Azure Fundamentals

The thing to understand before enrolling is who's teaching it: this is Noah Gift's Pragmatic AI Labs course, an independent take, not Microsoft's official one. That's not a mark against it — it's a solid, credible grounding in the fundamentals — but if you specifically want Microsoft's own material or hands-on engineering, look elsewhere.

And as with every fundamentals track, the course is not the certification: the AZ-900 exam is a separate Microsoft purchase of about $99. Audit the course free on edX, with a verified certificate as a paid option and financial assistance available. Azure's fundamentals are stable enough that the material holds up well (as of 2026).

Azure Fundamentals covers the core concepts behind Microsoft's AZ-900 certification — cloud concepts, core Azure services, security, and pricing — taught by Noah Gift of Pragmatic AI Labs rather than Microsoft directly. That's a meaningful difference: it's a leaner, more exam-focused take than Microsoft's own longer learning paths.