Microsoft Exam Syllabus

SC-100 syllabus, skills measured, and exam topics

The SC-100 exam measures Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities, Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities, and Design security solutions for infrastructure. Use this page to review the current official syllabus, major domains, and source links before exam day.

Skills measured by domain

Use the weighting table to decide where to spend the most study time.

Domain Weight
Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities 20–25%
Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities 25–30%
Design security solutions for infrastructure 25–30%
Design security solutions for applications and data 20–25%

What to know before you study

These sections explain the role, audience, and exam framing behind the outline.

Purpose of this document

  • This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.
  • Useful links: Description
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Updates to the exam

  • Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.
  • We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.
  • The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.
  • Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.

Audience profile

  • As a Microsoft cybersecurity architect, you translate a cybersecurity strategy into capabilities that protect the assets, business, and operations of an organization. You design, guide the implementation of, and maintain security solutions that follow Zero Trust principles and best practices, including security strategies for identity, devices, data, AI, applications, network, infrastructure, and DevOps. Plus, you design solutions for Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), security operations, and security posture management.​
  • As a cybersecurity architect, you continuously collaborate with leaders and practitioners in security, privacy, engineering, and other roles across an organization to plan and implement a cybersecurity strategy that meets the business needs of an organization.​
  • As a candidate for this exam, you have experience implementing or administering solutions in the following areas: identity and access, platform protection, security operations, data and AI security, application security, and hybrid and multicloud infrastructures. You should have expert skills in at least one of those areas, and you should have experience designing security solutions that include Microsoft security technologies.

Detailed outline

Scan each section as a working study checklist instead of one long wall of text.

Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities (20–25%)

  • Design a security strategy to support business resiliency goals, including identifying and prioritizing threats to business-critical assets
  • Design solutions for business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR), including secure backup and restore for hybrid and multicloud environments
  • Design solutions for mitigating ransomware attacks, including prioritization of BCDR and privileged access
  • Evaluate solutions for security updates
  • Design solutions that align with best practices for cybersecurity capabilities and controls
  • Design solutions that align with best practices for protecting against insider, external, and supply chain attacks
  • Design solutions that align with best practices for Zero Trust security, including A Rapid modernization plan for Zero Trust (RaMP)
  • Design a new or evaluate an existing strategy for security and governance based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (CAF) and the Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF)
  • Recommend solutions for security and governance based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (CAF) and the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
  • Design solutions for implementing and governing security by using Azure landing zones
  • Design a DevSecOps process that aligns with best practices in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (CAF)

Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities (25–30%)

  • Design a solution for detection and response that includes extended detection and response (XDR) and security information and event management (SIEM)
  • Design a solution for centralized logging and auditing, including Microsoft Purview Audit
  • Design monitoring to support hybrid and multicloud environments
  • Design a solution for security orchestration and automated response (SOAR), including Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR
  • Design and evaluate security workflows, including incident response, threat hunting, and incident management
  • Design and evaluate threat detection coverage by using MITRE ATT&CK matrices, including Enterprise, Mobile, and industrial control systems (ICS)
  • Design a solution for access to software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), hybrid/on-premises, and multicloud resources, including identity, networking, and application controls
  • Design a solution for Microsoft Entra ID, including hybrid and multi-cloud environments
  • Design a solution for external identities, including business-to-business (B2B) and decentralized identity
  • Design a modern authentication and authorization strategy, including Conditional Access, continuous access evaluation, risk scoring, and protected actions
  • Validate the alignment of Conditional Access policies with a Zero Trust strategy
  • Specify requirements to harden Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

Design security solutions for infrastructure (25–30%)

  • Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud, including the Microsoft cloud security benchmark (MCSB)
  • Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Secure Score
  • Design integrated security posture management solutions that include Microsoft Defender for Cloud in hybrid and multi-cloud environments
  • Select cloud workload protection solutions in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Design a solution for integrating hybrid and multicloud environments by using Azure Arc
  • Design a solution for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Defender EASM)
  • Specify requirements and priorities for a posture management process that uses Microsoft Security Exposure Management attack paths, attack surface reduction, security insights, and initiatives
  • Specify security requirements for servers, including multiple platforms and operating systems
  • Specify security requirements for mobile devices and clients, including endpoint protection, hardening, and configuration
  • Specify security requirements for IoT devices and embedded systems
  • Evaluate solutions for securing operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) by using Microsoft Defender for IoT
  • Specify security baselines for server and client endpoints

Design security solutions for applications and data (20–25%)

  • Evaluate security posture for productivity and collaboration workloads by using metrics, including Microsoft Secure Score
  • Evaluate solutions that include Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
  • Evaluate device management solutions that include Microsoft Intune
  • Evaluate solutions for securing data in Microsoft 365 by using Microsoft Purview
  • Evaluate data security and compliance controls in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 services
  • Evaluate the security posture of existing application portfolios
  • Evaluate threats to business-critical applications by using threat modeling
  • Design and implement a full lifecycle strategy for application security
  • Design and implement standards and practices for securing the application development process
  • Map technologies to application security requirements
  • Design a solution for workload identities to authenticate and access Azure resources
  • Design a solution for API management and security