A guide to passing the Microsoft AI-102 Certification
Preparation for the Azure AI-102 certification solely based on Microsoft Learn material
Embarking on a journey to get certified can sometimes feel like a daunting endeavor. But worry not! This guide will share the most effective strategy I discovered for passing the Microsoft AI-102 Certification — most effective at least for my way of learning…
1. Why This Guide?
Everyone has their unique learning style. For me, it’s through reading and hands-on practice rather than video lectures. I find I can absorb the same amount of information much faster through reading than watching a video. Hence, I compiled this guide mainly based on text and hands-on practice resources.
2. “My” Learning Path
Microsoft Learn provides a wealth of resources, many of which are free. Here are the steps I followed in my preparation. I did not look into other resources, but I must admit, that I already have some experience with Azure as well as with ML and AI.
3. Study Guide
This should be your starting point. It provides crucial information about the test, including main topics, recent news, and changes. Keep a close eye on it to stay updated. In the Study Guide you will find links to the documentation of the relevant AI/ML services. It is certainly helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to read the entire documentation. But I definitely would recommend to carefully read at least the section marked below (Overview, concepts, Rest API, Python) of all relevant services.
4. AI 900 Exercises
https://microsoftlearning.github.io/AI-900-AIFundamentals/
These exercises are crucial for understanding the “core” ML/AI services. I used them as a “refresher.”
5. AI 102 Learning Path
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/exams/ai-102/#two-ways-to-prepare
This path provides a high-level view of all the services relevant for the exam. Work through all the sub-modules diligently and carry out the contained exercises.
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6. Example test from MSFT Learn
On this link you can schedule you final exam as well as start a test exam for free (multiple times): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/azure-ai-engineer/
Free practice examen with answers — repeat this practice tests until you scored ≥ 80 % multiple times After working through the learning path, attempt the sample test at least once. This provides an idea of where you stand knowledge-wise and points you to additional resources for weaker areas.
7. AI 104 Engineer Exercises + MSLearn Cognitive Services exercises
https://microsoftlearning.github.io/AI-102-AIEngineer
These are must-have hands-on exercises. A significant part of the exam questions is based on these exercises.
Build and operate ML Learning Solutions from MSFT Learn
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/build-ai-solutions-with-azure-ml-service/
Although it didn’t come up in my exam, this learning path provides a deeper understanding of MLOps under Azure.
8. Open AI Lessons (Optional)
https://microsoftlearning.github.io/mslearn-openai/
Although not yet part of the exam, these lessons provide useful additional practice.
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The Exam
In the exam, you’ll need to select upfront your preferred programming language (C# or Python). Questions about source code will then appear in that language. So you “just” have to learn to use the Azure AI/ML services in your preferred programming language. I went with Python..
It’s noteworthy that in my exam, about a third of the questions pertained to concrete API calls and source code. You’ll need to understand how to select code parts from drop-downs or choose the syntactically correct one from a series of possible API calls.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s learning materials proved wholly sufficient for my successful exam preparation. Of course, having a basic knowledge of Python, Machine Learning, and Azure was helpful.
I hope this guide will prove useful for you and encourage you to delve deeper into AI/ML on Azure using MSFT Learn lessons. The possibilities are indeed abundant.
Best of luck with your exam preparations and remember, the journey is just as important as the destination!
Good Luck on your own path!
