Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400)

Manual, inconsistent releases are a business risk. When every engineer deploys differently, teams see failed builds that reach staging, unclear access to repos and pipelines, and audit questions nobody can answer quickly. This AZ-400 course gives IT teams a shared, repeatable approach to CI/CD on Azure DevOps and GitHub.

Role fit: Built for DevOps engineers and experienced IT Practitioners who already work with Azure. It is expert-level, so Team Leads should assign it to staff who are moving toward pipeline ownership, not to new hires. It starts with DevOps principles and a Git crash course, then moves into building pipelines.

Time investment: About 30 hours across 31 skills, with most skills under an hour. Many teams assign one or two skills per week alongside project work.

Risk and compliance: Your team learns to control releases with gates, manage pipeline security, implement compliance controls in Azure DevOps, and limit project access by user. The course also covers licensing considerations for Azure DevOps and GitHub, including how to evaluate which platform features the organization needs before rollout.

Change management: The course covers moving existing workflows, ticketing, and repos into Azure DevOps and GitHub. It also covers how Azure Pipelines support automated testing and delivery from code readiness through production deployment.

The instructor demonstrates each step and troubleshoots failed builds on screen. Training Managers can use Playlists to sequence skills and Team Reporting to track progress toward AZ-400.

IT teams use this training to move releases from manual, error-prone handoffs to repeatable, automated pipelines that reduce deployment risk. Learners build working CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps and GitHub-based workflows, then practice reading pipeline logs, console output, and debug output when builds or deployments fail. That troubleshooting practice carries over directly when a dependency issue stalls a real release.

The course also covers core release automation practices: defining how code is pushed, tested, and scheduled for deployment; working with Azure Repos, Pipelines, and Test Plans; deploying resources with ARM templates; and validating releases through Azure-based pipeline stages. Combined with automated testing strategy and reusable pipeline design, these practices help Team Leads catch problems earlier in the delivery process.

• Fewer failed releases: Engineers design test strategies that run automated tests early in the pipeline instead of finding defects in staging or user acceptance testing.
• Safer production changes: Teams use CI/CD release pipelines, deployment logs, and staged validation to identify failed jobs or unstable changes before they affect downstream release work.
• Consistent, reusable infrastructure: ARM templates, Infrastructure as Code practices, and pipeline step templates replace one-off scripts with versioned, repeatable builds for apps and containers.
• Stronger governance: Team Leads manage project access, control pipeline security, and standardize Azure DevOps workflows so delivery processes are easier to review and maintain.

Knowledge

• DevOps core principles, including continual improvement, feedback loops, and the OODA loop as a model for faster, more secure delivery
• How Azure DevOps and GitHub fit together, including project membership controls, migration considerations, and licensing factors such as GitHub Actions minutes
• Git fundamentals and branch strategy: staging, committing, rolling back, branching, and pull requests
• Pipeline architecture across Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions: stages, jobs, steps, triggers, agents, and artifacts
• Infrastructure as code with ARM templates and Ansible, plus Docker image construction for CI/CD
• Release planning and automated testing strategies for Azure DevOps pipelines

Ability

• Build CI pipelines and read console output to troubleshoot failed builds
• Create continuous deployment releases for cloud and on-premises targets using classic and YAML pipelines
• Build CI/CD workflows in GitHub Actions, including building Docker images and pushing them to a registry
• Deploy Azure resources such as an Azure Container Registry through pipelines that use ARM templates
• Control releases with gates and staging slots, and manage deployment timing across environments
• Reduce repeated pipeline code with step templates and runtime parameters so the team can standardize builds