I recently passed the AZ-500: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification, and thought that now that most of the world is under some level of COVID-19 related quarantine, what better way to spend one's time than study for a certification test?This study guide aims to help with that process.

In this guide you will find the current (as of 24.5.2020) learning objectives of the exam, with at least a single link to a relevant piece of the Azure Documentation or other related resource to learn about the specific objective.

What is AZ-500? Who should take it?

According to Microsoft themselves:

The candidates for this exam are Microsoft Azure security engineers who implement security controls, maintain the security posture, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications, and networks. Candidates identify and remediate vulnerabilities by using a variety of security tools, implement threat protection, and respond to security incident escalations. As a Microsoft Azure security engineer, candidates often serve as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security and may also secure hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure.

If you identify with that description at all, perhaps take a look at the official site for Microsoft about the exam below.

Skills measured

NOTE: The exams do NOT cover any services that are in preview at the time you are taking it.

Manage identity and access (20-25%)

Configure Azure Active Directory for workloads

Configure Azure AD Privileged Identity Management

Configure Azure tenant security

Implement platform protection (35-40%)

Implement network security

Implement host security

Configure container security

Implement Azure Resource management security

Manage security operations (15-20%)

Configure security services

Configure security policies

Manage security alerts

Secure data and applications (25-30%)

Configure security policies to manage data

Configure security for data infrastructure

Configure encryption for data at rest

Configure application security

Configure and manage Key Vault

And that's it!

Hopefully you will find this guide useful. If you notice any broken links etc. contact me on either the comments below or via twitter.