The Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam costs $99 USD in the United States and gives you 45 minutes of question time inside a 65-minute seat time. The passing score is 700 on a 1 to 1,000 scale, there are no prerequisites, and the certification does not expire. Microsoft publishes no fixed question count for AZ-900.
Last updated August 2026.
| AZ-900 | |
|---|---|
| Level | Fundamentals |
| Cost | $99 USD in the United States (varies by region) |
| Seat time | 65 minutes (45 minutes to answer questions) |
| Questions | Not published per exam. Most Microsoft exams run 40 to 60 |
| Passing score | 700 (on a 1 to 1,000 scale) |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Renewal | Does not expire |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored |
Price, passing score, and renewal policy from the Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals certification page. Seat time and question-count guidance from Microsoft's exam duration and exam experience documentation.
Plenty of pages state that AZ-900 is a specific number of questions in a specific number of minutes. Microsoft does not publish that figure for this exam, and treating a borrowed number as official is the most common factual error in AZ-900 write-ups.
What Microsoft does publish is a general position: most of its certification exams contain 40 to 60 questions, the count varies between exams, and it changes as exams are updated to track the technology. Any specific total you see elsewhere is somebody's report of their own sitting, which is useful colour but not a guarantee about yours.
Practically this matters less than it sounds. You are not pacing against a known denominator, you are pacing against the clock, and 45 minutes across 40 to 60 questions leaves roughly 45 to 65 seconds each. For a fundamentals exam built on recognition rather than calculation, that is comfortable.
Microsoft quotes two numbers, and mixing them up is why people arrive expecting a longer exam than they get. Seat time is 65 minutes, the block you should reserve. Exam duration is 45 minutes, the part where you answer questions. The other 20 minutes covers the instructions, the Microsoft Certification Exam Candidate Agreement, your score report, and the optional comments at the end.
Book a 90-minute window regardless. Online proctored sittings add a check-in step that runs before the clock starts, and rushing it is a bad way to begin.
AZ-900 leans on multiple choice and multiple response. Multiple response questions tell you how many options to select and award no partial credit, so a question asking for two correct answers needs both to score.
Microsoft uses a wider set of interactive formats across its exam portfolio (drag and drop ordering, hot-area selection, and similar), and it does not publish which formats appear on a given exam. Prepare for the two main types, and treat anything more interactive as a presentation difference rather than a harder question. Fundamentals exams do not include the hands-on lab sections that appear on some role-based exams.
You need 700 on a 1 to 1,000 scale. The most common misreading is treating that as 70%. It is a scaled score: questions are not all worth the same, and the scale adjusts for the difficulty of the particular form you sat, so the raw number of questions you need right is not fixed.
Your result appears on screen as soon as you finish, along with a bar chart showing relative performance by skills domain. That chart is diagnostic rather than a per-domain pass mark: there is no requirement to clear a bar in each of the three domains, only to reach 700 overall.
You schedule through Pearson VUE from the Microsoft certification page, choosing a testing center or an online proctored slot. Online sittings require a webcam, a clear desk, and a room check before you start.
If you do not pass, Microsoft's retake policy applies: wait 24 hours before a second attempt, then 14 days between each attempt after that, with a maximum of five attempts on the same exam in a 12-month period counted from your first try. Each attempt is paid separately, including when the first one used a free voucher.
AZ-900 costs $99 USD in the United States. Microsoft prices exams by the country or region where the exam is proctored, so the amount you pay is confirmed at checkout when you schedule through Pearson VUE.
Microsoft does not publish a fixed question count for AZ-900. It states that most of its certification exams contain between 40 and 60 questions, and that the number varies by exam and changes over time, so expect a figure in that range rather than an exact total.
Microsoft advises allowing 65 minutes of seat time for a Fundamentals exam, of which 45 minutes is the time to answer questions. The remaining 20 minutes covers instructions, the candidate agreement, score reporting, and optional comments.
700, on a scale that runs from 1 to 1,000. That is a scaled score rather than a percentage, so it does not mean answering 70% of questions correctly. Questions carry different weights and the scale accounts for difficulty.
No. Microsoft Fundamentals certifications do not expire and need no annual renewal, unlike the role-based associate and expert certifications, which require a yearly renewal assessment to stay current.
Microsoft's study guide lists the exact task statements under each of the three skills domains. Exam questions are written from those statements, so it works as a blind-spot checklist.
Open the Microsoft study guide →