Category: Microsoft Certified

Beyond the Cert: In the Age of AI

by Chun Lin, posted in Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure, Experience, Microsoft Certified

For the fourth consecutive year, I have renewed my Azure Developer Associate certification. It is a valuable discipline that keeps my knowledge of the Azure ecosystem current and sharp. The performance report I received this year was particularly insightful, highlighting both my strengths in security fundamentals and the expected gaps in platform-specific nuances, given my recent work in AWS.

Objectives

Renewing Azure certification is a hallmark of a professional craftsman because it sharpens our tools, knowing our trade. For a junior or mid-level engineer, this path of structured learning and certification is the non-negotiable foundation of a solid career. It is the path I walked myself. It builds the grammar of our trade.

However, for a senior engineer, for an architect, the game has changed. The world is now saturated with competent craftsmen who know the grammar. In the age of AI-assisted coding and brutal corporate “flattening,” simply knowing the tools is no longer a defensible position. It has become table stakes.

The paradox of the senior cloud software engineer is that the very map that got us here, i.e. the structured curriculum and the certification path, is insufficient to guide us to the next level. The renewal assessment results for Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate I received was a perfect map of the existing territory. However, an architect’s job is not to be a master of the known world. It is to be a cartographer of the unknown. The report correctly identified that I need to master Azure specific trade-offs, like choosing ‘Session’ consistency over ‘Strong’ for low-latency scenarios in CosmosDB. The senior engineer learns that rule. The architect must ask a deeper question: “How can I build a model that predicts the precise cost and P99 latency impact of that trade-off for my specific workload, before I write a single line of code?”

Attending AWS Singapore User Group monthly meetup.

About the Results

Let’s make this concrete by looking at the renewal assessment report itself. It was a gift, not because of the score, but because it is a perfect case study in the difference between the Senior Engineer’s path and the Architect’s.

Where the report suggests mastering Azure Cosmos DB five consistency levels, it is prescribing an act of knowledge consumption. The architect’s impulse is to ask a different question entirely: “How can I quantify the trade-off?” I do not just want to know that Session is faster than Strong. I should know, for a given workload, how much faster, at what dollar cost per million requests, and with what measurable impact on data integrity. The architect’s response is to build a model to turn the vendor’s qualitative best practice into a quantitative, predictive economic decision.

This pattern continues with managed services. The report correctly noted my failure to memorise the specific implementation of Azure Container Apps. The path it offers is to better learn the abstraction. The architect’s path is to become professionally paranoid about abstractions. The question is not “What is Container Apps?” but “Why does this abstraction exist, and what are its hidden costs and failure modes?” The architect’s response is to design experiments or simulations to stress-test the abstraction and discover its true operational boundaries, not just to read its documentation.

DHH has just slain the dragon of Cloud Dependency, the largest, most fearsome dragon in our entire cloud industry. (Twitter Source: DHH)

This is the new mandate for senior engineers in this new world where we keep on listening senior engineers being out of work: We must evolve from being consumers of complexity to being creators of clarity. We must move beyond mastering the vendor’s pre-defined solutions and begin forging our own instruments to see the future.

From Cert to Personal Project

This is why, in parallel to maintaining my certifications, I have embarked on a different kind of professional development. It is a path of deep, first-principles creation. I am building a discrete event simulation engine not as a personal hobby project, but as a way to understand more about the most expensive and unpredictable problems in our industry. My certification proves I can solve problems the “Azure way.” This new work is about discovering the the fundamental truths that govern all cloud platforms.

Certifications are the foundation. They are the bedrock of our shared knowledge. However, they are not the lighthouse. In this new era, we must be both.

AWS + Azure.

Certifications are an essential foundation. They represent the bedrock of our shared professional knowledge and a commitment to maintaining a common standard of excellence. However they are not, by themselves, the final destination.

Therefore, my next major “proof-of-work” will not be another certificate. It will be the first in a series of public, data-driven case studies derived from my personal project.

Ultimately, a certificate proves that we are qualified and contributing members of our professional ecosystem. This next body of work is intended to prove something more than that. We need to actively solve the complex, high-impact problems that challenge our industry. In this new era, demonstrating both our foundational knowledge and our capacity to create new value is no longer an aspiration. Instead, it is the new standard.

Together, we learn better.

Kaizen: My Journey to be Azure Developer Associate

by Chun Lin, posted in Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure, Experience, Microsoft Certified

I’m grateful to share that I’ve successfully renewed my Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification few months before its expiration. This journey has taught me valuable lessons, and I’m eager to share my experiences with you.

Exam Overview

Those who take the exam are responsible for participating in all phases of development, including requirements gathering, design, development, deployment, security, maintenance, performance tuning, and monitoring.

The exam consists of 10 sections to measure different Azure skills, and I have passed 8 of them, which are:

  • Explore Azure Functions;
  • Develop Azure Functions;
  • Implement Azure Key Vault (full score!);
  • Implement Azure App Configuration;
  • Monitor App Performance;
  • Manage Container Images in Azure Container Registry (full score!);
  • Work with Azure Cosmos DB;
  • Consume an Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL change feed using the SDK.

I didn’t pass the section “Implement Azure Container Apps” and scored 0 in “Run Container Images in Azure Container Instances” section. These areas remind me that there is always room for improvement and growth.

The certificate is signed by Microsoft CEO!

The Kaizen Journey

Since 2019, I have not been actively using Azure at my work. I now work with AWS at work, but I still learn Azure on my own. Even though I’m not using Azure at work, I keep learning and growing my cloud computing skills. I share my AWS knowledge with the community, but my heart is still with Azure too. I want to be good at both AWS and Azure!

As a developer working primarily with AWS, taking the Azure certification may seem unconventional, but it’s a wise move. Not only Azure certification allows me to demonstrate my commitment to continuous learning and adaptability, but also having expertise in multiple cloud platforms makes a developer a more attractive candidate in the current job market.

I hope my journey inspires you to pursue your own path of learning and growth. As Riza Marhaban, my senior who is also Senior Associate Director (IT) at NUS told me, certifications are not just about achieving a credential, but about the journey of self-improvement and the positive impact it can have on those around us.

Riza shared with me the Kaizen philosophy. The Kaisan philosophy teaches us to embrace challenges, learn from failures, and strive for excellence. Hence, I apply this philosophy to my own journeys, embracing each step as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Wrap-Up

Renewing my certification has reminded me of the importance of continuous learning. I hope my story inspires you to stay humble, stay hungry, and always strive for excellence.

Together, we learn better!

Kaizen Journey to be Microsoft Certified

by Chun Lin, posted in Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure, Event, Experience, Microsoft Certified

In the rapidly evolving fields like software development, staying static in terms of technical skills and knowledge can quickly lead to obsolescence. Hence, the ability to learn independently is a crucial skill in a rapidly changing world. Self-learning allows software developers to acquire new skills and deepen their knowledge in specific areas of interest.

Renew my Azure Developer Associate Certificate

In the September, I was on a business trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. I thus decided to take the opportunity of my time staying in hotel after work to prepare for my Microsoft certificate renewal test.

To Hanoi, from Singapore!

Well, it took me some time to hit refresh on the latest updates in Microsoft Azure because in Samsung, I don’t work daily with it. Fortunately, thanks to Microsoft Learn, I am able to quickly pickup the new knowledge after going through the online resources on the Microsoft Learn platform.

As usual, I took down the notes of what I learned from Microsoft Learn. This year, the exam focuses on the following topics.

  • Microsoft Identity Platform;
  • Azure Key Vault;
  • Azure App Configuration and Monitoring;
  • Azure Container Apps;
  • CosmosDB.

I did pretty well in all the topics above with the exception of Azure Container Apps, where my responses to questions related to Azure Container Registry were unfortunately incorrect. However, I am pleased to share that despite this challenge, I successfully passed the renewal assessment on my first attempt.

Achieving success in my Azure exam at midnight in Hanoi.

Participating in the AI Skills Challenge

Last month, I also participated in an online Microsoft event. It is the Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge where we are allowed to choose to complete one out of the four challenges from Machine Learning Challenge, Cognitive Services Challenge, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Challenge, and AI Builder Challenge.

The AI Builder Challenge introduces us to AI Builder. AI Builder is a Microsoft Power Platform capability that provides AI models that are designed to optimise the business processes.

The challenge shows us how to build models, and explains how we can use them in Power Apps and Power Automate. Throughout the online course, we can learn how to create topics, custom entities, and variables to capture, extract, and store information in a bot.

Why Taking Microsoft AI Challenge?

Users login the Samsung app using face recognition technology from Microsoft AI (Image Credit: cyberlink.com)

Since last year, I have been working in the AI module in a Samsung app. I am proud to have the opportunity to learn about Microsoft AI and use it in our project to, for example, allow users login to our app using the face recognition feature in Microsoft AI.

Therefore, embracing this challenge provides me with a valuable opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Microsoft AI, with a specific focus on the AI Builder. The AI Builder platform empowers us to create models tailored to our business requirements or to opt for prebuilt models designed to seamlessly address a wide array of common business scenarios.

In August, I finally completed the challenge and received my certificate from Microsoft.

WRAP-UP

By adopting a growth mindset, applying Kaizen principles, and following a structured learning plan, we can embark on our self-learning journey and emerge as a certified professional.

Besides Microsoft Learn, depends on what you’d like to learn, you can enroll in other online courses on platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and edX which offer comprehensive courses with video lectures, quizzes, and labs.

Once you have chosen your certification, create a structured learning plan. You can then proceed to outline the topics covered in the exam objectives and allocate specific time slots for each.

Anyway, remember, continuous learning is the path to excellence, and getting certification is only one of the steps in that direction. Just as software development involves iterations, so does our learning journey. We shall continuously refine our technical skills and knowledge.

Learning to Learn

by Chun Lin, posted in Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure, Event, Experience, Life, Microsoft Certified

The fast pace of change in today’s world means we must understand and quickly respond to changes. Hence, in order to survive and be successful in today’s VUCA world, we need to constantly scan for growth opportunities and be willing to learn new skills.

Working in software industry helps me to realise that with all the disruptions in the modern world, especially technology, ongoing skill acquisition is critical to persistent professional relevance. We shall always look for ways to stretch ourselves to get ahead.

Even though I have been dealing with cloud computing, especially Microsoft Azure, for more than 10 years in my career and study, I still would like to find out how well I compare with my peers instead of thinking that I’m already fine at this area. Hence, with that in mind, I focus on learning Microsoft Azure development related skills on Microsoft Learn during the holiday.

Make the Most of Our Limited Learning Time

So much to learn, so little time.

We all have very little time for learning outside of our work. Combine time we have for learning and the importance of the skills, we can get a simple 2×2 matrix with four quadrants.

2×2 matrix to help prioritizing skills to learn (Reference: Marc Zao-Sanders)

I don’t have much time to keep my cloud computing knowledge relevant because nowadays I focus more on desktop application development. Hence, I decided to give myself a one-week break from work and schedule 6-7 hours each day for learning in the holiday.

In order to make sure we’re investing our time wisely, we shall focus on learning what is needed. Unless we need the skill for our job or a future position, it’s better not to spend time and money for training on that skill because learning is an investment and we shall figure out what the return will be. This is why I choose to learn more about developing cloud apps on Microsoft Azure because that has been what I’m doing at work in the past decade.

To better achieve my goals in self learning, I’ve also identified the right learning materials before I get started. Since I already have the experience of developing modern cloud applications early in my career, I choose to focus only on going through all the 43 relevant modules available on the Microsoft Learn.

Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

No matter which technology era we are in, the world will always belong to people who are always keeping themselves up to date. Hence, lifelong learning is a habit many of us would like to emulate.

Before we start our learning journey, we need to set realistic goals, i.e. goals that are attainable, because there are limits to what we can learn. In addition, as we discussed earlier, we need to ask ourselves how much time and energy we can give to our self learning. We have to understand that learning a skill takes extreme commitment, so we can’t get very far on the journey of self learning if we don’t plan it properly.

Learning is hard work but it also can be fun, especially when we are learning together with like-minded people. Don’t try to learn alone, otherwise self learning can feel over-whelming. For example, besides learning from online tutorials, I also join local software development groups where members are mostly developers who love to share and learn from each other.

Azure Community Singapore, for all who are interested in cloud technology.

Finally, to improve our ability to learn, we also have to unlearn, i.e. choose an alternative mental model or paradigm. We should acknowledge that old mental model is not always relevant or effective. When we fail, we also should avoid defending ourselves and capture the lessons we’ve learned.

Certification and Exam

I’m now a Microsoft certified Azure Developer Associate after I passed their exam AZ-204 in November 2021.

The exam is not difficult but it’s definitely not easy as well.

The exam tests not only our knowledge in developing cloud solutions with Azure services such as Azure Compute and Storage Account, but also our understanding of cloud security and Azure services troubleshooting.

Clearing all the relevant modules on Microsoft Learn does not guarantee that one will pass the exam easily. In fact, it’s the skills and knowledge I gain from work and personal projects help me a lot in the exam, for example the service bus implementation that I learnt last year when I was building a POC for a container trailer tracking system.

How Microsoft Learn helps in my self learning is that it provides an opportunity for me to learn in a free sandbox environment. In addition, the learning materials on the platform are normally best practices to follow. Hence, by learning on Microsoft Learn, I find out some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past and things that I can improve, for example resource management with tags, RBAC, VNet setup, etc.

Notes taken when I was going through the learning materials on Microsoft Learn.

I use Notion to take notes. Notion is a great tool to keep our notes clean and organised. Taking notes helps me to do a last-minute quick revision.

Conclusion

In a fast-moving world, being able to learn new skills helps in our life. There are many ways to learn continuously in our life. Earning certificates by going through challenging exams is just one of the methods. You know what works for yourself, do more of it.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

References