Microsoft Certification Path 2026: Which Exam Should You Take First?

Microsoft certifications use four real tiers — Fundamentals, Associate, Expert, and Specialty — but unlike some vendors, Microsoft runs this structure in parallel across several separate product domains (Azure infrastructure, Azure AI/Data, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Security) rather than one single universal ladder. This guide covers the real sequencing logic and links to FirstTryExam's own practice-question banks for 34 Microsoft (and GitHub) certifications currently available.

Fundamentals: pick based on which domain you actually want, not just one

There's no single "Microsoft Fundamentals" exam — there's one per domain: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) for general cloud/Azure basics, Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900) for the productivity suite, Security/Compliance/Identity Fundamentals (SC-900), Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900), Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900), Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900), and Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM and ERP editions are separate exams). Pick the one matching the domain you're actually heading into — most people only need one or two of these, not all of them.

Associate: the largest tier, and where most working roles actually land

This is by far Microsoft's biggest certification tier, spanning Azure administration, development, security, data, and AI roles, plus Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 role-specific tracks. As with Fundamentals, there's no single "next step" — pick the Associate cert that matches the actual job function you're targeting.

Expert: Microsoft's Professional-equivalent tier

Microsoft calls its top generally-available tier "Expert" rather than "Professional" — functionally the same idea as AWS's Professional tier. These exams generally assume you already have the matching Associate-level knowledge (or real equivalent experience) going in, not just exam prep alone.

Specialty: narrow, deep-dive certifications

Specialty exams cover a single product or feature area in depth (Cosmos DB, Azure Virtual Desktop) rather than a broad role — useful once you're already working with that specific technology, not as a general-purpose next step.

GitHub certifications: Microsoft-owned, but a separate program

GitHub (owned by Microsoft) runs its own certification program outside the Fundamentals/Associate/Expert/Specialty structure — these are skill-verification badges for a specific GitHub feature area rather than tiered career certifications, so they don't have a "prerequisite" relationship with the Azure or Microsoft 365 tracks above.

Question counts are queried live from FirstTryExam's own database. See also our full certification question bank ranking across all vendors, our AWS Certification Path guide, our Google Cloud Certification Path guide, our CompTIA Certification Path guide.