App Service, Functions, AKS, Storage, Entra ID, VNet, SQL, Monitor, Cost Management.
Before starting, we run a 1-minute tech check — microphone, ambient noise, connection. If your setup isn't good enough, the test is fully refunded.
Prove your Azure skills in 15 minutes — App Service, AKS, Entra ID, VNet, Monitor and beyond — with a verifiable badge that goes way further than a LinkedIn self-endorsement.
The Plume Microsoft Azure badge is awarded after a 15-minute oral exam conducted by an AI examiner (OpenAI Realtime). The interview covers the Azure core stack — App Service, Azure Functions, AKS, Blob Storage, Azure SQL, VNet, Entra ID, Azure Monitor and Cost Management — alongside the DevOps practices that go with them: CI/CD with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, infrastructure as code with Bicep or Terraform, and production incident management. At the end, a second AI model (Claude Opus) reads the full transcript and produces a score from 0 to 100, plus a certified level: Novice, Proficient, Advanced or Expert.
Unlike AZ-104 or AZ-305 exams that reward documentation recall, this oral tests what you have actually done: how you right-sized an AKS cluster to handle a traffic spike, how you used Log Analytics KQL queries to hunt down a latency root cause, how you chose between Private Endpoints and Service Endpoints given real-world constraints. The AI probes for genuine hands-on depth, not rehearsed definitions. The badge is timestamped, its URL is public, and your audio recording stays private.
This badge is built for cloud engineers, DevOps practitioners, SREs, solutions architects and backend developers who use Azure day to day and want to prove it without spending months on exam prep. It is equally relevant for freelancers responding to RFPs, consultants looking to stand out in a crowded market, and students finishing a cloud program who want an objective skill benchmark before their first job.
Here are the concrete dimensions the AI examines during the 15-minute oral.
Deployment slots, blue/green strategies, horizontal and vertical autoscaling on AKS, Helm chart management, Ingress controllers, and keeping availability SLAs in production environments.
Managed identities, granular RBAC, Conditional Access policies, service principals, workload identity federation, and the concrete steps to avoid privilege escalation and common IAM pitfalls.
Designing VNets, subnets, NSGs, Private Endpoints, VNet peering, Azure Firewall and ExpressRoute, with clear tradeoffs between cost, security and operational complexity for different workload types.
Using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics (KQL), Application Insights and metric alerts to diagnose production incidents: latency spikes, OOM kills, quota breaches and cascading 5xx errors.
Day-to-day use of Bicep, Terraform or ARM Templates wired into Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions pipelines, with environment management, secret handling via Key Vault and rollback strategies.
Choosing between Blob Storage, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Table Storage and Azure Cache for Redis based on access patterns, SLA requirements, consistency tradeoffs and cost constraints.
Building with Azure Functions (Consumption, Premium and Dedicated plans), Event Grid, Service Bus and Logic Apps, including cold start mitigation, trigger bindings and idempotency patterns.
Grounded comparisons of AKS vs EKS vs GKE, Functions vs Lambda, Azure Container Apps vs other PaaS options, and awareness of recent Azure evolutions like Azure Fabric and Copilot in Azure.
Final scoring is performed by Claude (Anthropic), which reads back the full transcript and applies this weighted criteria grid.
The candidate demonstrates precise, hands-on knowledge of Azure services: real configuration choices, non-default parameters, behavior under load, quota limits and common gotchas, not just textbook definitions.
Ability to walk through a structured production incident diagnosis on Azure, including Log Analytics KQL queries, Application Insights traces, Monitor metrics and a clear root-cause isolation process.
Quality of architectural decisions: why App Service over AKS in a given context, what network topology for what workload, how to balance cost and resilience using Cost Management and Azure Advisor.
Practical mastery of Entra ID, RBAC, Key Vault, Private Endpoints and Defender for Cloud, demonstrated through concrete configuration examples rather than abstract security principles.
Ability to explain Azure decisions in a structured way, reference real numbers (latency, cost, pod count), and honestly acknowledge the limits of personal experience without deflecting questions.
A Plume session takes about 20 minutes, from tech check to badge delivery.
The AI confirms your microphone is working and the audio stream is stable. No active Azure subscription or screen sharing required, the entire exam is voice-only.
You introduce yourself and describe your most recent or most complex Azure project: which services, what architecture, and what your specific role was on the team.
The AI examiner runs 4 to 6 targeted questions: AKS or App Service production deployment, incident diagnosis with Monitor and Log Analytics, VNet and Private Endpoint network design, Entra ID security, CI/CD pipelines and IaC, and comparison with AWS or GCP where relevant. It follows up on your answers to pressure-test the depth of your real experience.
The AI asks when you would advise against Azure or a specific Azure service, and which recent developments like Container Apps, Azure Fabric or Copilot in Azure have actually changed how you work.
Claude Opus analyses the full transcript and assigns a score from 0 to 100 with a level (Novice, Proficient, Advanced or Expert), a per-criterion detailed report, and a shareable badge link.
Your score out of 100 translates into a level a recruiter can grasp at a glance.
You have used the Azure portal occasionally, creating a VM, a Storage Account or a basic App Service, but you do not yet have a confident grip on networking, Entra ID security or Azure Monitor. You follow step-by-step guides and have not deployed anything to production independently.
You deploy applications to production on App Service or Functions, configure straightforward VNets and NSG rules, use Azure Monitor for common alerts and manage secrets through Key Vault. You have real project experience but have not yet designed complex multi-service architectures on your own.
You design and operate multi-service Azure architectures in production: AKS clusters with autoscaling, Bicep or Terraform pipelines, hub-and-spoke networks with Private Endpoints, granular Entra ID RBAC, and you diagnose complex incidents using KQL in Log Analytics. You can argue tradeoffs against AWS or GCP alternatives.
You set Azure architecture standards at an organizational scale: landing zones, Azure Policy, Defender for Cloud, FinOps with Cost Management, multi-region active/active. You are fluent with newer services like Azure Container Apps and Azure Fabric, you mentor other engineers and you know clearly when Azure is not the right choice.
No degree or years of experience required to take the badge. Here are the profiles it makes the most sense for.
You use App Service, Functions or Azure SQL every day but have no official credential to prove it to a recruiter or client. The badge validates your hands-on practice in 15 minutes with a shareable, verifiable result.
You run AKS clusters, Bicep/Terraform pipelines and production Monitor alerts. The badge attests to an Advanced or Expert level on the ops and observability side of Azure in a format hiring managers can actually check.
You design multi-service Azure architectures for clients or internal teams. The badge shows your ability to make concrete tradeoffs between services, costs and security constraints, not just draw boxes on whiteboards.
You respond to RFPs or engagements where the client wants proof of Azure expertise. A timestamped, auditable Plume badge strengthens your profile beyond a list of self-declared LinkedIn skills or an AZ-900 from three years ago.
You finished a bootcamp, master's or apprenticeship with Azure content and want an objective skill benchmark before your first role. The badge gives you a concrete artifact to share alongside your diploma.
Where and how your Microsoft Azure badge will help you day to day.
You are applying for a senior Azure DevOps engineer role at a scale-up. Your Advanced badge with a score of 81/100 and the detailed per-criterion report convince the hiring manager to fast-track you before their internal tech screen.
An enterprise client asks for proof of Azure competency before signing a contract. You share your Expert badge URL — the audio and report are there for anyone who wants to go deeper, with no need to rush through an AZ-305 retake.
You hold the AZ-900 but recruiters keep asking about hands-on experience. The Plume badge sits alongside the foundational cert and proves you can actually use the services in production, not just define them.
A CTO wants to map the Azure proficiency of eight engineers before launching a cloud migration. Everyone takes the badge, and the individual reports pinpoint the gaps in networking and security that inform the training budget.
You are a backend developer who has been building Azure side projects and using it on recent client work. The badge lets you credibly demonstrate that emerging cloud skill level when applying for your first dedicated cloud role.
You have a technical Azure interview in two weeks. Taking the badge now surfaces the themes where you are weakest, whether that is network design, Entra ID or Cost Management, so you can focus your prep time precisely.
A few minutes to check you have everything you need.
At the end of your session you don't just get a score — here's everything that awaits you.
You get a precise score and an official level (Novice, Proficient, Advanced or Expert) benchmarked against real Azure market expectations, not a binary pass/fail.
Claude Opus delivers structured feedback on each of the 5 dimensions: Azure technical depth, incident troubleshooting, architecture design, Entra ID security and communication clarity, with specific strengths and improvement areas.
Your oral recording stays private and is accessible only to you. Re-listen to spot hesitations, refine your answers and go into your next Azure technical interview sharper.
A permanent public URL hosts your Microsoft Azure badge with your score, level and date. Drop it on LinkedIn, in your CV or in a proposal deck, anyone can verify it independently.
Discover related skills you can validate with Plume.
A 15-min oral exam with an AI, a shareable badge for your recruiters.
Choose this badge · €19.99
