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Solution Partner Infrastructure Skilling Pre-requisites
Requesting confirmation/denial of applying Advanced Skilling pre-requisite, AZ-305, to Intermediate Skilling pre-requisite, AZ-104 using Indvidual's certification for both.
Attempting to get approval for an individual's Advanced Skilling Pre-requisite to be also counted towards the Intermediate Skilling Pre-requisite since the higher-level certification includes the lower-level materials.
The individual already has certification for AZ-305 which has pre-requisite exam AZ-104, so no need to take AZ-104 again.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) certification pre-requisite Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104 exam) certification
Current ticket response from Microsoft Support stated that there is no documentation to deny allowing AZ-305 Advanced pre-requisite to also apply towards the Intermediate pre-requisite which is AZ-104.
Is there documentation to confirm/deny this? We need to complete our Solution Partner Skilling points.
Hi Stacey,
When looking at a skilling requirement that says Azure Administrator Associate certification, the question is, does the person have Active Azure Administrator Associate certification?
The person can give you sharing link to their Learn transcript, which has a section named Active certifications. Under that, you need to see Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate. If you see that then great, the Azure Administrator Associate part of the skilling requirement is met. If not, the requirement isn't met.
Same thing with skilling requirement that says Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Check Active certifications section of transcript and look for Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
When looking at transcript, pay attention to expiration dates. If the date is less than 6 months from now, you should have the person renew their certification (it is free to renew).
Please click Accept Answer if the above was useful.
Thanks.
-TP
Yes, the individual has an active Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification that was just completed 8/2023.
I am aware of the requirements but looking for documentation pertaining to my specific question. Requesting confirmation/denial of applying Advanced Skilling pre-requisite, AZ-305, to Intermediate Skilling pre-requisite, AZ-104 using Indvidual's certification for both. Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert - Certifications | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Certification prerequisites To become a Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, you must earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.
Are you saying the individual had Active Azure Administrator certification in August, but allowed it to expire? I mention that because an individual can take AZ-305 exam without having administrator certification, but they won't earn Solutions Architect Expert certification until they also have administrator certification.
Certifications are treated individually. Even though a certification (such as Solutions Architect Expert) has another certification as a pre-requisite, that doesn't mean the person has the prerequisite certification so long as they keep the higher certification Active.
For example, someone could've earned Administrator Associate and Solutions Architect Expert years ago, allowed Administrator Associate to expire, while renewing Solutions Architect Expert so that it is still Active. The person in this example no longer has Administrator Associate certification, and thus cannot use it to satisfy requirements for something that requires it.
Say they wanted to earn DevOps Engineer Expert certification, which Administrator Associate is one potential prerequisite, it wouldn't work.
In the case of Solutions Architect Expert (currently) there is only one potential prerequisite certification, but for other certifications there are several potential prerequisites. If someone were to earn a higher certification that has five potential prerequisite certifications, that doesn't mean they can use (for qualifying purposes) all of the five certifications even if they don't have all five.
Another way to think of it is, "can an expired certification be used to qualify for a skilling requirement?".
Here's example. Say you were going for Infrastructure. So you start at Step 1:
Step 1: Required certifications: To earn points for Intermediate certification for Infrastructure, you must have at least two people with the Azure Administrator Associate certification. If you don't meet this prerequisite, you won't earn any points in this metric.
If you don't have at least two people that have Active Azure Administrator Associate certification you fail this step. It doesn't matter if you have a person that has Solutions Architect Expert certification if they don't have an active administrator certification in terms of meeting step 1 prerequisite.