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AZ-500 · DevOpsSchool Certification

Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)

Secure Azure workloads end to end — identity, compute, networking, data, and threat protection for AZ-500. Every session is a live demo in a real lab environment — not slides, not theory. You watch the instructor build it, then you build it yourself.

 4.8 / 5 · 2,300+ ratings 18,000+ certified learners 423 enrolled in last 90 days
Duration
5 weeks
Total content
100+ hours
Per tool
5 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Final exam
3 hrs · online · open-book
NEXT COHORT · 1st of next month
₹34,999 ₹49,999 SAVE 30%
Live & interactive cohort · GST extra as applicable · EMI available
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Only 3 of 10 seats left

What's included
  • 5-week program · 100+ hours of content
  • Live & interactive instructor sessions
  • 2 assignments & 1 capstone per tool
  • 3-hour online open-book final exam
  • Recordings, slides & lab repos
  • Industry-recognised digital certificate
  • Lifetime forum support — ask anything, forever
  • FREE 1-year LMS access — entire DevOpsSchool LMS: 20+ courses, 50+ tools, videos, quizzes, assignments & projects.
Cohort-cancellation refund. If we cancel or postpone the cohort (instructor unavailability, low enrolment, force majeure), you receive a 100% refund within 15 days. See refund policy.
Reserve my seat — ₹34,999
Engineers we've trained work at
JPMorgan Chase Bank of America Wells Fargo Verizon Nokia World Bank GE Healthcare VMware Oracle Qualcomm Mercedes-Benz Airbus Datadog Splunk Deloitte Infosys Wipro Capgemini
# career outcomes

Walk in an engineer. Walk out a AZ-500 who ships.

By the end of AZ-500, you'll have shipped 12 production-grade artefacts and proven you can:

Design CI/CD for multi-service applications, with branching, gates, and progressive rollout.

Provision infrastructure as code across AWS, Azure, or GCP using Terraform — including drift control.

Automate configuration at scale with Ansible — idempotent playbooks, secret-free roles.

Run containers on Kubernetes — workloads, networking, autoscaling, observability.

Shift security left — SAST/DAST, SBOM, signed images, policy as code with OPA.

Operate SLOs — define error budgets, run incident response, write postmortems.

Median salary after certification
$118K – $165K
Roles our AZ-500 alumni land: DevOps Engineer · Platform Engineer · SRE · Build & Release Manager · Cloud Automation Lead. Based on alumni reporting, 2024–25.
Start now — ₹34,999
# why this program

It's training built by people who run production for a living.

Taught by senior practitioners

Every instructor has 15+ years operating production systems — our lead instructor, Rajesh Kumar, has 20.

Build your own lab — not a sandbox

We teach you to provision a production-grade environment on your own AWS/Azure/GCP. It's the same skill you'll use day one on the job — and it goes with you when you leave.

100% demo-driven

Every session is a live demonstration in a working lab — never slides, never theory. You watch the instructor build it in real time, then you build it yourself.

Job-ready portfolio

You leave with 12 GitHub-ready projects you can show in interviews tomorrow.

# next cohort

Live cohorts — pick the track that fits your week.

Every cohort is capped at 10 learners by design. That's how the instructor still answers your real production questions in week 4 — not just the rehearsed ones from week 1.

Weekend cohort Most popular

Starts 1st of next month · Sat · Sun · 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM IST
  • 5 weekends · ~8 hrs/weekend live + self-paced
  • Designed for working professionals on IST/EST/GMT
  • Mentor office hours · Sunday 11 AM IST
  • Only 3 of 10 seats left
Reserve seat — ₹34,999

Weekday cohort

Starts 1st of next month · Mon · Wed · Fri · 8:00 – 10:00 PM IST
  • 5 weeks · ~12 hrs/week (live + self-paced)
  • Recorded same-day · always-available replay
  • Mentor office hours · Thursday 7 PM IST
  • Capped at 10 learners — small-batch by design
Reserve seat — ₹34,999

Need a custom corporate cohort for your team? Talk to us →

# curriculum · AZ-500

Tool-by-tool. Live demos, not slides.

Each tool is taught as a working live demonstration inside a real lab environment — you see it built end-to-end before you build it yourself. The structure is identical for every tool, so you always know what's coming and what you'll have shipped by the end of the week.

5 hours
content per tool
(live + self-paced video)
2 assignments
per tool
graded with feedback
1 capstone
per tool
GitHub-public portfolio
3-hr exam
online · open-book
at the end of the program
01 Azure Identity Security7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Secure Azure AD (Entra ID) tenants — Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Conditional Access policies, Identity Protection (risk policies), Entra ID Governance, password protection, MFA enforcement, service principal security (certificate vs secret).
Capstone: implement PIM just-in-time access, Conditional Access risk-based policy, and Identity Protection risk remediation workflow.
02 Azure Platform Security — VMs & Storage7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure Disk Encryption (ADE, SSE with CMK), VM security baseline (endpoint protection, just-in-time VM access), storage account security (private endpoints, SAS tokens, network rules, immutable storage), Azure Security Benchmark for compute.
Capstone: harden a VM and storage account — ADE encryption, JIT access, private endpoint, Defender for Servers enabled.
03 Network Security7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure Firewall (policies, IDPS, TLS inspection), Azure WAF (OWASP rule sets, custom rules, rate limiting), Azure DDoS Protection Standard (metrics, telemetry), NSG flow logs + Traffic Analytics, Azure Bastion (shareable links), Private Endpoints at scale.
Capstone: implement layered network defence — Azure Firewall IDPS + WAF + DDoS Protection + NSG flow logs with Traffic Analytics.
04 Azure Key Vault & Secrets Management7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Key Vault (secrets, keys, certificates), Managed HSM (dedicated HSM, key import), access policies vs RBAC, managed identities for seamless secret access, certificate lifecycle management (auto-renewal), key rotation automation with Event Grid.
Capstone: implement automated key rotation for Azure SQL using Key Vault + Event Grid trigger, managed identity for app secret access.
05 Microsoft Defender for Cloud7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Defender for Cloud plans (CSPM vs CWPP), Secure Score improvement methodology, workload protections (Defender for Servers/Containers/Databases/Storage), regulatory compliance (CIS, NIST, PCI-DSS), security alerts & recommendations workflow, Defender for DevOps.
Capstone: enable Defender for Cloud across an Azure subscription, improve Secure Score by 30 points, configure compliance dashboard.
06 Microsoft Sentinel7 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Sentinel workspace design, data connectors (Azure, Microsoft 365, third-party), analytics rules (scheduled, fusion, anomaly), UEBA, threat intelligence integration, Playbooks (Logic Apps SOAR), hunting queries (KQL), incident management workflow.
Capstone: deploy Sentinel with 5+ data connectors, create analytics rules, build an automated playbook for IP blocking on alerts.
07 Application Security on Azure6 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure App Service security (authentication/authorization, TLS, VNet integration), AKS security (Azure AD workload identity, RBAC, pod security, Defender for Containers), container registry security (ACR tasks, image scanning, content trust), supply chain security.
Capstone: harden an AKS workload — workload identity, Defender for Containers, ACR image scanning in pipeline, pod security policies.
08 Data & Database Security6 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure SQL security (TDE, Always Encrypted, Row-Level Security, Dynamic Data Masking, Advanced Threat Protection, Defender for SQL), Cosmos DB security (RBAC, private endpoint, firewall), ADLS Gen2 security (ACLs, encryption, Azure Purview scanning).
Capstone: implement Azure SQL Always Encrypted + Defender for SQL + Row-Level Security for a multi-tenant application.
09 Governance & Compliance6 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure Policy for security compliance (deny, audit, AINE effects), Microsoft Purview (information protection, DLP, compliance portal), Azure Information Protection labels, Microsoft Priva (privacy risk management), audit log analysis with Log Analytics.
Capstone: implement Purview DLP policies and Azure Policy initiatives for a GDPR-compliant data environment.
10 Incident Response & Threat Hunting6 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Azure IR playbook framework, Sentinel incident investigation (investigation graph, entity behaviour), threat hunting with KQL (process injection, lateral movement indicators), digital forensics on Azure VMs (disk snapshot, memory capture), Microsoft Defender XDR integration.
Capstone: conduct a threat hunting exercise in Sentinel using KQL, investigate a simulated incident, and document the IR report.
11 Zero Trust & Security Posture6 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Microsoft Zero Trust architecture principles on Azure, Secure Score across Defender for Cloud + Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Security Exposure Management, attack path analysis, security posture management (CSPM), DevSecOps on Azure (Defender for DevOps, GitHub Advanced Security).
Capstone: baseline Zero Trust posture score, remediate top attack paths, implement Defender for DevOps in GitHub Actions pipeline.
12 Penetration Testing & Red Team on Azure5 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone
Microsoft Penetration Testing Rules of Engagement, Azure-specific attack vectors (metadata service, managed identity abuse, storage SAS token abuse), Defender for Cloud attack simulation, security assessment documentation.
Capstone: perform an authorised security assessment against a test Azure environment, document findings, and map to Defender recommendations.
Final certification exam2 hrs · 40-60 questions · scenario-based
Official Microsoft AZ-500 exam: 40-60 scenario-based questions covering identity, compute, network, data security, threat detection, and compliance on Azure. Prerequisites: AZ-104 recommended. Passing score ~700/1000.
Want the full module breakdown?

Get the PDF syllabus with every tool, sub-topic, assignment brief, capstone spec and reading list.

Download syllabus
# your capstone portfolio

One capstone per module. 12 GitHub-public artefacts demonstrating Azure security expertise.

Every module ends in a graded capstone project. By the end you'll have a portfolio of real-world Azure security implementations covering identity hardening, network defence, threat detection, and compliance. Sample capstones below.

CAPSTONE · IDENTITY
PIM + Conditional Access + Identity Protection

Just-in-time privileged access, risk-based Conditional Access, Identity Protection remediation workflow.

PIMConditional AccessIdentity Protection
CAPSTONE · NETWORK
Layered network defence

Azure Firewall IDPS + WAF managed rules + DDoS Protection Standard + NSG flow logs + Traffic Analytics.

Azure FirewallWAFDDoS Protection
CAPSTONE · KEY VAULT
Automated key rotation + managed identity

Key Vault + Event Grid trigger for automatic key rotation, managed identity for app secret access.

Key VaultManaged IdentityEvent Grid
CAPSTONE · DEFENDER
Defender for Cloud Secure Score +30pts

Enable Defender plans, implement recommendations, configure compliance dashboard, improve Secure Score.

Defender for CloudCSPMAzure Policy
CAPSTONE · SENTINEL
Sentinel SIEM with automated playbooks

Deploy Sentinel with 5+ connectors, analytics rules, automated IP blocking playbook on brute-force alert.

SentinelLogic AppsKQL
CAPSTONE · CONTAINERS
Hardened AKS + DevSecOps pipeline

AKS workload identity, Defender for Containers, ACR image scanning in pipeline, pod security policies.

AKSDefender for ContainersGitHub Actions
# tools you'll master

25+ Azure security services mastered through hands-on attack/defend labs and compliance automation.

Microsoft Entra ID / PIM
Conditional Access
Identity Protection
Azure Firewall Premium
Azure WAF
Azure DDoS Protection
Azure Key Vault / HSM
Managed Identities
Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Sentinel
Defender for Endpoint
Defender for Containers
Defender for SQL
Log Analytics / KQL
Logic Apps (SOAR)
Azure Policy / Purview
ACR Image Scanning
GitHub Advanced Security
# the final exam

3 hours. Online. Open-book. Built to test what you can ship.

The AZ-500 examination is intentionally not a memorisation contest. Open-book, scenario-driven, and proctored online — it tests whether you can solve real production problems with the toolchain you spent five weeks practising.

3 hours
total duration
Online
from anywhere
Open-book
notes, docs, the LMS
Scenario-based
real engineering tasks

What it covers
  • Multi-part production scenarios that span the toolchain end-to-end
  • Pipeline design, IaC, configuration, containers, K8s, observability, security
  • Debugging exercises — given symptoms and logs, find the root cause
  • Written reasoning on trade-offs (e.g. blue/green vs canary, push vs pull GitOps)
Why open-book

In a real on-call shift you look things up. The exam mirrors that. We test the skill that actually matters — composing what you know into a working solution under time pressure. Memorising flag syntax wouldn't make you a better engineer.

Pass → certified.

Clear the exam and you'll be issued the AZ-500 digital certificate within 5 working days, with a verifiable credential ID on our public registry.

  • Two free re-attempt windows if you don't clear first time
  • Detailed feedback report on every section
  • Mock papers + walkthrough during the program
  • Hard copy of the certificate on request
See the credential
# meet your instructor

You're not learning from a content team. You're learning from the person who built it.

RK

Rajesh Kumar

Principal DevOps Engineer and Architect
20 years · DevOps · SRE · Security Early-bird practitioner · MLOps · AIOps Ex-PayPay · SoftwareAG · ServiceNow · Adobe · Intuit · IBM · Accenture 10,000+ engineers trained M.Tech · BITS Pilani 25+ certifications

Rajesh is a working practitioner with 20 years across DevOps, SRE and Security, and an early-bird operator in MLOps and AIOps — he was already running model-deployment and telemetry-driven incident pipelines years before either term became industry vocabulary. He has held principal engineering and architect roles at PayPay, SoftwareAG, ServiceNow (Netherlands), JDA Software, Intuit, Adobe, IBM/Emptoris, Ness, MindTree and Accenture. He has personally trained engineers at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Verizon, Nokia, World Bank, GE Healthcare, VMware, Citrix, Oracle, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Splunk, New Relic, Datadog, Airbus, AstraZeneca, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, Vodafone, Deloitte, EY, Capgemini, Infosys, Cognizant, HCL, Wipro and dozens more. He teaches what he runs — not what he reads.

# your credential

A certificate engineers actually recognise — and recruiters look for.

Every AZ-500 certificate is issued with a unique credential ID, a tamper-proof QR code, and a verification URL on devopsschool.com/certificates. Add it to LinkedIn in one click.

  •   Lifetime verifiable on our public registry
  •   PDF + digital badge (Credly-compatible)
  •   Recognised by hiring partners across 50+ countries
  •   Hard copy shipped on request — order here
Get certified — ₹34,999
Certificate of completion
Jane Engineer
has successfully completed
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)
Credential ID · DS-AZ-500-XXXX-XXXX
# what learners say

4.8 / 5 from 2,300+ engineers. Here's what a few of them said.

# pricing

Pick the level of support that fits your goal.

Every plan includes the full curriculum, recorded sessions, and access to our learner community.

Every plan includes 1 year of full DevOpsSchool LMS access.
Not just this one course — the entire LMS: 20+ courses, 50+ tools, videos, quizzes, assignments, and end-to-end projects. Worth ₹40,000+ on its own.
See what's in the LMS
Self-paced video ₹833 / month · billed yearly (₹9,996) All recorded sessions, labs & the full LMS — learn at your own pace.
  • Full 100+ hour recorded curriculum
  • 12 hands-on capstones on your own cloud lab (free-tier setup walkthrough included)
  • 1-year access — recordings, labs & updates
  • 3-hr online open-book exam
  • Industry-recognised certificate on completion
  • Lifetime forum support
  • Full LMS access — 20+ courses & 50+ tools
  • Live instructor classes
  • 1-on-1 mentor sessions
Get self-paced — ₹833/mo
1-on-1 Mentorship ₹99,999 full program Dedicated senior practitioner. Pace, schedule and labs tailored to you.
  • Everything in Live & Interactive
  • Private 1-on-1 instructor (your schedule)
  • Custom curriculum & labs for your stack
  • Resume & LinkedIn review
  • Mock interview & salary negotiation prep
  • Capstone & portfolio code review
  • Priority response from instructor
  • Lifetime forum support
  • Full LMS access — 20+ courses & 50+ tools
Enrol 1-on-1 — ₹99,999
Cohort-cancellation refund
If we cancel or postpone a cohort and you decline the rescheduled session, you get 100% refund within 15 days. Refund policy →
Terms & course material
All training material is the IP of DevOpsSchool and for the enrolled learner's personal use only. Terms →
Your data stays with us
We never share your data with third parties. Unsubscribe from communications anytime. Privacy →

Need an invoice for your employer? Request a corporate quote →  ·  Taxes (GST) where applicable are billed in addition to the listed price.

# why us

Why engineers pick DevOpsSchool over the alternatives.

Not slides. Not a 500-seat MOOC. Not a temporary sandbox login. Three things make the difference — then compare us line-by-line.

100% live demo. 0% slides.

Every session is the instructor screen-sharing a real working lab and building the thing in front of you — then you build it yourself. No PowerPoint, no "imagine if…".

You build your own lab.

We guide you through provisioning a free-tier AWS / Azure / GCP environment on day one — the same skill you'll use at work. A temporary sandbox login disappears the day the cohort ends. Your own lab doesn't.

10 learners. By design.

Cohorts are capped at 10 by design. The instructor still knows your name in week 4 — and still has time to debug the weird production thing you brought from work.

What matters YouTube + blogs Generic online course Boot camp DevOpsSchool AZ-500
Teaching method You piece it together yourself Pre-recorded talking-head + slides Mix of slides & some labs Live demos in a real lab — every session
Cohort size 1 (you, alone) Hundreds to thousands 30–60 per batch 10 by design — instructor knows your name
Lab environment None Throwaway sandbox Shared sandbox login Your own AWS/Azure/GCP, guided setup
Per-tool structure Ad-hoc Inconsistent across modules Theme-based, varies wildly 5 hrs · 2 assignments · 1 capstone for every tool
Final assessment None Multiple-choice quiz Mini-project 3-hour open-book scenario exam
Portfolio at the end What you built solo 1–2 generic toy projects 1 capstone 1 capstone per tool — GitHub-public
Instructor pedigree Mixed (creator-economy) Mixed (often academic) Recent-grad TAs common Rajesh Kumar — 20 yrs, ex-PayPay/ServiceNow/Adobe
Cohort start cadence N/A — pure self-pace Self-paced only Quarterly windows New cohort every 1st of the month
Post-program support None Drip-fed retention emails 30–90 day Slack Lifetime forum + alumni community
LMS bundled No This one course only This program only 1 year full LMS — 20+ courses, 50+ tools
Refund posture N/A Vendor-specific, often none after start Usually none after week 1 100% within 15 days if we cancel
Total cost (full program) Free, slow ₹15K – ₹50K per single course ₹80K – ₹3L+ ₹34,999 · LMS + lifetime forum included

Still on the fence? Talk to an advisor →   — they'll tell you straight if AZ-500 fits your goal.

# frequently asked

Everything you'd ask on a 1-on-1 call.

Don't see your question? Ask us directly →

Do I need prior DevOps or coding experience?
A working knowledge of Linux command line and basic Git is enough. We'll bring you up to speed on everything else from Module 1. About 30% of every cohort enters from a sysadmin / dev / QA background.
What if I miss a live class?
Every session is recorded and shared with the cohort within 24 hours. You retain access to the recordings and lab repositories for the duration of the cohort and a defined access window after it. Specific access duration is confirmed at enrolment.
How does the certificate work? Is it accredited?
We issue a DevOpsSchool-credentialed digital certificate plus a verifiable badge. Each certificate has a unique credential ID and a public verification URL. While it isn't a vendor exam like AWS or CNCF, every cohort includes coaching toward those external exams as a track-add.
Can I pay in instalments / EMI?
Yes — 3, 6, and 12-month plans are available via our payment partners with 0% interest on the 3-month option. We also support employer invoicing.
What's the refund policy?
Once a training cohort is confirmed, the seat is generally non-refundable. The exception is when we cancel or postpone — instructor unavailability, low enrolment, or force majeure — in which case you receive a 100% refund within 15 working days, or you can join the rescheduled cohort. GST and payment-gateway fees are not refunded. Full details on the refund policy page.
Do you give us a cloud sandbox, or do we set one up?
We do it the way you'll do it on the job — you provision your own AWS / Azure / GCP lab, and we walk you through the free-tier setup step-by-step before module 1 starts. Most labs run at zero out-of-pocket. The point is that the skill of owning your infrastructure goes with you forever; a sandbox login disappears the day the cohort ends.
Do you offer corporate or team enrolments?
Yes — private cohorts for teams of 8+ are our most-requested format. We can run them on your schedule, in your VPC, against your internal toolchain. Request a quote.
What time-zones do the live cohorts run in?
Default schedule is IST-friendly, but the weekend cohort works for EST/CET/GMT engineers as well. Recordings cover the rest. We also run a North America-specific cohort every quarter — ask us for the calendar.
Still on the fence?

Talk to an advisor — they'll tell you straight whether this fits your goal.

Talk to advisor
# ready when you are

Reserve your AZ-500 seat — or talk to an advisor first.

Next cohort starts 1st of next month. Only 3 of 10 seats remaining. Drop your details and we'll send the full syllabus + book a free 20-min consult to map this cert to your goal.

  • No spam, no auto-dial bots
  • Syllabus PDF in your inbox in 60 seconds
  • One human reply within 4 working hours
By submitting you agree to be contacted by email, phone, or WhatsApp by DevOpsSchool about this program. We don't share your data with third parties and you can unsubscribe anytime. See privacy · terms · refund.
Talk to advisor Enrol — ₹34,999