AZ-220 Microsoft Azure IoT Developer exam tips
Update: the AZ-220 Pluralsight path is live! Check it out here.
I took and passed the AZ-220 Microsoft Azure IoT Developer exam yesterday, and want to share some helpful pointers for anyone planning to do the same.
Where to start
Mind you that this is not a study guide. There are already good ones available, like the following. So start there:
- AZ-220 Exam Study Guide (Azure IoT Developer) – Specialty by Ravikiran Srinivasulu
- AZ-220 STUDY GUIDE: MICROSOFT AZURE IOT DEVELOPER by Thomas Maurer
To read about how I tackle a (Microsoft) exam in general, see my post How I prepared for the Azure Solutions Architect exams.
My exam had 55 questions, including 5 or 6 case studies. There were no labs.
Study material
At the time of taking the exam, I had been working with Azure (and IoT Hub in particular) for about 4 years, and that helped me in a great way. In my opinion, this exam is not for those without practical experience.
In addition, I used the study guides mentioned above, and the great content (learning modules) available at Microsoft Learning. I found some other modules that weren’t listed there, but certainly helped:
- Introduction to Azure IoT Edge
- Set up an IoT Edge Gateway
- Deploy a pre-built module to the Edge device
For each exam, I also try to find online courses about any of the subjects in the exam outline. The best courses in my opinion are those at Pluralsight, but I’m a Pluralsight author so I might be a little biased 🙂
Important subjects
Here are some subjects that aren’t (fully) covered in the study guides and learning modules, but that you should definitely know about:
- IoT Hub tiers
- IoT Hub quotas and throttling
- IoT Hub permission policies
- The different kinds of IoT Edge gateways patterns
- DPS symmetric key attestation
- DPS X.509 certificate attestation
- DPS TPM attestation
- Choosing the right communication protocol
- ASA windowing functions
Thanks for reading and good luck!