AZ-140: Configuring and Operating Windows Virtual Desktop on Microsoft Azure (beta) – Exam Study Guide

Salaam, Namaste, Ola and Hello!

Three things I am I am glad I learnt:

• FSLogix
• Identity Management
• Virtual Machine Sizing

Things I wish I had learnt:

• WVD PowerShell commands

Most common question areas I got in my exam:

• Identity Management (Azure AD, Azure AD Domain Services & Active Directory on-premises)
• Azure Networking (VNET DNS, Peering and VPNs)
• FSLogix

Least common question areas I got in my exam:

• Image Deployment
• Application publishing
• Hostpool Deployment

I took this exam only a few days after it was released, therefore there was very little information around other people’s experience with this exam, only the information around what areas are covered from Microsoft (see link at the start of the post). In all honesty I was expecting more questions around Windows Virtual Desktop Services, like Hostpools, Application Groups, Load Balancing Algorithms and FSLogix, however only one of those topics (FSLogix) came up multiple times.

My experience and prep for the Azure Associate Administration exam probably helped me more when taking this exam as there is much more focus on Azure services that integrate with Windows Virtual Desktop (Identity Management, Azure Network, VM sizing and PowerShell commands). If you are not familiar with Azure at an Administration level at least, I would not recommend you take this exam as you will find it difficult.

Exam Breakdown: The following information is a breakdown of the types of questions I got in my exam and the amount of time I spent on them –

Order	Section	Time Spent (minutes)	Difficulty /10?
1	Case Studies	15 minutes	6
2	General Multiple Choice Questions	30 minutes	7
3	Scenario Based Questions	15	5
4
5
	Total (minutes):	60/120

As you can see from the above table the sections of the exam were pretty standard for a Microsoft exam (for those that have done one before). My exam consisted of 43 questions in total, 10 as part of the case study, 23 as part of the multiple choice questions and then 10 as part of the scenario based questions. I think due to my everyday exposure to Windows Virtual Desktop and Azure services in general I did not find there was anything that caught me out, however there were sections like the case studies where I did have to think about some of the answers.

Learning Resources

As I mentioned earlier in the post, I took the exam only a few days after it was released as a Beta exam, however here are a few really useful links I used in my preparation:

• Dean Cefola (https://twitter.com/MSAzureAcademy) does a great YouTube series on the AZ-140 exam prep which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/c/AzureAcademy/featured. By the time I took my exam there were only 12 episodes out and I believe a few more have been added since then, however those 12 episodes were very useful in my preparation.
• Microsoft Learn as always has a great set of resources and I will always recommend you start off with his great free content no mater which subject your exam is in. you can find the Windows Virtual Desktop specific content here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/m365-wvd/

When it comes to preparation the only other advise I can give is go through the steps on creating a demo environment of Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure including all the integrated Azure services like Azure AD Domain Services, Azure VNET, FSLogix with Azure Files, Windows 10 multi-session image creation and Application publishing. Having some hands on experience will allow you to use your experience to answer the questions, as well as the information you have learnt from other resources.

Keep an eye out on m Twitter feed to see if I pass in the coming weeks ( https://twitter.com/ShabazDarr ). Hope you find this helpful, if you would like any more information feel free to tweet me @shabazdarr or ask a question in the comments section below!