Microsoft Applied Skills: Get started with Azure management tasks
This credential contains no questions. Microsoft hands you a live Azure subscription, a handful of emails describing what a colleague needs, and a timer. You pass by doing the work.
A beginner-level lab, two hours on the clock, a two-hour free learning path to prepare, no fee shown and no expiry.
Certificate facts
- Level
- Foundational
- Field
- Cloud
- Access
- Free
- Assessment
- Lab-based assessment
- Duration
- 120 minutes
- Questions
- performance-based lab tasks, typically 12 to 16 per Applied Skills lab, delivered as emails inside the lab
- Languages
- English
- Price
- Free (read 26 September 2026)
- Validity
- never expires
- Exam delivery
- Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored); students through Certiport
Prerequisites: None formally. Microsoft expects familiarity with Azure services.
Renewal: None. Microsoft Applied Skills credentials do not expire; a credential Microsoft retires remains listed as active on the transcript for two further years
Source: certificate page at Microsoft · Price: No fee is shown on the credential page, which launches the lab directly after the candidate agreements are accepted; Microsoft publishes no price for Applied Skills assessments (read 2026-09-26)
How to prepare
1. The vendor's free learning path
Microsoft publishes the exam objectives and a learning path free of charge — the authoritative source for scope and weighting. Open the learning path (opens in a new tab)
2. The programme
The certificate is earned inside this programme. Its facts, price and the provider's own page are on the course page; the link there carries no commission.
Affiliate disclosure: the course link above is an affiliate link — buying through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. The vendor's learning path and booking links carry no commission.
Doing instead of choosing
Multiple-choice exams reward recognising the right answer. A lab rewards producing it. When the lab opens you find an inbox inside a virtual machine, and each message asks for something concrete: set up a piece of network, adjust a virtual machine, prepare storage, sort out something at the subscription level. You can use the portal, the command line or any other tool, because what is scored is the state of the environment when you submit, not how you got there. The four areas Microsoft evaluates are basic subscription, networking, virtual machine and storage tasks, which is the everyday surface of infrastructure as a service on Azure.
| Fact | Get started with Azure management tasks |
|---|---|
| Level | Beginner |
| Assessment | Interactive lab in a live environment |
| Time | Two hours on the credential page |
| Language | English |
| Retake | After 72 hours |
| Expiry | None |
Two figures for the time limit
The credential page gives two hours for this assessment. Microsoft's general guidance on lab duration says beginner labs last thirty minutes, with a little extra time available on request. We record the figure from the credential page because it is the more specific one; check the timer when the lab opens and plan for the shorter figure to be safe.
How it sits next to the Azure exams
Azure Fundamentals tests whether you know what the services are. Azure Administrator tests whether you can run an environment across the full administrative surface, from who may sign in to how the estate is watched. This credential sits between them in an unusual way: narrower than either exam, but the only one of the three where you have to make something work. For a newcomer it is a useful proof that the knowledge from the fundamentals exam has turned into hands-on ability. For someone preparing for the administrator exam it is a cheap rehearsal of its practical half.
- Read every email first. Some tasks depend on others, and Microsoft advises reading the whole inbox before touching anything.
- Do only what is asked. Extra changes can break a check that would otherwise pass.
- Start slow deployments early. Where creating a resource takes time, Microsoft notes that starting it may be enough; move on while it runs.
- Do not leave the lab by accident. There is no save-and-resume, and an exit is scored as it stands and counts as an attempt.
You learn the outcome quickly, as a verdict with per-skill feedback and no overall mark. Only passes reach the Microsoft Learn transcript; unsuccessful sittings stay in your profile history. Nobody watches you through a webcam, but your actions inside the lab are recorded, so the credential is harder to fake than an unproctored quiz.
One further rule is worth knowing before you invest time. Applied Skills do not expire, but Microsoft can retire any of them when the technology moves on. A retired credential stays in the active part of your transcript for two years and then drops out of it, so the permanence is real but not unconditional. For a beginner credential about everyday tasks, retirement is unlikely to come soon.
What a question looks like
Written by us in the exam's style. It is not a real question from any question bank, and we do not publish those.
An email in the lab asks you to make sure a new virtual machine can be reached from the internet on the web port only, and that it sits in the existing network rather than a new one. The machine has already been created with default settings. What do you check and change before submitting?
Defaults create resources that look right and are wrong: a new network, or rules that open more than one port. The task rewards checking where the machine actually landed and what its network rules allow, which is exactly the habit a lab tests and a multiple-choice paper cannot.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment lab | 0 USD | no fee shown on the credential page; Microsoft publishes no price for Applied Skills assessments (read 26 September 2026) |
| Preparation | 0 USD | free Microsoft Learn path of about two hours, including a guided project (read 26 September 2026) |
| Renewal | not published | none; Applied Skills credentials do not expire unless retired (read 26 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- You have passed Azure Fundamentals but never built anything
- The intended reader. Do the guided project in the learning path with your own free Azure account afterwards, repeating it without instructions.
- You manage Azure resources at work
- You will find the tasks familiar. The risk is carelessness under a timer, not lack of knowledge.
- You are preparing for Azure Administrator
- A useful practical checkpoint and free. Passing it does not mean you are ready for the administrator exam, which covers far more ground.
What passing this does not prove
- Identity management, monitoring and governance, which the administrator exam covers.
- Architecture or design decisions; the tasks are specified for you.
- Anything beyond basic compute, network, storage and subscription work.
- Your ability to troubleshoot a broken environment you did not configure.
Against the alternatives
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
- The role-based administrator certification most Azure job adverts name. Far broader, paid, proctored and renewed every year. This lab is a free, practical stepping stone towards it, not a replacement.
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- The fundamentals exam proves you know the vocabulary; this lab proves you can use some of it. Doing both, in that order, tells a clearer story than either alone.
Microsoft Applied Skills: Get started with Azure management tasks — quick answers
Is Microsoft Applied Skills free?
The credential page shows no fee and launches the lab once you accept the candidate agreements, and Microsoft publishes no price for Applied Skills assessments. The learning path is free as well.
How long do I have in the lab?
The credential page states two hours. Microsoft's general guidance says beginner labs last thirty minutes. Check the timer when the lab opens and plan for the shorter figure.
Can I retake it if I fail?
Yes, once three days have passed since the last one. A lab that ends abruptly or that you exit early is scored as it stands and counts as an attempt.
Does it expire?
No. Applied Skills credentials do not expire. Microsoft can retire one, and a retired credential stays in the Active section of your transcript for two years.
Is this a Microsoft certification?
It is a Microsoft credential, but not a certification. Certifications are proctored exams tied to a job role; Applied Skills validate one scenario through a lab.
Where this certificate sits in the field
What comes next
Concepts this certificate draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for Microsoft Applied Skills: Get started with Azure management tasks.
Last reviewed 26 September 2026 · Getting Digital