AZ-400 study plan

Week 1chapters 1–5 · about 9 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 1. Planning and tracking work: GitHub and Azure Boards
  • 2. DevOps metrics, dashboards and collaboration
  • 3. Branching strategies and pull request workflows
  • 4. Managing and optimising Git repositories
  • 5. Package management and versioning
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: DORA metrics and choosing DevOps metrics by area, Trunk-based, feature branch and release branch strategies compared, Managing large files with Git LFS, Azure Artifacts feed views and package promotion.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement processes and communications · 10–15%Design and implement a source control strategy · 10–15%Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%

Week 2chapters 6–9 · about 8 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 6. Testing strategies and quality gates
  • 7. Pipelines and agent infrastructure
  • 8. Advanced pipeline design and maintenance
  • 9. Deployment strategies
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: GitHub Actions vs Azure Pipelines: choosing a deployment automation solution, Microsoft-hosted agents, Managed DevOps Pools and self-hosted runners compared, Blue-green, canary, ring and feature-flag deployments compared.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%

Week 3chapters 10–13 · about 8 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 10. Infrastructure as code and configuration management
  • 11. Identity, permissions and secrets in DevOps
  • 12. Security and compliance scanning
  • 13. Monitoring and instrumentation for DevOps
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Service principals vs managed identities for pipelines.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement processes and communications · 10–15%Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%Implement an instrumentation strategy · 5–10%

Week 4review Done

• Go back through every chapter’s key takeaways. Anything you can’t explain without looking, re-read that section.
• Re-read the common-trap callouts: they mark the answers that look right but aren’t.
• Check the exam coverage map against Microsoft’s own outline, in case it has changed since the book was checked.
• Take Microsoft’s free practice assessment, if your exam has one, from the official AZ-400 study guide page. Revisit the chapters behind any weak area.
• Try the exam sandbox to get used to the exam’s screens and question formats.
• Get the free exam-day checklist and work through it a few days before your exam.

Week 1chapters 1–2 · about 4 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 1. Planning and tracking work: GitHub and Azure Boards
  • 2. DevOps metrics, dashboards and collaboration
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: DORA metrics and choosing DevOps metrics by area.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement processes and communications · 10–15%Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%

Week 2chapters 3–4 · about 3 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 3. Branching strategies and pull request workflows
  • 4. Managing and optimising Git repositories
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Trunk-based, feature branch and release branch strategies compared, Managing large files with Git LFS.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement a source control strategy · 10–15%Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%

Week 3chapters 5–6 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 5. Package management and versioning
  • 6. Testing strategies and quality gates
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Azure Artifacts feed views and package promotion.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%

Week 4chapter 7 · about 2 hours Done

• Read chapter:
  • 7. Pipelines and agent infrastructure
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: GitHub Actions vs Azure Pipelines: choosing a deployment automation solution, Microsoft-hosted agents, Managed DevOps Pools and self-hosted runners compared.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%

Week 5chapters 8–9 · about 3 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 8. Advanced pipeline design and maintenance
  • 9. Deployment strategies
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Blue-green, canary, ring and feature-flag deployments compared.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%

Week 6chapters 10–11 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 10. Infrastructure as code and configuration management
  • 11. Identity, permissions and secrets in DevOps
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Service principals vs managed identities for pipelines.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement build and release pipelines · 50–55%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%

Week 7chapters 12–13 · about 3 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 12. Security and compliance scanning
  • 13. Monitoring and instrumentation for DevOps
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the AZ-400 glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Design and implement processes and communications · 10–15%Develop a security and compliance plan · 10–15%Implement an instrumentation strategy · 5–10%

Week 8review Done

• Go back through every chapter’s key takeaways. Anything you can’t explain without looking, re-read that section.
• Re-read the common-trap callouts: they mark the answers that look right but aren’t.
• Check the exam coverage map against Microsoft’s own outline, in case it has changed since the book was checked.
• Take Microsoft’s free practice assessment, if your exam has one, from the official AZ-400 study guide page. Revisit the chapters behind any weak area.
• Try the exam sandbox to get used to the exam’s screens and question formats.
• Get the free exam-day checklist and work through it a few days before your exam.