I Built Apps for 5 Years Before Taking the AZ-204. I Still Almost Failed. Here's What Tripped Me Up.

Five years of professional development. C#, .NET, some Python. Deployed plenty of apps to Azure. Used App Service, Functions, Cosmos DB — the works. Scored 735 on my first AZ-204 attempt. Passing is 700. I survived by 35 points. The problem wasn't that I couldn't develop. The problem was that I couldn't develop the way Microsoft wanted me to answer questions about developing. The AZ-204 Is Not a Coding Exam The AZ-204 tests your knowledge of Azure services, their configurations, and when to use which one. It's a services exam wearing a developer costume. Azure App Service (heavy focus): Deployment slots and slot swapping WebJobs vs Azure Functions Custom domains, SSL binding, scaling rules Azure Functions (heavier than expected): Durable Functions — orchestrator, activity, entity functions Trigger bindings — HTTP, timer, queue, blob Cosmos DB (the exam loves this): Partitioning strategies Consistency levels — strong, bounded staleness, session, consistent prefix, eventual Security (whe