AZ-304 study plan - 8 weeks out and not sure I'm covering the right things

I passed 304 in January with an 82%. My honest advice: stop doing mixed practice sets and focus entirely on scenario questions where you have to choose between 2-3 architecturally valid options. That's where the exam lives. Single-answer factual questions are a small minority.

Identity and security design is weighted heavily, probably 20-25% of what I saw. Make sure you understand hybrid identity scenarios specifically - when to use pass-through auth vs password hash sync vs ADFS. Those tradeoff questions come up a lot.

Two hours a day in the final stretch sounds right. I burned out doing 4 hours and ended up rescheduling once. Consistency beats cramming for architect-level exams.

The shift from 303 to 304 is real. Reading through actual Azure Architecture Center case studies helped me more than any practice exam for developing the design mindset. Microsoft publishes reference architectures that show up in disguised form on the test.

I'll be honest, I was ready to bail on this one. Failed my first attempt at 304 by like 40 points and I remember thinking the whole exam was just Microsoft asking "it depends" questions with four right answers. What got me through the retake was forcing myself to stop memorizing services and start asking why you'd pick one over another. Cost vs complexity, managed vs control, that kind of thing. Sounds obvious but it wasn't clicking for me until I drilled scenario questions over and over.

The app architecture stuff was my weakest area by far, so I hammered the az 304/questions/azure application architecture design section until the patterns started repeating. And they do repeat. Once you've seen enough messaging vs event scenarios you start recognizing what they're actually testing. You've got 8 weeks, that's plenty. I almost quit at week 5 and passed with room to spare. Don't overthink it, just do more design questions than you think you need.

I passed this one back in the fall while working full time and doing daycare pickup every day, so I feel this. What worked for me wasn't more hours, it was splitting them. I did 45 minutes early morning on case studies and design docs when my brain was fresh, then used lunch breaks and my commute for lighter stuff like whiteboard videos or reviewing notes on my phone. Weekends I'd do one longer 2 hour block and that was it. Honestly the small daily reps mattered more than the marathon sessions I kept promising myself I'd do.

You're right that the "why" is the whole exam. When I only had 20 spare minutes I'd pick two services that solve similar problems and just argue with myself about when you'd choose each one, cost, SLA, complexity, all of it. You can do that anywhere, no lab needed. It's weirdly effective. Eight weeks at 90 min a day is plenty if you spend most of it on decision making instead of memorizing steps. Don't stress, you've got more runway than you think.

I failed my first attempt and honestly it came down to exactly what you're describing — I was still thinking in 303 mode, trying to remember which service does what instead of thinking about trade-offs. What changed for me was drilling scenario-based questions way more than whitepapers. I found this set that really helped: az 304/questions/azure application architecture design 3. The questions force you to think about cost, scalability, and requirements together instead of in isolation.

With 8 weeks you've got enough time if you shift your focus now. Don't skip the CAF and WAF material even though it feels fluffy — it showed up more than I expected. And practice explaining your reasoning out loud when you're doing mock questions. Sounds weird but it really locked in the "why" thinking for me.

I'm in a similar boat — well, was. Finished AZ-304 about six weeks ago while working full time and it's definitely a different mindset than 303. What helped me most was treating every practice question as a design review, not a knowledge check. If I got something wrong I didn't just read the answer, I asked myself why the other options were worse. That's the muscle the exam is actually testing.

Fitting it in around work was rough honestly. I did 45 minutes before my commute and tried to do another chunk at lunch when I could. Weekends I'd go a bit longer but I didn't beat myself up if life got in the way. Eight weeks is plenty of time if you're consistent. Focus on cost optimization and reliability scenarios — those kept coming up in ways that tripped me up early on. You've got this.

Just hit 74% on my last practice run yesterday, which honestly felt better than I expected at this point. I've got about 3 weeks left before my exam date and the design questions are definitely clicking more than they were two weeks ago. The key shift for me was stopping trying to memorize services and instead asking "what problem is this solving and why not the alternatives."

You're right that 304 is a totally different mindset from 303. I came in thinking my 303 knowledge would carry me and it just didn't transfer the way I hoped. The scenario-based stuff requires you to actually understand trade-offs, not just know that a thing exists. Keep grinding the case studies, they're worth it.