I'm a cloud engineer who's been working with Azure for about 3 years and I'm targeting the AZ-700 to formalize my networking knowledge. I hold the AZ-104 already, so I'm not new to Azure, but the AZ-700 goes much deeper into network design than what I've needed day-to-day.
Private Link, ExpressRoute design, and hybrid connectivity are where I'm spending most of my study time. I've deployed basic VNets and NSGs constantly, but the design tradeoffs between different connectivity options at scale are new territory.
Is the exam more scenario-based design questions or more technical implementation details?
Heavily scenario-based. They give you a business requirement and ask which connectivity solution meets it, often with constraints like latency thresholds or compliance requirements. You need to understand the tradeoffs, not just the feature names.
ExpressRoute vs VPN Gateway vs Private Link decision logic is tested constantly. Build a mental decision tree for when you'd choose each option — that's more useful than memorizing bandwidth specs.
Having AZ-104 means your foundations are solid. The gap to fill is design-level thinking. Microsoft Learn has an AZ-700 learning path that's genuinely good — I went through it twice and it structured my thinking about network architecture better than any third-party resource.
The BGP and routing sections surprised me — went deeper than I expected. If you've never worked with BGP in Azure environments, give that topic dedicated attention. It's not just conceptual — they ask specific configuration questions.