You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
MICROSOFTMicrosoft Certified:Azure Security Engineer Associate
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification validates your ability to implement security controls, maintain an organization’s security posture, and identify and remediate security vulnerabilities. It is designed for security engineers who manage security for Azure resources, ensuring compliance and protection across cloud environments.
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
Duration100 minutes
DeliveryPearson VUE
Passing score700
Free questions409
Content last reviewed 1 October 2023 · Up to date
The certification
What AZ-500 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
4domains
12objectives
96concepts
US $165exam fee
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification demonstrates your skills in implementing, managing, and monitoring security for Azure resources. As an Azure security engineer, you will use tools like Microsoft Defender for Cloud to ensure infrastructure aligns with security standards and best practices.
This certification is ideal for professionals responsible for managing security posture, implementing threat protection, and ensuring regulatory compliance across Azure environments. It validates your ability to work with architects, administrators, and developers to plan and implement security solutions.
Who it’s for
This certification is intended for security engineers who are responsible for managing and securing Azure resources. You will work with architects, administrators, and developers to implement security solutions that meet compliance requirements. Candidates should have practical experience in administering Microsoft Azure and hybrid environments, with a strong familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID, compute, network, and storage in Azure.
Recommended experience
Practical experience in Azure administration and security management. Experience with Microsoft Entra ID and Azure security tools; Familiarity with Azure compute, network, and storage services; Understanding of regulatory compliance and security best practices
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective Microsoft measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official Microsoft exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
Secure identity and access
- Manage security controls for identity and access
- Manage Microsoft Entra application access and managed identities
Secure networking
- Plan and implement security for virtual networks
- Plan and implement security for private access to Azure resources
- Plan and implement security for public access to Azure resources
Secure compute, storage, and databases
- Plan and implement advanced security for compute
- Plan and implement security for storage
- Plan and implement security for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
Secure Azure using Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel
- Implement and manage enforcement of cloud governance policies
- Manage security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Configure and manage threat protection by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Configure and manage security monitoring and automation solutions
On the day
The exam itself
Everything Microsoft publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codeAZ-500
CertificationAzure Security Engineer Associate
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
Duration100 minutes
Passing score700
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), Italian
PricingUS $165
Certification levelAssociate
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path Microsoft lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate
Credential earnedMicrosoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate Associate level certification Renewal and maintenance
Renew eligible Certifications annually at no cost by completing a short online assessment. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. Microsoft maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by Microsoft
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, Microsoft’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official Microsoft certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
If I fail AZ-500, when can I retake it?
You must wait 24 hours after a first failed attempt, and 14 days before each subsequent attempt. There is no annual cap on attempts.
What job roles does the Azure Security Engineer Associate credential map to?
It aligns with roles such as security engineer, security administrator, and cloud security specialist responsible for managing Azure security.
Is any part of the AZ-500 exam hands-on or lab-based?
Yes. The exam may include performance-based tasks that require practical application of skills in a simulated environment.
Can I recertify by passing a different Microsoft exam?
Yes. Earning a higher-level Microsoft certification can renew this credential without taking the AZ-500 renewal assessment.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2023-10-01 Up to date
Practice free questions 409 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept Microsoft measures — each one written out.
4domains
12objectives
96concepts
88free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official Microsoft exam outline · checked 1 October 2023 · See the source
1Secure identity and access67 questions
2Secure networking96 questions
3Secure compute, storage, and databases99 questions
4Secure Azure using Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel147 questions
Implement and manage enforcement of cloud governance policies15 concepts · 10 pagesOpen →Manage security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud9 concepts · 10 pagesOpen →Configure and manage threat protection by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud7 concepts · 4 pagesOpen →Configure and manage security monitoring and automation solutions6 concepts · 8 pagesOpen →
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Manage security controls for identity and access7 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
31 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
409 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
409questions
88pages
12objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Secure identity and access67 questions
2Secure networking96 questions
3Secure compute, storage, and databases99 questions
4Secure Azure using Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel147 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
96concepts
409free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from Microsoft
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
2official links
96concepts mapped
The source
Microsoft’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official Microsoft outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 12 objectives, 96 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When Microsoft changes the outline, this page changes with it.
12objectives on the outline→96concepts written→409free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.