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Microsoft technical certifications are a potential source of credit. Many older Microsoft MCP certifications were ACE recommended until 2017; the newer, cloud-related certifications are NCCRS recommended. The expert-level certifications are even recommended for graduate credit, so you could theoretically use them in a Masters in Cloud something-or-other.
There's quite a few, so it's worth checking out the ACE/NCCRS pages. I've successfully used these in a BA Computer Science at TESU.
Here's the Azure certifications with their NCCRS recommendations mapped out:
Code: Certification Credits Categories
LL UL GR
Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate 1 - - "Information Technology, Business Administration, Computer Technology, Cloud Computing, Software Engineering or Web Services"
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate 1 - - "DevOps, Information Technology, Computer and Information Science, Software Engineering, Database Administration, Data Science, or Data Analytics"
Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator: Associate Certification 4 - - "Cloud Computing, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and Web Design"
Microsoft Certified Azure Developer: Associate Certification 4 - - "Cloud Computing, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and Web Design"
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate 4 - - "DevOps, Information Technology, Computer and Information Science, Software Engineering, Database Administration, Data Science, or Data Analytics"
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate 4 - - "Cloud Computing, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and Web Design"
Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer: Expert Certification - 4 4 "Cloud Computing, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and Web Design"
Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect: Expert Certification - 4 3 "Cloud Computing, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Science, and Web Design"
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How easy/hard would you say that these are in comparison to other computer classes? I got the free Azure training from Pluralsight and I've been sitting on it because I thought it wouldn't align with my goals of getting a CS degree as quickly/easily as possible.
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06-09-2020, 03:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2020, 03:06 AM by scorpion.)
(06-09-2020, 02:42 AM)rachel83az Wrote: How easy/hard would you say that these are in comparison to other computer classes? I got the free Azure training from Pluralsight and I've been sitting on it because I thought it wouldn't align with my goals of getting a CS degree as quickly/easily as possible.
I'm only familiar with the Developer/DevOps/Architect certs, so I can't speak to the rest. I'd say these would be very difficult without dedicated study and at least some practice with Azure. They're probably best if you already have an interest in working on cloud services.
The questions on any individual topic aren't difficult, but the tests are extremely broad and cover many, many different topics and Azure services. Some exams also have integrated labs, where you will be doing the same steps necessary to deploy/configure services as if it were live -- if you haven't practiced on the real thing at least a little, you won't pass these. The expert-level certs also require you to pass multiple exams, so expect to spend more time on these.
The good news is that the content hews to the Microsoft Learn training materials they publish for free, and you can do them all on the free Azure tier. If you put in the time to go through Pluralsight and the Learn modules, you should be able to pass comfortably.
For example, here's the learning paths for the Azure Developer Associate cert (one exam):
- Create serverless applications - 10 modules, 8 hr 11 min
- Connect your services together - 4 modules, 3 hr 31 min
- Store data in Azure - 5 modules, 3 hr 50 min
- Deploy a website with Azure virtual machines - 4 modules, 4 hr 6 min
- Manage resources in Azure - 6 modules, 5 hr 2 min
- Deploy a website to Azure with Azure App Service - 6 modules, 4 hr 37 min
- Secure your cloud data - 7 modules, 5 hr 38 min
That adds up to almost 35 hours of dedicated study for a single exam.
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That's not bad at all! Thanks for the info.
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06-09-2020, 03:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2020, 03:24 AM by scorpion.)
Microsoft also prepares some crash course style prep sessions at most of their events (Build, Ignite, Ready, etc). These are REALLY good and usually made by the same folks who made the exam content in the first place, covering all the relevant topics. Some of these are publicly available, here's a couple I found that were posted within the last six months:
AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator
AZ-203 Azure Developer Associate
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