Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert
Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert covers tenant management, identity synchronisation, threat protection and compliance across the Microsoft 365 estate rather than Azure infrastructure.
It has an announced end date, which changes the advice completely.
According to Microsoft, this exam version (MS-102) can be booked until 30 November 2026.
Exam facts
- Exam code
- MS-102
- Level
- Expert
- Field
- Cloud
- Duration
- 100 minutes
- Questions
- about 40 to 60, including case studies and drag-and-drop items; labs possible
- Passing score
- 700 of 1,000 (scaled)
- Languages
- English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese
- Price
- 165 USD (read 8 September 2026)
- Validity
- 1 year, renewable
- Exam delivery
- Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored); students through Certiport
- Last exam day of this version
- 30 November 2026
Prerequisites: Required: one of Microsoft 365 Certified Endpoint Administrator Associate (MD-102), Teams Administrator Associate (MS-700), Microsoft Certified Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300) or Information Security Administrator Associate (SC-401).
Renewal: Free yearly renewal through an online assessment — only until the retirement on 30 November 2026; no renewal after that
Source: exam page at Microsoft · Price: Priced by the country where the exam is proctored: 165 USD in the United States, 126 EUR in Germany and Austria (Microsoft Learn country selector, read 2026-09-08)
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. Online courses
Courses and practice questions from the directory that target exactly this exam — details, price and the provider link (affiliate) are on the course page.
3. A practice test in the exam format
MeasureUp sells a practice test for MS-102 with questions in the exam format, an explanation for every answer and a timed mode; the price shows in your currency on the shop page. Affiliate link.
Practice test for MS-102 at MeasureUp (opens in a new tab)Book the exam
Delivered by Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored); students through Certiport. Schedule with Microsoft (opens in a new tab)
Affiliate disclosure: the course and practice-test links above are affiliate links — 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.
The syllabus splits roughly evenly between deploying and managing a tenant, implementing identity synchronisation, and the security and compliance surface, with threat protection carrying the largest single share. It is an administrator's paper throughout: questions describe a tenant with an existing configuration and ask what to change, which rewards people who have actually run one and offers very little to those who have only read about it.
- It requires a qualifying associate certificate first. One of four, and you must hold it before sitting this.
- The exam retires on 30 November 2026. That is published, not rumoured.
- A pass before the retirement still counts. Certificates name the certification rather than the exam version.
- The annual renewal continues after retirement for as long as Microsoft maintains the certification, so a pass is not a one-off.
- Our catalogue holds no English course covering current Microsoft 365 administration, an unusual gap, and one to weigh before mapping out how you will prepare.
Sit it, or wait for what replaces it
Book only if you are ready before 30 November 2026
If you hold the prerequisite and could sit it within weeks, the pass is worth having and survives the paper's withdrawal. If you are months away, do not sprint at a retiring paper. Study the successor once Microsoft publishes its guide, because everything you learn against a withdrawn syllabus that the replacement drops is time you cannot get back.
| Qualifying associate certificate | Exam | Closest to whom |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Endpoint Administrator | MD-102 | The person who manages devices |
| Microsoft 365 Teams Administrator | MS-700 | The person who runs collaboration |
| Identity and Access Administrator | SC-300 | The person who owns who may reach what |
| Information Security Administrator | SC-401 | The person who classifies and protects data |
The four routes in describe four different administrators, and the choice is a statement about which one you are rather than a difficulty ranking. Identity is the route we would suggest for anyone undecided, because its certificate keeps its value after this exam is gone and its content overlaps most with the synchronisation third of this paper. Each prerequisite carries its own twelve-month renewal, so holding this certificate has always meant two calendar entries a year, and will continue to for as long as Microsoft maintains it.
What the weighting says about the job
- Threat protection, 30 to 35 percent. The biggest slice, and the one that has moved most between versions of this exam.
- Deploying and managing the tenant, 25 to 30 percent. Licences, domains, health, and the settings nobody revisits after go-live.
- Identity synchronisation, 25 to 30 percent. Hybrid identity, the attribute flows, and what breaks when the on-premise side changes.
- Compliance, 10 to 15 percent. Small by weight, and the section administrators skip because it reads as somebody else's department.
One hundred minutes on the clock, a question count Microsoft gives only as a range, case studies and drag-and-drop with the chance of a lab, a scaled 700 passing, seven exam editions of which German is one, and a fee that varies with the country of sitting. All of that describes a paper with weeks left to run. The useful question for a reader arriving now is whether their tenant knowledge is current enough to book inside the window, and if it is not, the same knowledge will be examined under a new exam code soon enough.
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.
Users synchronised from an on-premise directory report that a recently changed job title has not appeared in the cloud, while password changes replicate within minutes. Nothing is reported as failing. What explains the difference?
The stem contains its own misdirection: because one kind of change propagates quickly, candidates conclude synchronisation is healthy and look elsewhere. The exam is testing whether you know that different attributes travel by different mechanisms on different schedules, which is the sort of thing you learn by watching a sync cycle rather than by reading about one.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Exam fee | 165 USD | United States price; Microsoft charges by the country of proctoring (read 12 September 2026) |
| Exam fee, Germany and Austria | 126 EUR | from the Microsoft Learn country selector (read 8 September 2026) |
| Prerequisite certificate | 165 USD | one of four qualifying associate certificates, which must be held before this exam and carries its own annual renewal (read 12 September 2026) |
| Annual renewal | not published | free and unproctored on Microsoft Learn, opening only in the final six months. After the exam retires the renewal continues while the certification exists (read 12 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- You run a Microsoft 365 tenant day to day
- Shorter than the breadth suggests. The gaps are usually the compliance surface and the parts of threat protection your licensing has never enabled, neither of which you can practise without a suitable trial tenant.
- You administer Azure rather than Microsoft 365
- Less transfer than the shared vendor implies. Identity overlaps; the productivity estate, its licensing model and its compliance tooling are a separate body of knowledge.
What passing this does not prove
- Whether you can migrate a tenant, which is the project this role is usually hired for.
- Anything about the desktop estate beyond how it authenticates.
- Licensing negotiation, though licensing constrains nearly every real decision here.
- Whether the compliance configuration you chose would satisfy an actual auditor.
Against the alternatives
- SC-300 — Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate
- Identity in far more depth, still current, and not facing retirement. If the identity half is what interests you, that is the safer certificate to invest in right now.
- SC-200 — Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate
- The security operations counterpart, focused on detection and response rather than tenant administration. It overlaps with this paper's threat-protection section and goes much deeper.
MS-102 — quick answers
Should I still sit MS-102?
Only if you already hold a qualifying prerequisite and can be ready well before 30 November 2026. A pass remains valid after the exam retires, since what you hold is the certification, not the paper that granted it. If you are not close, wait for the replacement rather than studying material about to be withdrawn.
What happens to my certificate when the exam retires?
It continues, and so does the annual renewal, for as long as Microsoft maintains the certification. Exam retirement removes the route in; it does not revoke anyone who already came through it.
Which prerequisite should I choose?
Any of the four qualifying associate certificates satisfies the rule, so pick the one closest to your work rather than the one that looks easiest. Each carries its own twelve-month renewal, which means two windows to track once you hold both.
Is there a practice test for a retiring exam?
Yes, our partner still lists one, and the exam-format rehearsal is worth more than usual when the runway is short. Check that the product names MS-102 and the current skills outline, since material for the previous version of this exam is also still in circulation.
Why does the record describe the syllabus in thirds?
Because Microsoft's study guide gives ranges, not fixed shares: tenant management and identity synchronisation at 25 to 30 percent each, threat protection at 30 to 35, compliance at 10 to 15. Threat protection is the largest, and the three big sections together are almost the whole paper.
What comes next
- Microsoft · SC-300Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate
- Microsoft · SC-200Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate
- Microsoft · SC-900Microsoft Certified: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals
- Salesforce · Platform AdministratorSalesforce Certified Platform Administrator
- ServiceNow · CSAServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA)
Concepts this exam draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for MS-102.
- PaaS
Microsoft 365 as a managed platform: tenant, identity, workloads.
- SSL/TLS
Security and compliance settings, certificates and secure access.
- IAM
Identity synchronisation and access governance are a third of the paper.
- MFA
Conditional access and authentication methods for the tenant are examined in the identity third.
- Phishing
Threat protection, the largest domain, is largely defence against mail-borne attacks.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026 · Getting Digital