AZ-204 Azure Developer Associate Cheat Sheet – 2026 Exam Notes
Published: (February 27, 2026 at 12:40 AM EST)
3 min read
Source: Dev.to
Source: Dev.to
Overview
The Microsoft Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) certification validates cloud development skills. Unlike AZ-104, which focuses on infrastructure management, AZ-204 emphasizes coding against Azure services, including hosting code without managing the underlying VM.
App Service Deployment
Deployment Slots
- Available in Standard tier and above.
- Enables zero‑downtime deployments.
Sticky Settings
- Mark settings as “Deployment slot setting” to keep values (e.g., a development DB connection string) from moving to production during a slot swap.
CORS
- Configure Cross‑Origin Resource Sharing in the App Service portal to allow JavaScript calls from your front‑end.
Consumption vs. Premium Plans
| Plan | Key Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Consumption | Automatic scaling, pay‑per‑execution, 1.5 GB RAM limit |
| Premium | Eliminates cold starts, VNET integration, longer timeouts |
Durable Functions
- Orchestrator – Defines the workflow; must be deterministic (avoid
DateTime.Now,Guid.NewGuid()). - Activity – Performs the actual task.
Data Access and Consistency
Consistency Levels (exam “must‑know”)
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Strong | Highest consistency, highest latency |
| Bounded Staleness | Reads may lag behind writes by a defined interval |
| Session (default) | Consistent prefix within a single user session |
| Consistent Prefix | Updates appear in the correct order |
| Eventual | Fastest performance; no order guarantee |
Partition Key
- Choose a property with high cardinality to avoid hot partitions.
Access Tiers
- Hot – Frequent access
- Cool – Data > 30 days old
- Archive – Data > 180 days old (requires rehydration)
Lifecycle Management
- Automate tier moves with JSON policies.
Security and Identity
SAS Tokens
- Use User Delegation SAS for best security (backed by Entra ID).
Managed Identities
| Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| System‑Assigned | Tied to the lifecycle of the resource |
| User‑Assigned | Standalone; can be shared across multiple resources |
Azure Key Vault
- Stores Secrets (strings), Keys (encryption), and Certificates.
- Use RBAC for modern access control.
Microsoft Graph
- API for interacting with Entra ID (users, groups, etc.).
- Requires
GraphServiceClient.
Messaging & Eventing Services
| Service | Type | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Service Bus | Message | High reliability, transactions, FIFO |
| Event Grid | Event | Reactive programming (e.g., “File uploaded → Run Function”) |
| Event Hubs | Event | Big‑data streaming, telemetry (millions of events/sec) |
| Queue Storage | Message | Simple, massive scale, local to a storage account |
API Policies (XML Snippets)
Monitoring & Diagnostics
- Application Insights – Use the SDK to track custom events, exceptions, and dependencies.
- Log Analytics – Query logs with KQL (Kusto Query Language).
- Availability Tests – “Ping” tests to verify global endpoint reachability.
- Instrumentation Key – Required to link code to Application Insights.
Tagging
- Tags do not inherit: tagging a Resource Group does not automatically tag the resources inside it.
Configuration Management
- App Configuration – Centralized storage for feature flags and settings.
- Redis Cache – Implement the Cache‑Aside pattern.
Good luck with your AZ-204 exam preparation!