Microsoft AZ-700 Exam: The Moment Azure Networking Finally Made Sense to Me
When I started learning Azure networking, I didn’t expect it to feel so fragmented. I already understood basic networking concepts such as IP addressing, subnets, routing. But once Azure-specific components like Virtual Networks (VNets), VNet peering, private endpoints, user-defined routes (UDRs), and service endpoints entered the picture, everything felt disconnected.
- I wasn’t confused by the terminology.
- I was confused by how Azure actually makes networking decisions.
Why Azure Networking Feels Hard at First
The biggest challenge for me was understanding why Azure recommends certain designs.
I kept asking:
- Why does traffic take this path?
- Why is one service preferred over another?
- How do routing, security, and cost interact in Azure?
The documentation explained each service well, but it didn’t always show how they fit together in real scenarios. I could understand features individually, yet struggled to see the overall network design logic.
The Concept That Changed Everything: Traffic Flow
The breakthrough came when I shifted my mindset. Instead of focusing on Azure services, I started focusing on traffic flow.
I stopped asking:
“What does this service do?”
And started asking:
“How does traffic move from source to destination, and what controls that path?”
Once I looked at Azure networking through the lens of:
- Routing precedence
- Network security enforcement points
- Design trade-offs between simplicity, security, and performance
concepts like VNet peering, private endpoints, and hybrid connectivity suddenly made sense. Azure networking became a design problem, not a memorization exercise.
How Working Through the Real-World Scenarios Helped Reinforce the Concepts
What really reinforced this understanding was working through realistic scenarios. Going through Microsoft AZ-700 exam questions and answers, that I got from an exam prep site named CertBoosters, forced me to think like an engineer instead of just recalling definitions. Each scenario required evaluating routing behavior, security requirements, and architectural intent. That process helped bridge the gap between theory and practical Azure networking design especially for topics commonly covered in the AZ-700 exam.
Final Thoughts
Azure networking can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you approach it service by service. For me, the turning point was learning to think in terms of traffic flow and design decisions, then validating that understanding through realistic scenarios.
Once you see how Azure evaluates routing and security together, the entire networking model becomes far more intuitive and far more useful in real-world cloud environments.