Two years ago I passed the Azure Administrator Associate exam which is valid for 2 years. I have been receiving email alerts to remind me that my certification is going to be expired soon for the last couple of weeks which I have missed accidentally until last week. As soon as I noticed the email, I quickly had look at the Microsoft certification renewal process. That was the moment I felt relaxed a bit because the renewal process is free and absolutely easy.
Steps to renew your certification
- If you haven’t done it before, connect your Microsoft learning profile with your certification profile via Microsoft Learn.
- Find the relevant course module and refresh your skills with the latest updates on the course.
- Take the free online assessment and pass it before your certification expires.
Important things
- This assessment is fairly straightforward as you fill out an online form, no need for a proctored exam at all.
- Renewal assessment is free for 180 days before the exam expiry date. If your certification expires, you must follow the standard exam procedure to earn the certificate again.
- If you haven’t passed the first time, you can try again right away. But you have to wait for 24 hours to take the assessment again after the second attempt. Also, note that you can take the exam as many times as you need.
- Linking the Microsoft Certification profile and the Learn profile is a must before you take the exam. If you have different accounts set up for both of the profiles, follow the account linking procedure to merge them together.
- Assessment is really shorter, you get around 25-30 questions based on the latest exam contents which you have to complete within 45 minutes.
How was my experience?
Along with the Azure Administrator Associate exam expiring on the 28th of June 2022, I had the Azure Security exam also due to expire on the 1st of July 2022. Therefore I had to fast-track the process of refreshing my skills. Initially, I used Scott Duffy’s and Alan Rodrigues’s udemy courses to prepare myself for the exams accordingly AZ-104 & AZ-500.
The advantage of the udemy course is that you get lifetime access to the courses with updates, so I logged into my udemy account and went through the course notes and especially the newly added contents to update myself. In addition, I completed the Microsoft Learn course modules for both Azure Administrator and Azure Security courses too.
So once I was confident to take the assessments, I logged into my Microsoft Learn profile and then navigated to Profile > Certifications to take the assessment. Or else, you can simply click on the Renew your certification link on the email reminder you have received.
As soon as I finished the assessment, the result was immediate (of course I passed both exams on the first attempt). And have got the certifications extended by one year.
Note: I haven’t seen a timer running on the exam dashboard so make sure to keep one should you require it.
Conclusion
Even though only role-based and specialty certifications have been made available for renewal by taking the free exam assessment, I personally believe this is the favorite choice for most IT professionals. Also, this process eventually keeps us updated on the latest technology changes which are important for us to excel in our careers.
Reference: Microsoft Tech Community and Microsoft Docs
I hope you find this post useful in some manner. If you have a few minutes, check out my other blogs as well.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more and happy learning!
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