Microsoft Certifications – Microsoft Exam duration and question types

Several professionals interested in Microsoft Certifications reached out and question me about Microsoft Exams and Microsoft Certifications. I think it’s time to put this in written and in an organized way. I will start a series of articles and videos about Microsoft Certifications. How to get ready, tips, exam durations … Basically all that you need to know to get that certification! I will explain all what I have learn by taking more than 70 Microsoft exams.

In this article I will focus on exam duration and question types. When teaching a class, it’s normal to get questions like:

  • How many questions the exam X, Y or Z has?
  • What is the duration of the exam?
  • Are the exam questions only multiple-choice?
  • Does my exam have labs?

Duration of Microsoft exams

Exam type/level Duration (questions) Total Duration
Fundamentals 60 minutes 80 minutes
Associate 130 minutes 150 minutes
Expert 150 minutes 170 minutes
MOS (Office) 50 minutes 60 minutes

Note: Duration (questions) is the actual time you have the answer questions when “Total Duration” includes the time to read instruction and provide feedback about the exam.

Number of questions of an exam

Microsoft doesn’t release the exact number of questions each exam has, but they share that an exam has around 40-60 questions. But please pay attention that this can change!!! And to be totally honest, I personally would not care that much about the number of questions. The important piece of information is the duration of the exam. Microsoft Learning is doing exams for many years, they will allocate an unspecified number of questions that a regular exam candidate can answer during the allocated time. In short, I will not woories that much about the number of questions your exam would have.

Question types

Always a popular topic. What kind of questions there are on the exam! These are some sample questions your exame might (or not) get on your exam:

Active screen

Best answer

Build list

Case studies

Drag and drop

Hot area

Multiple choice

Repeated answer question

Short answer

Mark review

Review screen

Hope this was interesting. What more topics do you want to read on this series? If you have questions just drop a line. Happy to help.

#GetCertified

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