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The exam is proctored and you may have interactive components to complete as part of it, alongside standard question types. Microsoft recommends trying the free Exam Sandbox first so you can interact with the different question types in the same user interface you will use during the actual exam.

You have 100 minutes to complete the assessment. Microsoft does not publish a fixed item count in the certification materials, and the number of interactive components can change the pacing, so budget your time per question rather than assuming a specific total.

You can retake the exam 24 hours after the first attempt. For subsequent retakes, the amount of time varies. The full conditions are published in Microsoft's exam retake policy, which is worth reading before you pay for a second attempt.

Pricing is based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored, so the fee shown at scheduling is the authoritative figure. Microsoft does not publish a fixed passing score in the certification pages, so do not build a study plan around a specific target percentage.

Yes. Microsoft role-based and specialty certifications expire unless renewed, and this credential has a renewal frequency of 12 months. You renew at no cost by passing an online assessment on Microsoft Learn that covers the latest updates to the technology for your job role.

The assessed areas are implementing and managing user identities, implementing authentication and access management, planning and implementing workload identities, and planning and implementing identity governance. All four carry equal weight in the published outline, so there is no single area you can safely skip or deprioritize.

Microsoft recommends familiarity with Azure, Microsoft 365 services and workloads, and Active Directory Domain Services, plus PowerShell and Kusto Query Language. If any of those are weak, close the gap first, because the exam scenarios assume working knowledge rather than teaching the fundamentals from scratch.

Work through the official study guide, then the Microsoft Learn training path, then the practice assessment to find weak spots before scheduling. It is an intermediate-level exam for security engineers, so expect scenario-based questions that test judgment rather than definition recall. Breadth across all four areas matters more than depth in one.

The English language version of this certification will be updated on October 28, 2026. Microsoft directs candidates to the study guide linked in the Certification resources section for details about upcoming changes, so check it before your exam date if you are testing near that window.

The exam is offered in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional). Register with a personal Microsoft account rather than a work or school account, because Microsoft warns that exam records tied to an organizational account are lost and unrecoverable if you leave that organization.