependencies
Reduce permanent credentials and limit code receiving access.
Instrumentation and KQL
Confirm telemetry represents the observed service.