Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)

Microsoft · Retired July 31, 2026

Microsoft retired the Azure Developer Associate certification and its exam, AZ-204, on July 31, 2026. Microsoft names Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate (exam AI-200) as the successor. It is refocused on AI applications, retrieval-augmented generation, vector data stores and containers rather than general Azure app development.

Take this insteadMicrosoft Certified: Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate (AI-200)Backend Azure development for AI apps: containers, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL with pgvector, Managed Redis, event-driven services. Replaces AZ-204.See AI-200 →

If you already hold it

Your certification stays valid until its expiry date but can no longer be renewed; after that it moves to your historical certifications. An AZ-204 earned before retirement still counts as the prerequisite for DevOps Engineer Expert.

Sources: Microsoft Learn: Azure Developer Associate · Microsoft Q&A: AI-200 and AZ-204