Renewing Azure Certification Without Any Additional Cost
As the Azure Cloud services are changing rapidly and a professional needs to keep active its certification, from March 2021, Microsoft allows you to maintain a certification active by validating your knowledge through a free certification renewal.
| Info: This article focuses on professionals who already hold an Azure Certification and want to extend it. |
How does it start?
It starts by receiving an email from "Microsoft Certification-mswwprog@microsoft.com" six months (180 days) before the certification expires.
At the bottom of the email, you will be able to see a button to take you to the renewal site.
By clicking the button you will take to the renewal page where you can read the details of the renewal process. Renewal assessments measure skills that focus on different topics than the ones you initially examined the certification, so pay attention to them.
As an example for the post's purposes, I'm writing about the Azure DevOps exam. So in the image below, you can see that Microsoft provides a collection of learning modules to help you with exam preparation.
After completing the preparation for your Azure certification renewal, i.e., Azure DevOps, you can "Take the renewal assessment". Bear in mind the bullet points below:
- The first time you take the exam, you are eligible to take it twice (in case you fail the first)
- There are 25 questions to answer within 40 minutes.
- After 24 hours, you can retake the exam if you don't pass on your first two attempts.
- The percentage for correct answers differs for exams, i.e., in order to pass the Azure DevOps renewal certificate, you need 57%.
- After passing the assessment, you extend your certification by one year.
- The renewal exam can be taken (every 24 hours) as many times as you want before the expiration date.
After passing the renewal exam, you will see an image like the one below:
A few minutes later, you will also receive an email that certifies the certification renewal by a year.
What's the process if you fail?
You shouldn't become worried if the certificate renewal attempt fails on the first try. The ability to retry again and an overall outcome report from Microsoft, which includes a learning module to help you hone your skills before attempting again, are both great options.
Conclusion
The Azure certification renewal assessment is pretty straightforward. Microsoft takes care of us by informing us through an email 180 days before the certification expires. It provides us with the new topics on which you will be tested, and you can try it every 24 hours until the expiration day, except for the first time, where you can try a second time if you failed the first.