Cloud Certifications: Azure IoT Developer Specialty

This guide provides information and resources to prepare for the Azure IoT Developer Specialty certification, including tips and recommendations based on the experiences of other IoT and Azure engineers certified with this specialty.

This certification is designed and recommended for Azure engineers who are working, or have worked, with the fundamental tools of the cloud to work with Internet of Things technologies. Candidates are expected to be able to use each technology in the proper context with best possible practices, understanding the constraints of each available option.

This certification is recommended if you have a deep knowledge and experience in the standards that are handled in the communication between sensors and the cloud, such as MQTT, AMQP, and HTTPS, and you know which is the appropriate option according to the restrictions and needs of the project.

This certification is useful for:

• Demonstrating your experience in the device industry and how devices communicate with the cloud to generate analytics
• Demonstrating your knowledge of industry standards for the use of sensor data in all types of cases
• Validating your skills in the labor market with one of the first Azure specialties available as a certification

The exam you must take to be certified is the Microsoft Azure IoT Developer exam (AZ-220). This exam measures not only your knowledge of Azure technologies and how they connect to each other, but also your ability to understand and use industry standards for data exchange between devices (MQTT and AMQP). In addition, you must understand the details of each component and how to resolve incidents that could occur during the process.

Your exam preparation should include:

• Studying the content provided in relevant Pluralsight courses
• Studying the details of each technology in the Azure documentation
• Understanding the details of the standards most used in IoT, such as MQTT
• Creating and consuming Azure services to practice
• Connecting each technology and simulating sending data to the cloud from devices
• Deploying each service programmatically (such as SDK and Azure CLI) to automate the process

There are no prerequisites for taking the exam and being certified in Azure IoT, but it is recommended that you have already worked with the technologies in different projects and know how to address the different problems that may occur. This experience will be helpful when the exam asks how you would solve certain problems.

You must have at least a couple of years experience with Azure IoT tools and other complementary technologies, such as Stream Analytics and Azure Monitor.

Only the AZ-220 exam is required. It measures the following skills:

• Implement the IoT solution infrastructure
• Provision and manage devices
• Implement Edge
• Process and manage data
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize IoT solutions
• Implement security

As you can see, you should not only know the technologies, but you should also know how to connect them to each other and solve problems that may occur during implementation or the process of sending and receiving data by the devices.

The technologies that you must know and have worked with are:

• IoT Hub
• Device Provisioning Service
• Event Grid
• IoT Central
• IoT Edge
• Container Registry
• Functions
• Stream Analytics
• Time Series Insights
• Azure Monitor
• Azure Security Center

For each of these technologies, you must know how to implement them both through the Azure portal and the SDK. You should also know how to secure data and communication between the cloud and devices.

You can enhance and accelerate your learning with the range of Pluralsight courses on each Azure technology, including:

• Microsoft Azure Developer: Creating IoT Solutions
• Developing Microsoft Azure Intelligent Edge Solutions

And many more at this resource page.

You can complement the Pluralsight courses with the official Azure documentation for IoT technologies.

The benefits of obtaining this certification include:

• The ability to get involved in large IoT projects in your organization or other major companies, communicating the devices with the cloud for processing in a real-time environment

• Recognition from the industry and your colleagues

• Benefits of Microsoft certification, like badges that you can share with the community, participation in certificate activities, and much more

• Qualification for better jobs; the certification is valid anywhere in the world.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for someone who works as an IoT Developer is $113,088, or more with additional experience and certifications (including this one).

To be certified as Azure IoT Developer, you only need to take the AZ-220 exam and pass it. There are no prerequisites, just your knowledge and experience with Azure.

As a tip, if you have never done an Azure certification, consider starting with an Azure Fundamentals certification (AZ-900 exam) so that you know the format and the level of questions to be prepared for.

Finally, some advice:

• It's good—and easy—to learn the technologies, but you should also focus on how they connect to each other on a global platform.
• You should also understand the details of each platform and how to solve problems that can occur when deploying in apps.
• You must know how to implement each technology with minimal effort through code.

I wish you success on your way to certification as Azure IoT Developer Specialist!