AZ-301 – Microsoft Azure Architect Design Exam – December 2019 Updates

As you may have heard, Microsoft recently made some changes to the AZ-301 course curriculum which you can download at https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VEHD.  

To summarize and save you going through the entire doc, below you’ll find curriculum changes and what it means for the AZ-301 Skylines Academy course: 

Determine workload requirements 
Determine workload requirements continues to account for 10-15% of the exam. Most notably there are a bunch of items that have been removed the section here. 

• Identity Constraints and Dependencies 

• gather Non-Functional Requirements 

• identify minimum performance thresholds 

• determine Feasibility and Refine Requirements 

• create proof of concept (PoC)  

• determine whether a pilot is needed 

• refine user stories 

•  renamed identify extensibility requirements to identify configurability. 

Generally speaking many of these topics removed are still good to know and wave into much of the other items we go through in the course. An approach to working with application teams to understand their workloads and create a design that meets those requirements, while balancing cost and security around chosen technology stacks is key. 

Design for identity and security 
Design for identity and security continues to account for 20-25% of the exam and there are no changes to the curriculum. 

Design a data platform solution  
Designing a data platform solution continues to account for 15-20% of the exam. Most notable changes are as follows: 

• Recommend database service tier sizing (Previously this was focused specifically on DTU sizing) 

• Design data flow solutions 

• Monitor Azure Data Factory Pipelines 

We will look to add some additional videos in Q1 around these topics and further enhance the section on data platforms. Please refer to the Microsoft documentation around these topics in the meanwhile and expect them to appear on your exam. 

Design a business continuity strategy 
Designing a business continuity strategy continues to account for  10-15% of the curriclum. The only major shift here is to recommend a geographic availability strategy.  
We already talk about this in the course itself and this just reinforces thinking through the regions you will use, as well as the availability options for each technology chosen to support your use case. 

Design for deployment, migration, and integration
Design efforts focused around shifting workloads and integrating them are still key to the curriculum and have not received any major changes. These still account for 10-15% of the exam. 

Design an infrastructure strategy
Designing your infrastructure strategy still accounts for 15-20% of the exam. The only addition to this area is a focus on recommending network security solutions. 

Overall these changes are minimal, and the Skylines Academy course continues to cover all the core areas. Please use the links above to solidify your knowledge and expect to answer questions around these on the exam. 

Please also continue to leverage the FB group for additional support from fellow students. 

Good luck! 
Nick Colyer