Retired exams
Retired Microsoft exams and what replaced them
Microsoft retires a certification exam when the underlying role or technology has moved on, replacing it with an exam that reflects the job as it's actually done today. A credential you already earned stays valid and stays on your transcript regardless, and Azure Mastery keeps each retired exam's question bank in the app as reference material for anyone who passed — or bought — it before retirement.
At a glance
The retired exams and their successors
| Exam | Name | Retired on | Successor | Credential status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI-900 | Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals | 30 June 2026 | AI-901 | Earned credential stays on transcript |
| AI-102 | Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate | 30 June 2026 | AI-103 | Earned credential stays on transcript |
| DP-100 | Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure | 1 June 2026 | AI-300 | Earned credential stays on transcript |
| AZ-204 | Azure Developer Associate | 31 July 2026 | AI-200 | Earned credential stays on transcript |
| AZ-500 | Microsoft Azure Security Engineer | 31 August 2026 | SC-500 | Bookable until retirement; credential then stays on transcript |
AI-900 → AI-901
AI-900 → AI-901
AI-900 retired on 30 June 2026. Its direct successor is AI-901 (Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals).
- The core ideas carry over: AI and ML terminology, responsible AI principles, and a working sense of computer vision and natural language workloads.
- AI-901 weights implementation far more heavily, with more than half the exam on building solutions with Microsoft Foundry rather than just recognising Azure AI services.
See how to pass AI-901 for a full domain breakdown and study plan.
AI-102 → AI-103
AI-102 → AI-103
AI-102 retired on 30 June 2026. Its direct successor is AI-103 (Microsoft Azure AI App & Agent Developer Associate).
- Most of AI-102's domain structure survives unchanged: planning and managing an AI solution, computer vision, and generative AI all remain.
- Two domains were renamed: AI-102's separate agentic-solution domain folded into "implement generative AI and agentic solutions", and its natural-language and knowledge-mining objectives now sit under "text analysis" and "information extraction".
DP-100 → AI-300
DP-100 → AI-300
DP-100 retired on 1 June 2026. Microsoft's current guidance treats AI-300 (Microsoft ML Operations Engineer) as the closest replacement, though the two aren't a like-for-like swap.
- DP-100 tested designing, preparing and training models; AI-300 assumes that skill and tests operating them at scale instead, through MLOps pipelines, model lifecycle management, and generative-AI operations.
- Candidates who mostly used DP-100 for training and deploying models will find AI-300's model-lifecycle domain the closest overlap. DP-100's data-exploration and experimentation content has no direct equivalent in AI-300.
AZ-204 → AI-200
AZ-204 → AI-200
AZ-204 retired on 31 July 2026. Its listed successor is AI-200 (Azure AI Cloud Developer).
- AI-200 reuses a similar domain shape to AZ-204 (compute, storage, security and monitoring) applied specifically to AI workloads instead of general Azure development.
- A developer who studied AZ-204's compute, storage and security domains already recognises AI-200's structure. What changes is mostly which services those domains cover: AI-powered compute hosts, vector-enabled storage, and AI-specific identity and monitoring.
AZ-500 → SC-500
AZ-500 → SC-500
AZ-500 retired on 31 August 2026, the last of the five exams on this page to close. Its successor is SC-500 (Cloud and AI Security Engineer).
- SC-500 keeps AZ-500's structure almost intact: identity and access, storage/database/network security, and security-posture management all carry over directly.
- The one substantive addition is AI-workload security, folded into SC-500's compute domain, reflecting the new class of resources security engineers now have to protect.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Can I still book a retired exam?
No. Once Microsoft retires an exam, Pearson VUE stops scheduling new sittings for it — that now includes AZ-500, the last of the five on this page to close, on 31 August 2026.
Does my credential expire when the exam retires?
No. A credential you earned by passing a Microsoft exam stays valid and stays on your Microsoft Learn transcript after the exam itself retires — retirement stops new bookings, it doesn't undo a credential you've already earned.
Can I renew a credential from a retired exam?
No. When Microsoft retires an exam, its renewal assessment retires with it, so the credential cannot be renewed after the retirement date. It stays on your transcript as earned. To hold a current credential in that area, sit the successor exam listed above.
Do retired questions still count in the app?
Azure Mastery keeps each retired exam's question bank in the app as reference material for anyone who bought it, or passed the exam before it retired. It isn't counted in the app's advertised exam or question totals.
Which retired exam maps to which successor?
AI-900 to AI-901, AI-102 to AI-103, DP-100 to AI-300, AZ-204 to AI-200, and AZ-500 to SC-500. The table above lists each one with its retirement date.
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