1. Tonight I passed Exam AZ-400, Azure DevOps Solutions. In this thread I'll share my top line impressions with you.

2. The Pearson OnVUE online testing engine worked flawlessly. I advise you (a) run the system check at least once; and (b) close all apps and as many background processes as you can on your system.

3. I was a bit shocked to see AzureRM PowerShell commands (!) on AZ-400. I can only assume Worldwide Learning will clean that up sometime this year when they perform their annual cert review.

4. For the "ops" part of Azure DevOps, whoever wrote the exam items clearly had a preference for ARM templates (expected) and PowerShell Desired State Configuration (unexpected).

5. Before taking AZ-400 you should make sure you're familar with most or all of the third-party applications that integrate with Azure DevOps. You don't need to configure 'em, but you need to identify when you'd use 'em.

6. Overall, and I hate to say this, AZ-400 is largely a product familarity exam. It reminded me of taking the old Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) exams for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

7. If you understand the top 2-3 features of each Azure DevOps component, then you should do okay on this exam. There was very little reference to DevOps and Agile project management in general.

8. I heard a rumor that MS Worldwide Learning is suspending all the performance-based lab items given their COVID-related usage uptick. If my AZ-400 session tonight is any indication, the rumor may be true.

9. On AZ-400 you can expect to see lots and lots of JSON, a fair amount of AzureRm (!) PowerShell, and the most Azure CLI I've ever seen on these Azure role-based certification exams.

10. At this point I can heartily recommend @whizlabs for quality AZ-400 practice exams. Their tests were quite close indeed to the live exam content!

11. My preferred AZ-400 study materials were (a) the docs; (b) @marcelv's Pluralsight courses; (c) @CloudSkills_io seminars; (d) https://bit.ly/3b08WyT ; (e) Microsoft Learn; and as I said before (f) Whizlabs practice tests.

12. When you take a Microsoft exam using online delivery, you get your score report on-screen immediately, but it takes upwards to one hour to receive your confirmation and badge link. Hope this helps! Have a great weekend.