AI-200 Exam Preparation

Exam format and scoring

Passing score

700 / 1000

Duration

100 minutes

Question count

40–60

Question types

Multiple choice, drag-and-drop, case study

Heaviest domain

AI Data Services (25–30%)

Replaces

AZ-204 (retires 31 July 2026)

Cost

USD 165 (varies by region)

Validity

1 year, renewable free online

Study priority by domain weight

Allocate revision time in proportion to exam weight. Domain 2 carries the most marks and contains the material least likely to be covered by prior AZ-204 experience.

Domain 1 — Develop Containerized Solutions on Azure 20–25%

Domain 2 — Develop AI Solutions by Using Azure Data Management Services 25–30%

Domain 3 — Connect to and Consume Azure Services 20–25%

Domain 4 — Secure, Monitor, and Troubleshoot Azure Solutions 20–25%

Module completion

Modules you have marked complete are highlighted. Progress is stored locally in your browser.

M1 ACR & App Service M2 Azure Container Apps M3 Azure Kubernetes Service M4 Cosmos DB for NoSQL M5 PostgreSQL & pgvector M6 Azure Managed Redis M7 Service Bus, Event Grid & Functions M8 Key Vault & App Configuration M9 Azure Monitor & KQL

Service selection matrix

Most AI-200 questions present a scenario and ask which service to use. This table maps the constraint stated in the question to the expected answer.

Requirement in the scenario	Expected answer	Reasoning
Scale to zero without managing Kubernetes	Azure Container Apps	Serverless containers with KEDA autoscaling
Full Kubernetes API access, GPU node pools	Azure Kubernetes Service	Complete control plane access
Build images without a local Docker daemon	ACR Tasks (az acr build)	Cloud-side build and push
Store embeddings alongside JSON documents	Cosmos DB NoSQL + DiskANN	Native vector index, global distribution
Semantic search combined with SQL joins	PostgreSQL + pgvector	Relational queries and vectors in one engine
Sub-millisecond cache, semantic response caching	Azure Managed Redis (Enterprise)	In-memory store with RediSearch vector index
Guaranteed ordering and at-least-once delivery	Service Bus with sessions	FIFO per session, dead-letter queue
React to resource lifecycle events in Azure	Event Grid	Push-based, filterable, retries built in
Ingest millions of telemetry events per second	Event Hubs	Partitioned log, consumer groups, Capture
Store connection strings and API keys	Azure Key Vault	RBAC, soft delete, managed identity access
Centralised feature flags and app settings	Azure App Configuration	Labels, snapshots, Key Vault references
Trace a request across microservices	OpenTelemetry to App Insights	Correlated TraceId and SpanId
Query logs and metrics across resources	KQL in Log Analytics	where, summarize, project pipeline
Authenticate to Azure without storing secrets	Managed identity	Platform-issued token, automatic rotation

Command reference

The exam does not ask you to write commands from memory, but it does show command output and ask you to identify the flag or subcommand that produces a given result.

Azure Container Registry

az acr create -n myacr -g rg --sku Premium
az acr login -n myacr
az acr build -r myacr -t app:v1 .
az acr task create --name nightly --registry myacr \
  --context https://github.com/org/repo --file Dockerfile \
  --base-image-trigger-enabled true
az acr import -n myacr --source docker.io/library/node:20

Azure Container Apps

az containerapp env create -n env -g rg -l eastus
az containerapp create -n app -g rg --environment env \
  --image myacr.azurecr.io/app:v1 --ingress external \
  --min-replicas 0 --max-replicas 10
az containerapp update -n app -g rg --set-env-vars KEY=value
az containerapp ingress traffic set -n app -g rg \
  --revision-weight latest=20 previous=80

Azure Kubernetes Service

az aks create -g rg -n aks --enable-managed-identity \
  --network-plugin azure --enable-oidc-issuer \
  --enable-workload-identity
az aks get-credentials -g rg -n aks
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
kubectl logs <pod> --previous          # crashed container logs
kubectl describe pod <pod>             # events and conditions
az aks nodepool add -g rg --cluster-name aks -n gpu \
  --node-vm-size Standard_NC6s_v3

Azure Cosmos DB

az cosmosdb create -n acct -g rg --locations regionName=eastus
az cosmosdb sql container create -a acct -g rg -d db -n items \
  --partition-key-path /tenantId --throughput 400
# Vector policy is set at container creation and is immutable
# Query: SELECT TOP 5 c.id, VectorDistance(c.embedding, @q) AS score
#        FROM c ORDER BY VectorDistance(c.embedding, @q)

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

az postgres flexible-server create -n pg -g rg \
  --tier GeneralPurpose --sku-name Standard_D4ds_v4
az postgres flexible-server parameter set -n pg -g rg \
  --name azure.extensions --value vector
-- CREATE EXTENSION vector;
-- CREATE INDEX ON items USING hnsw (embedding vector_cosine_ops);
-- SET hnsw.ef_search = 100;

Key Vault & Identity

az keyvault create -n kv -g rg --enable-rbac-authorization true
az keyvault secret set --vault-name kv -n ApiKey --value "..."
az role assignment create --role "Key Vault Secrets User" \
  --assignee <principal-id> --scope <vault-resource-id>
az identity create -n myid -g rg
# Python: DefaultAzureCredential() resolves managed identity

Frequently asked questions

What score do I need to pass the AI-200 exam?

You need 700 out of 1000. The score is scaled, not a simple percentage, so it does not map directly to a number of correct answers.

How many questions are on the AI-200 exam?

Between 40 and 60 questions in 100 minutes. Question types include single-answer multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop ordering, and case studies with a shared scenario.

Which AI-200 domain carries the most weight?

Domain 2, Develop AI solutions using Azure data management services, at 25–30%. This covers Cosmos DB vector search, PostgreSQL with pgvector, and Azure Managed Redis.

How should I revise the night before the AI-200 exam?

Focus on the decision matrix and the common gotchas rather than deep technical detail. Most exam questions ask you to select the correct service for a scenario, and the gotchas are the details that separate two plausible-looking answers.

Is the AI-200 certification worth it?

The AI-200 replaces AZ-204 as the Microsoft associate-level developer certification for Azure. It is currently the primary credential for developers building AI-powered applications on Azure infrastructure.

Continue preparing

Practice questions and mock exams Study the nine modules Download cheatsheets

Exam format and scoring

Study priority by domain weight

Module completion

Official skills measured

Develop Containerized Solutions on Azure

Develop AI Solutions by Using Azure Data Management Services

Connect to and Consume Azure Services

Secure, Monitor, and Troubleshoot Azure Solutions