Best AZ-104 Practice Tests 2026 (Free and Paid, Ranked)
The AZ-104 exam is one of the harder Microsoft certifications. The pass rate hovers around 50-60%, and a significant reason for failure is using poor-quality practice tests that don't reflect the actual exam style. Here's a ranked guide to the best AZ-104 practice materials in 2026.
What Makes a Good AZ-104 Practice Test?
Before the rankings, the criteria:
- Exam alignment — Questions match the current AZ-104 exam blueprint (updated November 2024). Old questions on deprecated Azure features are worse than no practice at all.
- Case study inclusion — AZ-104 includes case studies (multi-question scenarios). Practice tests without case studies leave you underprepared.
- Explanation quality — Wrong answer explanations should explain WHY each distractor is wrong, not just what the correct answer is.
- Scenario-based questions — The exam heavily favours "Customer X needs to achieve Y, which approach is BEST?" style questions, not simple recall.
Ranked: Best AZ-104 Practice Tests 2026
1. Courseiva AZ-104 Practice Questions (Free)
Best for: Free, high-quality daily practice questions
Courseiva offers free AZ-104 practice questions across all exam domains: Identity and Governance, Storage, Compute, Networking, and Monitoring. Questions are scenario-based and updated to reflect the November 2024 exam blueprint changes.
Strengths:
- Free with no account required for basic access
- Questions include detailed explanations for all answer choices
- Domain-filtered practice targets specific weak areas
- Timed practice mode simulates exam conditions
Try AZ-104 practice questions →
2. Microsoft Learn Practice Assessments (Free — Official)
Best for: Official Microsoft sample questions
Microsoft provides free practice assessments through Microsoft Learn for most role-based exams including AZ-104. These are official questions from Microsoft's exam team.
Strengths:
- Official source — question style matches the real exam
- Free with a Microsoft account
- Linked directly to the relevant learning modules for each topic
Weaknesses:
- Limited question count (typically 50-60 questions per exam)
- Not enough volume for thorough preparation
- No case study practice
How to access: Search "AZ-104 practice assessment" on Microsoft Learn or navigate to the AZ-104 exam page.
3. Whizlabs AZ-104 Practice Tests (Paid — ~£25)
Best for: High volume practice with performance analytics
Whizlabs offers 500+ AZ-104 practice questions in multiple test sets with detailed analytics showing performance by domain.
Strengths:
- High question volume (500+)
- Performance analytics by topic area
- Includes case study practice
- Regularly updated
Weaknesses:
- Question quality varies — some questions have awkward English or are too simplistic
- Some outdated questions mixed in (check the last update date)
Best use: Use as a volume supplement after establishing foundational knowledge. Don't rely on Whizlabs alone.
4. Examtopics.com (Free — Use With Caution)
Best for: Seeing real exam question patterns (not for learning)
ExamTopics hosts user-contributed real exam questions. The AZ-104 section has thousands of contributed questions.
Strengths:
- Closest to actual exam question patterns
- Free
Weaknesses:
- Many answers are wrong — community discussions often contradict each other
- Encourages memorisation over understanding
- Microsoft periodically rotates exam questions to reduce impact
How to use it: Read questions to understand the style and scenario types, but verify every answer independently against Microsoft documentation. Never trust ExamTopics answers without verification.
5. MeasureUp (Paid — ~£60)
Best for: Official Microsoft-endorsed practice tests
MeasureUp is Microsoft's officially endorsed practice test provider for certification exams.
Strengths:
- Official endorsement means question style is most closely aligned
- Includes case studies
- Detailed explanations with links to documentation
Weaknesses:
- Most expensive option
- Interface is dated
- Customer service historically poor
How to Use Practice Tests Effectively
Most AZ-104 candidates make the same practice test mistake: they treat practice tests as content delivery (reading questions to learn) rather than diagnostics (identifying what to study more).
The right approach:
- Learn first, test second — Complete the AZ-104 learning material (Microsoft Learn path, John Savill's videos, or a Udemy course) before starting practice tests
- Take a diagnostic test first — Score your starting point before studying. Identify your weakest domains.
- Study your wrong answers — For every wrong answer, read the Microsoft documentation on that topic. Don't just memorise the correct answer.
- Simulate exam conditions — At least 2-3 practice tests should be taken under exam conditions: 130 minutes, no notes, timed.
- Target 85%+ on practice tests — The real exam pass threshold is around 700/1000, but aim for 85%+ on practice tests to account for the harder real-exam questions.
AZ-104 Exam Topics That Trip People Up Most
Based on community feedback and pass/fail reports:
- Azure RBAC vs Azure Policy — Many candidates confuse these. RBAC = who can do what. Policy = what is allowed to be done.
- Managed Identity vs Service Principal — Exam scenarios require choosing between system-assigned and user-assigned managed identities.
- Storage account access tiers and lifecycle management — Hot, Cool, Archive tier transitions and costs.
- Azure Load Balancer vs Application Gateway vs Traffic Manager — Three different load balancing solutions with different use cases.
- VNet Peering vs VPN Gateway — Global vs regional peering, transitive routing limitations.
Practice AZ-104 weak areas on Courseiva →
Practice test rankings are based on question quality, update frequency, and community feedback as of March 2026.