What Is AZ-120 Certification?

What AZ-120 Actually Is

AZ-120 is the exam code Microsoft assigns to Planning and Administering Azure for SAP Workloads, the assessment that leads to the Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty credential. It is a role-based, specialty-level certification built for people who design, deploy, and operate SAP environments running on Azure infrastructure - not a general Azure administration test and not a generic SAP functional exam. If you've landed here searching for a broader definition, the companion piece What Is AZ-120? covers the same ground from a slightly different angle, and AZ-120 Meaning breaks down what the naming convention signals about Microsoft's certification structure.

Unlike associate-level Azure exams that assume little prior experience, AZ-120 sits at the intersection of two specialized domains: SAP platform knowledge (HANA, Business Suite, NetWeaver) and Azure infrastructure services (compute, storage, networking, identity, availability, and recovery). That dual requirement is what makes it a specialty certification rather than a foundational one, and it's the reason candidates without hands-on SAP-on-Azure experience often underestimate the depth required.

Exam Format, Fee, and Registration

The AZ-120 exam is a 100-minute, proctored, computer-based assessment. It may include interactive components in addition to standard multiple-choice and scenario questions, which means candidates should expect to interact with simulated Azure configurations rather than answer purely from memorized definitions. You can sit the exam either at a Pearson VUE test center or remotely through OnVUE online proctoring, whichever fits your schedule and comfort level with at-home testing conditions.

The U.S. list price is USD 165. Pricing and registration are handled entirely through Pearson VUE and Microsoft's certification portal - there's no separate application or eligibility gate to clear before you can register. For a full cost breakdown including what's and isn't included in that fee, see AZ-120 Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you're mapping out when to sit the exam around work deadlines or renewal periods, AZ-120 Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling walks through scheduling logistics.

The Four Domains You're Tested On

AZ-120's content is organized into four domains, and two of them carry equal top weight. Understanding this weighting should directly shape how you allocate study time - it's the single most useful piece of information for planning preparation, and it's covered in far more depth in AZ-120 Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 4 Content Areas.

Because Domains 1 and 2 together can represent up to 60% of the exam, most successful candidates treat migration and infrastructure design as their primary study blocks and treat HADR and maintenance as secondary but still substantial. If you want a sense of how these percentages translate into real difficulty, How Hard Is the AZ-120 Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 discusses where candidates typically struggle.

Who Should Take AZ-120

Microsoft doesn't impose a formal prerequisite or mandatory certification you must hold before registering for AZ-120. That said, the recommended background is substantial: familiarity with SAP HANA, SAP Business Suite, and SAP NetWeaver on the application side, paired with working knowledge of Azure compute, storage, networking, identity, availability, and recovery services on the infrastructure side. Microsoft also strongly recommends - though doesn't require - that candidates already hold the Azure Administrator Associate certification before attempting AZ-120, since it establishes baseline Azure fluency that the specialty exam assumes you already have.

In practice, this means AZ-120 is not a good entry point into either SAP or Azure. It's built for people who already work with one or both platforms and need to formalize or extend that expertise into hybrid SAP-on-Azure architecture. For a full rundown of what "recommended" versus "required" means for your specific situation, see AZ-120 Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Who Hires AZ-120-Certified Professionals

The certification targets professionals working in roles where SAP and Azure infrastructure responsibilities overlap: SAP Basis administrators moving their landscapes to the cloud, Azure infrastructure engineers assigned to SAP-specific projects, and cloud architects at organizations running SAP as a core enterprise system. Because SAP migrations to the cloud are typically large, multi-year initiatives, this certification signals to employers and SAP-focused consultancies that you can plan and execute that migration rather than just administer generic virtual machines.

Companies running SAP on Azure - from mid-size enterprises to large system integrators handling client SAP migrations - use this credential as a filtering signal during hiring and staffing decisions for SAP infrastructure roles. For a closer look at the kinds of positions and how the certification factors into compensation conversations, see AZ-120 Jobs and AZ-120 Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis. If you're still weighing whether the investment of time and the USD 165 fee is worth it for your career stage, Is the AZ-120 Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out the considerations without relying on invented numbers.

Scoring, Retakes, and Renewal

AZ-120 uses Microsoft's scaled scoring system, where a passing result is 700 - this is not the same as answering 70% of questions correctly, since different questions can carry different weight. The exact mechanics of how scaled scoring works are detailed in AZ-120 Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass, which is worth reading before exam day so you're not misjudging your performance based on how many questions "felt" answerable.

If you don't pass on your first attempt, Microsoft's retake policy allows you to schedule a second attempt after a 24-hour waiting period. That short window means a failed attempt doesn't derail your timeline significantly, but it does mean you should genuinely address knowledge gaps rather than immediately retesting hoping for different questions.

Once earned, the certification is valid for 12 months. Microsoft offers a free online renewal assessment that becomes available in the six months before your certification expires; passing it extends your certification validity by another year, with no need to retake the full proctored exam. This renewal cadence reflects how quickly Azure services and SAP integration patterns evolve, so staying current matters even after you've passed.

Building a Domain-Aligned Study Timeline

Generic study techniques - spaced repetition, timed practice blocks, active recall - all work for AZ-120, but they only pay off when applied against the actual domain weighting rather than spread evenly across topics you already know. Given that Migration and Infrastructure jointly represent the largest share of the exam, a sensible allocation front-loads those two domains before narrowing focus onto HADR and Maintenance scenarios.

A structured timeline like this is only a starting framework - pacing depends heavily on how much production SAP-on-Azure experience you already have. For a more detailed week-by-week breakdown with resource recommendations, see AZ-120 Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. Reinforcing your plan with timed, scenario-based practice through our AZ-120 practice test platform helps surface which domain actually needs more attention rather than which one feels most comfortable to review.

For a condensed, printable version of these facts to keep on hand during final review, check AZ-120 Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts. And if you want data-informed context on how candidates generally perform, AZ-120 Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows discusses what's publicly known without resorting to invented figures.

Frequently Asked Questions