If you are interested in becoming a Microsoft Azure Security Engineer, you might want to consider taking the AZ-500 exam. This exam tests your skills and knowledge in implementing security controls, managing identity and access, protecting data, applications, and networks, and managing security operations in Azure. Passing this exam will earn you the Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification.
But how do you prepare for this exam? What topics do you need to study and what resources can you use? In this blog post, I will share with you a study plan that I followed to pass the AZ-500 exam in 30 days. This study plan is based on studying for one hour a day, but you can adjust it according to your own schedule and pace.
Here is an overview of the study plan:
Week 1: Identity and Access
- Day 1: Azure Active Directory (AAD) basics, users and groups, roles and permissions
- Day 2: AAD Connect, hybrid identity, self-service password reset, conditional access
- Day 3: Multi-factor authentication (MFA), identity protection, privileged identity management
- Day 4: AAD B2B and B2C, application registrations, OAuth and OpenID Connect
- Day 5: Review and practice questions
Week 2: Platform Protection
- Day 6: Azure Firewall, network security groups (NSGs), application security groups (ASGs)
- Day 7: Azure Bastion, just-in-time (JIT) access, Azure DDoS Protection
- Day 8: Azure Key Vault, disk encryption, storage encryption
- Day 9: Azure Security Center, secure score, security alerts
- Day 10: Review and practice questions
Week 3: Data and Applications
- Day 11: Azure Information Protection (AIP), sensitivity labels, data classification
- Day 12: Azure SQL Database security, transparent data encryption (TDE), data masking
- Day 13: Azure Storage security, shared access signatures (SAS), role-based access control (RBAC)
- Day 14: Azure App Service security, web application firewall (WAF), custom domains and SSL certificates
- Day 15: Review and practice questions
Week 4: Security Operations
- Day 16: Azure Monitor, log analytics, diagnostic settings
- Day 17: Azure Sentinel, log sources, workbooks, analytics rules
- Day 18: Azure Defender, threat protection for different services
- Day 19: Incident response, playbooks, automation accounts
- Day 20: Review and practice questions
Week 5: Final Preparation
- Day 21: Review all topics and take notes of weak areas
- Day 22: Take a practice exam and analyze the results
- Day 23: Review the weak areas and do more practice questions
- Day 24: Take another practice exam and compare the results
- Day 25: Review the exam objectives and the official documentation
- Day 26: Relax and rest before the exam day
- Day 27: Take the exam and celebrate your success!
Resources:
To follow this study plan, I used the following resources:
- The official exam page https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-500 which contains the exam objectives, skills measured, and links to free online learning paths.
- The Microsoft Learn platform https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/ which offers interactive modules and labs to learn Azure concepts and practice hands-on skills.
- The Pluralsight video course https://www.pluralsight.com/paths/microsoft-azure-security-engineer-az-500 which covers all the topics in the exam in a clear and concise way.