General: Notes on taking Microsoft exams

Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of Microsoft exams. I’ve also spent a lot of time writing exams for Microsoft exam providers. And while I’ve been doing that, I’ve spent a lot of time in forums where I’ve been checking out what people say about the exams.

What amazes me is the number of misconceptions that people have about exams. So I thought it would be helpful to write a post that covers most of the ones that I’ve heard.

Unlike what I see (but shouldn’t see) in the forums, I can’t discuss specific questions, but the majority of this is unrelated to the actual questions or the specific exams.

DOMC questions (surprising number of comments)

With these types of questions, you are presented a single scenario, then given (usually) four possible solutions and asked if they would solve the issue. I’ve heard people complaining why are there 4 questions on the same thing?. Well that’s the whole point of this type of question. I’ve also heard people say but there were two options that would have worked. Perhaps true, but the question wasn’t about which one was correct, it’s if the one you’re looking at would work or not. That’s what you’re being asked.

I also see people complaining that once they answer any of them, they can’t go back to the previous options. That’s not a bug. That’s by design.

If you are answering this type of question, make sure that the answer you picked satisfies the criteria, not just part of it.

Background of test takers

I’ve seen people complaining that to do the exam, they need actual implementation experience. That’s by design. You should get experience with actually using the product or service before you do the exam.

I remember one person complaining that the exam was too hard for a novice. Yet the exam they were doing was an expert level exam. So, I’d hope it was.

I hear people complain that the way a concept was implemented in the exam was different to how it was presented in the Learn content. There isn’t just one way to do anything. You need to get used to that.

Exam preparation

I hear people complaining that there were questions that weren’t in the fill in company name here summaries for the exam. Sorry, but so what? Talk to the people at fill in company name here.

I hear people complaining that there were questions that were not covered in the online Learn content. Why wasn’t that in the official course? Fair call perhaps but every exam has a study guide, and invariably the topics they are complaining about were mentioned in that guide. Also, the Learn content often has links to additional reading, etc. But people don’t seem to follow them and read them. Same thing applies to comments like XXX wasn’t ever mentioned. I’ll bet it was. Exam writers have to write rationales for questions, and point to where the content is.

I hear people complaining that the exam was different to the online practice test at the Learn site. Yes, it will be. For a start, you’ll notice that almost all the online practice tests just have simple multiple choice questions, but the real exams, have a mixture of question types. My only potential concern here is that the practice exams might give people a false sense of how prepared they are.

I hear people complaining that the exam was much harder than the knowledge check questions in the Learn content. Yes, it’s usually much harder. The knowledge check questions are really just checking that you understand what you just read. The exam is looking to see if you can apply the knowledge more broadly.

I hear people complaining I never use any of these options in my job. So what? The exam isn’t just on your job.

I’ve heard people complaining that I’ve been in the industry XX years, and I’ve never heard anyone mention YY. Sorry, but perhaps your experience isn’t enough preparation on its own.

I had to laugh when I heard someone saying I’ve heard others arguing about this question, and even ChatGPT didn’t know the answer. Imagine that. You could always, you know, try using the product or service and find out for yourself.

I’ve heard people complaining that they thought the content on the Learn pages wasn’t clear enough. If it’s online training content on the Learn site, use the feedback link at the bottom of the page to send info to Microsoft. If it’s a documentation page, consider learning how to raise a pull request, and suggesting a fix for the page. It’s surprisingly easy to do.

Taking the exam

My #1 tip in this aspect is that, when something doesn’t seem to make sense, that you actually read the question. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone making a mistake like thinking the question was about fields, but it was actually about files. Spelled a little similarly, but not the same thing right? Similarly, there’s a world of difference between an activity run and a pipeline run.

I’ve heard people complain that I shouldn’t be required to show I can write code or understand syntax. We’ll have to differ on that one, particularly in exams that are on topics that are fundamentally about coding.

I’ve heard people complain that dates and times aren’t shown the way they’re used to. I like to see exam questions use dates in a YYYY-MM-DD format, but if they are in a regional format, understand that they’ll likely be in a US format.

People assuming the exam is somehow interactive

I’ve seen people mentioning that they thought they were close to passing and said they added please pass me in the comments of the exam, to try to get some lenience. That isn’t going to help. No-one is going to review your comment like that, and retrospectively pass you.

I’ve also heard people saying they don’t like the UI in the product and said they told Microsoft about it by writing a comment in the exam. That’s pointless. If you have feedback on the product, put it through the valid feedback channels. Don’t write it in an exam comment.

Summary

You don’t want to be one of the people I’ve mentioned here. Before you take an exam, I strongly enourage you to:

Work through all the Learn content that’s available, including doing all the lab exercises.
Answer all the knowledgebase questions and review what you got wrong carefully.
Do all available practice exams (most exams have more than one available).
Read all the content that’s linked to from within the Learn content.
Read the study guide for the exam very carefully. If any topic isn’t clear to you, go and find out more about it.
Try at least one real project (even if it’s just a test one for yourself) that involves using the product or service. Make sure you try to achieve something with it, not just follow the step by step instructions in the lab exercises.

In a future post, I’ll discuss techniques that have worked for me when doing these exams.

2025-11-21