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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I passed my AZ-104 certification! I'd been studying it for six months off and on, was going to really push it in the new year and did it on a whim because of a promotion Pearson had where you can book before Dec. 31, and retry before April 30th. I had one more exam section to study and planned to take the test, fail, and use that to improve for the next one, all for the sum of $45 (my company is part of a program that gives steep exam discounts from MS).
The exam was probably the hardest test I've ever taken in terms of work. I failed the LPIC102, but that was either you know it or you don't. This one required significant problem solving through surprisingly complicated situations, especially with regards to environment architecture. My boss gave me the day off, I didn't really study much before (I watched John Saville's exam cram), and only used the official materials, and did a ton of searching in Microsoft Learn (their KB) during the exam, which I think pushed me over the top.
It's a great finish to a great month, ending a pretty rough year (work was intense, team transition, new responsibilities, important layoffs).