AZ-104 Azure Administrator Full Course: Study Guide

The AZ-104 Azure Administrator Associate Full Course is a free video course that prepares you for the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam. It is for IT professionals, system administrators and cloud beginners who want to manage Azure identities, networks, storage, compute, backup and monitoring, and earn the Associate-level Azure Administrator certification.

The course has 30 videos and about 13.4 hours of content on YouTube. It follows the work of an Azure administrator in a logical order: tools and templates first, then identity and governance, then networking, storage, compute, and finally backup and monitoring. You can see every lesson on the AZ-104 course page.

Who this course is for

• System administrators moving from on-premises servers to Azure.
• Cloud beginners who want a structured path to their first Azure certification.
• Help desk and support engineers stepping up to an administrator role.
• Developers and DevOps engineers who need to understand how Azure resources are deployed, secured and monitored.

The exam is at Associate level, so some general IT knowledge (networking basics, what a virtual machine is) will help. The course still starts from the core architectural components of Azure.

What you will learn

The 30 videos group into six themes.

1. Tools and deployment. “Introduction to Azure Cloud Shell” and “Deploy Azure infrastructure by using JSON ARM templates” (about 49 minutes) show the two ways admins work beyond clicking in the portal: the command line and infrastructure as code. ARM templates make deployments repeatable.

2. Identity, governance and the Azure basics. “Understand Microsoft Entra ID”, “Create, configure, and manage identities”, “Describe the core architectural components of Azure”, “Secure your Azure resources with Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)” and “Allow users to reset their password with Microsoft Entra self-service password reset”. Identity and access are the foundation of every secure Azure environment.

3. Virtual networking. “Configure virtual networks”, “Configure network security groups”, “Host your domain on Azure DNS”, “Configure Azure Virtual Network peering”, “Manage and control traffic flow in your Azure deployment with routes”, two “Introduction to Azure Load Balancer” videos, “Introduction to Azure Application Gateway” and “Introduction to Azure Network Watcher”. This is the largest theme, with nine videos.

4. Storage. “Configure storage accounts”, “Configure Azure Blob Storage”, “Configure Azure Storage security” and “Configure Azure Files” cover where data lives in Azure and how to protect it.

5. Compute. “Introduction to Azure virtual machines”, “Configure virtual machine availability”, “Configure Azure App Service plans”, two “Configure Azure App Service” videos and “Configure Azure Container Instances” cover VMs, web apps and containers.

6. Backup and monitoring. “Introduction to Azure Backup”, “Protect your virtual machines by using Azure Backup” and “Monitor your Azure virtual machines with Azure Monitor” close the course with keeping workloads safe and healthy.

How the course is organised

• 30 videos, about 13.4 hours in total.
• A 9-minute course overview, then 29 lessons of roughly 19 to 49 minutes.
• Order: Cloud Shell and ARM templates, identity and governance, networking, storage, compute, backup and monitoring.
• Two topics run across two videos each: Azure Load Balancer and Azure App Service.

How to study it step by step

1. Watch the overview to see the course map.
2. Set up your tools with Cloud Shell and the ARM templates lesson. Deploy the template yourself if you have an Azure subscription.
3. Identity and governance: work through Entra ID, identities, RBAC and self-service password reset, noting which role or setting solves which problem.
4. Networking: take this theme slowly. After each lesson, draw the network you just built: VNets, NSGs, peering, routes and load balancing.
5. Storage: create a storage account and practise Blob Storage, Files and storage security.
6. Compute: build a VM, then make it highly available; then try App Service and Container Instances.
7. Backup and monitoring: protect a VM with Azure Backup and watch it with Azure Monitor.
8. Test yourself with the Skills Pragati AZ-104 mock exam. It covers five areas: identities and governance, virtual networking, storage, compute, and monitoring and maintenance. A free 10-question sample is open to everyone, and the full timed mock comes with a subscription.

At one lesson a day, the course takes about a month. The full course is also a YouTube playlist.

How it helps with the AZ-104 exam

AZ-104 is the Microsoft Azure Administrator exam at Associate level. This course walks through the admin tasks behind it, lesson by lesson: Entra ID identities and RBAC, virtual networking, storage, virtual machines and App Service, and backup and monitoring.

The mock exam on this site is organised by the same five areas, so after the course you can see which area needs more revision. For the official skills list and exam details, always check the AZ-104 page on Microsoft Learn before you book.

Once you are comfortable with Azure administration, AI-103 Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure Hands-On is a good next course on the same platform.

Frequently asked questions

Is the AZ-104 course free?

Yes. All 30 videos are free on YouTube. The mock exam has a free 10-question sample; the full timed mock is part of a subscription at ₹1,199/month or ₹7,999/year.

How long does it take to prepare for AZ-104 with this course?

The videos total about 13.4 hours. With hands-on practice and revision, most learners spend several weeks. Start from the course page and go in order.

Do I need an Azure subscription?

You can watch every video without one. To practise the deployments yourself, you need access to an Azure subscription, and you should delete practice resources when you finish so they do not keep running.

Is there a mock exam for AZ-104?

Yes. The AZ-104 mock covers identities and governance, virtual networking, storage, compute, and monitoring. Try the free sample first to see where you stand.