How to Pass Technical Screening Interviews for Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator (AZ-104)
A complete step-by-step masterclass on passing AZ-104 technical screening interviews, Azure RBAC governance, Virtual Network (VNet) peering, Storage redundancy, and App Service management.
Summary: Master Azure RBAC roles, Management Groups, VNet Peering transit routing, Network Security Groups (NSG), Azure Storage redundancy (LRS/ZRS/GRS), and VMSS for AZ-104 interviews.
1. AZ-104 Exam & Azure Administrator Screening Scope
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator (AZ-104) certification validates expertise in implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks on Azure. 1. **Manage Azure Identities & Governance (15–20% Weighting):** Entra ID users & groups, RBAC, Subscriptions, Management Groups, Azure Policy. 2. **Implement & Manage Storage (15–20% Weighting):** Storage accounts, Blob storage, Azure Files, Storage Explorer, SAS tokens, Backup/Recovery. 3. **Deploy & Manage Azure Compute Resources (20–25% Weighting):** ARM/Bicep templates, VMs, VM Scale Sets, Azure App Service, Azure Container Instances. 4. **Configure & Manage Virtual Networking (20–25% Weighting):** VNets, Subnets, VNet Peering, VPN Gateways, ExpressRoute, NSGs, Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway. 5. **Monitor & Maintain Azure Resources (10–15% Weighting):** Azure Monitor, Network Watcher, Log Analytics workspaces, Alert rules.
2. Azure RBAC Roles, Management Groups, & Policy Governance
**Interview Scenario:** *"How do you structure Azure Management Groups, Subscriptions, and RBAC permissions for an enterprise with 50+ departments?"* * **Management Group Hierarchy:** Create a root Management Group containing `Production`, `Staging`, and `Shared Services` child management groups. Attach Azure Policies at the Management Group level so governance rules automatically inherit to all child subscriptions. * **Azure RBAC Custom Roles:** Define custom JSON roles specifying explicit `Actions` and `NotActions`: - **Owner:** Full access including role assignments. - **Contributor:** Full access excluding role assignments. - **Reader:** Read-only access to existing resources.
3. Virtual Network (VNet) Peering, NSGs, & User-Defined Routes
**Interview Scenario:** *"Explain how VNet Peering transit works and how Network Security Groups (NSG) evaluate traffic rules."* * **VNet Peering:** Connects two VNets using Microsoft backbone network infrastructure. Non-transitive by default (if VNet A peers with VNet B, and VNet B peers with VNet C, VNet A CANNOT talk to VNet C unless gateway transit is enabled). * **Network Security Group (NSG) Priority:** Evaluates inbound/outbound rules numerically from 100 to 4096. Lower numbers take precedence. As soon as a match occurs, rule processing stops. * **User-Defined Routes (UDR):** Custom route tables that override default Azure system routing to force traffic through a Network Virtual Appliance (NVA) or Firewall.
4. Azure Storage Redundancy (LRS, ZRS, GRS) & SAS Tokens
**Interview Scenario:** *"Compare LRS, ZRS, and GRS storage redundancy options and explain Shared Access Signatures (SAS)."* * **Locally Redundant Storage (LRS):** Replicates data 3 times within a single physical datacenter ($99.999999999\%$ / 11 9's durability). * **Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS):** Replicates data across 3 separate Availability Zones in the primary region ($12\text{ 9's}$ durability). * **Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS):** Replicates data 3 times in primary region AND asynchronously replicates 3 copies to a paired secondary region 300+ miles away ($16\text{ 9's}$ durability). * **Shared Access Signatures (SAS):** Provides granular, time-limited delegated access to Blob/Table resources without exposing storage account access keys.
5. Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) & Site Recovery (ASR)
**Interview Scenario:** *"How do Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) handle automatic horizontal scaling during sudden web traffic spikes?"* 1. **Auto-Scaling Metrics:** Define autoscale settings based on Average CPU Utilization > 75% for 10 minutes to scale OUT (add instances) or CPU < 25% to scale IN. 2. **Health Probes & Repair:** VMSS monitors VM instance health using Application Health Extensions. Unhealthy VM instances are automatically destroyed and replaced. 3. **Azure Site Recovery (ASR):** Replicates entire VM workloads to a paired secondary Azure region for automated Disaster Recovery failover.