MS-900
Heads up: Microsoft retired Exam MS-900 on March 31, 2026, and the page below documents the exam as it stood. The current fundamentals option in this space is AB-900 (Microsoft 365 Copilot & Agent Administration Fundamentals); the live alternatives are AZ-900 and PL-900. If you already hold the credential, it stays on your transcript.
MS-900 was Microsoft's entry-level certification proving foundational understanding of the Microsoft 365 cloud — productivity apps, Teams collaboration, security and compliance, and licensing. For helpdesk staff, sales engineers, and career-changers, it was often the first line on a Microsoft resume and a stepping stone toward role-based AZ and MS tracks. This page breaks down exactly what the exam covered, how it was scored and delivered, and the honest path forward now that the exam itself has retired.
Pay Only After You Pass
No upfront fee — you settle only after your verified passing result on an active exam. We advertise guaranteed results — 100% pass guaranteed or money back.
How MS-900 was built — at a glance
4
Cloud concepts, M365 apps & services, security and compliance, and pricing/licensing — weighted unevenly, with apps and services by far the heaviest.
700
Scored on a 1–1000 scale; 700 or higher passed. The scale is weighted by difficulty, so it is not a flat percentage of questions correct.
~60
About 60 minutes of seat time covering roughly 40–60 items: multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, and case-style questions.
MS-900 was a linear, non-adaptive exam: every candidate answered the same fixed set, with no penalty for guessing and the freedom to flag and revisit items. With around a minute per question, the challenge was breadth of recall across the whole Microsoft 365 stack rather than deep technical problem-solving.
Passing earned the Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals badge — a beginner-level credential that does not expire and needs no renewal. Failing meant a 24-hour wait before a first retake, then progressively longer waits, all booked through your Microsoft Learn profile.
Four domains — bars show the official weighting from Microsoft's MS-900 skills outline
SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS; public, private, and hybrid cloud models; the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365; and the cost trade-offs of cloud, hybrid, and on-premises work.
The largest domain: Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, Viva, and Copilot, plus endpoint management (Intune, Windows Autopilot) and the Microsoft 365 admin centers.
Microsoft Entra ID and identity, MFA and conditional access, Defender XDR, Secure Score, the Zero Trust model, and Microsoft Purview compliance and information-protection tools.
Billing models such as enterprise agreements and cloud solution providers, base vs. add-on licensing, support request options, and service-level agreements with service credits.
Nearly half the exam lived in Apps & services, so candidates who knew the Microsoft 365 product portfolio cold had a real edge. The remaining marks rewarded a working grasp of security and licensing concepts — the same fundamentals that carry directly into AB-900, AZ-900, and the role-based MS and AZ tracks.
How MS-900 was delivered — the same setup that applies to its live successors
You take the exam from a private room at home or work, monitored by Pearson VUE's OnVUE software with a live greeter and AI flagging. Before the exam unlocks you run a system check, photograph your ID, and capture a 360° webcam scan of the room. This is the same OnVUE setup used by AZ-900, PL-900, and the AB-900 successor.
You sit in a quiet, monitored testing room. Staff verify your government-issued photo ID, store your belongings in a locker, and supervise the room throughout. For some candidates a center is the calmer choice — no home bandwidth worries and no environment-scan friction.
A valid, unexpired government photo ID with a name matching your Microsoft Learn profile exactly. OnVUE captures a photo and ID image before check-in completes.
A clear desk, no second monitor, no phone or notes within reach, and a webcam sweep of the room. No one else may enter while the exam is in progress.
Stay on camera and in frame the whole time. Fundamentals exams have no scheduled break. Talking aloud, leaving the seat, or a dropped connection can flag the session.
MS-900 targeted people new to the Microsoft 365 cloud
No requirements — a broad, recall-heavy exam
Difficulty: MS-900 was foundational, but not trivial. The trap was the sheer number of overlapping Microsoft product names — Defender, Purview, Entra, Viva, Intune, Copilot — that you had to map to the right scenario. Most candidates passed with 15–25 hours of focused study, and the same recall challenge carries straight into the AB-900 successor and AZ-900.
MS-900 has retired, but its successors — AB-900, AZ-900, and PL-900 — share the same OnVUE format, the same fundamentals breadth, and the same 700/1000 bar. Exam Assist pairs you with a vetted Microsoft cloud specialist and works on a pay-after-you-pass model, so the risk sits with us, not you. No upfront fee, guaranteed results: Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end, and you settle only after the verified result.
Tell us which active Microsoft fundamentals exam you need (AB-900, AZ-900, or PL-900), your delivery method, and your deadline. Takes a couple of minutes over WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord.
We review your target exam and timeline and tell you plainly whether it's realistic — before any money is discussed. If it isn't a fit, we say so.
Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end. You're matched with a Microsoft cloud specialist who maps the work around the four fundamentals domains and the OnVUE environment — discreetly and confidentially.
You only pay once your passing result is confirmed on your official Microsoft transcript. No verified result, nothing owed.
See the full pay-after-you-pass Microsoft cloud service, pricing model, and how matching works.
Straight answers about MS-900 and what comes next
Service, guides, and live sibling exams
Pair with a vetted Microsoft cloud specialist across the fundamentals and role-based tracks. No upfront fee — settle only after a verified passing result.
Explore the service GuideHow the fundamentals, associate, and expert Microsoft certs fit together — and where a foundational cert leads next.
Read the guide GuideDeciding which cloud ecosystem to certify in first? Compare the three major providers' foundational tracks side by side.
Compare them AZ-900Microsoft's live cloud-fundamentals exam — the most popular entry point into the Azure certification track.
View exam PL-900Another live Microsoft fundamentals exam — covering Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI low-code tools.
View exam AZ-104The natural role-based next step after a fundamentals cert — managing and monitoring Azure environments.
View examMS-900 has retired, but its successors are live — and we can help. Get expert Microsoft exam help with no upfront fee; you settle only after a verified passing result. Honest feasibility answer first, results-first arrangement always.