What does it cost?
The AI-300 exam costs $165.
Exam fee
$165
Microsoft prices the exam by the country or region where it is proctored; $165 is the price in the United States.
Source: Microsoft exam page
Microsoft exam
AI-300 Exam facts
Microsoft Certified: Machine Learning Operations Engineer Associate
- Minutes
- 120
- Exam fee
- $165
- Passing score
- 700
Independent: not affiliated with Microsoft. These exam facts are free; the study bundle adds a study guide and two practice exams.
Short answer
Exam AI-300: Operationalizing Machine Learning and Generative AI Solutions is the exam for the Microsoft Certified: Machine Learning Operations Engineer Associate certification, for engineers running MLOps and GenAIOps on Azure. The exam runs 120 minutes, costs $165 and takes 700 of 1,000 to pass.
Sources: exam page, exam guide
Published Microsoft facts for AI-300 on one page. Last updated
Study bundle
Prepare for AI-300
$19
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Your receipt has a license key. Enter it at overqual.com/download for the three PDFs, stamped with your email and order number. They are yours to keep.
Try 5 free sample questions first See 3 pages inside
- A 59-page study guide: every exam domain, weighted like the exam
- Two practice exams: 120 original questions, every answer explained
- Every bundle includes 6 months of access: download the PDFs, and any new editions, until 6 months after your purchase date.
Edition 1.0, October 2026
How many questions and how long?
The AI-300 exam runs 120 minutes. Microsoft has not published the number of questions.
Source: Microsoft exam page
The exam
- Questions
- Not published
- Time
- 120 minutes
- Languages
- English
What score do you need to pass?
The AI-300 passing score is 700, on a scale of 1-1,000.
1-699
700+ PASS
Source: Microsoft exam guide
What does the exam cover?
The AI-300 exam covers five domains, weighted 15-20% / 25-30% / 20-25% / 10-15% / 10-15%.
Source: Microsoft exam guide
D115-20%
Design and implement an MLOps infrastructure
D225-30%
Implement machine learning model lifecycle and operations
D320-25%
Design and implement a GenAIOps infrastructure
D410-15%
Implement generative AI quality assurance and observability
D510-15%
Optimize generative AI systems and model performance
Design and implement an MLOps infrastructure
- 1.1Create and manage resources in a Machine Learning workspace
- 1.2Create and manage assets
- 1.3Implement IaC for Machine Learning
Implement machine learning model lifecycle and operations
- 2.1Orchestrate model training
- 2.2Model registration and versioning
- 2.3Deploy models for production
- 2.4Monitor and maintain models in production
Design and implement a GenAIOps infrastructure
- 3.1Foundry environments and platform configuration
- 3.2Deploy and manage foundation models
- 3.3Prompt versioning and management with source control
Implement generative AI quality assurance and observability
- 4.1Evaluation and validation for apps and agents
- 4.2Observability for apps and agents
Optimize generative AI systems and model performance
- 5.1Optimize RAG performance and accuracy
- 5.2Advanced fine-tuning and model customization
Inside the study bundle
Study guide chapters
Ten chapters. Chapters 2 to 7 cover the five exam domains, weighted like the exam.
- 01 What the exam is p. 3
- 02 MLOps infrastructure: workspaces, assets, IaC and networking p. 8
- 03 Training: MLflow, AutoML, sweeps, pipelines and registration p. 17
- 04 Deployment and monitoring: endpoints, rollout, drift p. 24
- 05 GenAIOps infrastructure: Foundry, model deployments, prompts p. 31
- 06 Quality assurance and observability for generative AI p. 39
- 07 Optimizing RAG and fine-tuning p. 45
- 08 Final review p. 50
- 09 Sources p. 57
- 10 Edition and updates p. 59
Look inside the study guide
Three pages of the Edition 1.0 study guide: the contents and the first two pages of a chapter.
What is free here, and what is in the bundle?
The exam facts and 5 sample questions are free on this site. The study guide chapters and the two practice exams are in the bundle.
| Item | Free on this site | In the bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Exam facts and change log | Yes, with links to the Microsoft sources | Chapter 1 of the study guide sums up the exam's format and scoring. |
| 5 sample questions | Yes | No. None of the 5 appear in the practice exams. |
| Domain chapters and final review | No | Yes, in the study guide |
| Two practice exams with answer keys | No | Yes, 120 questions with an explanation for every answer |
Questions before you buy
Is this official?
No, the AI-300 bundle is not official. Overqual is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Microsoft.
Does it include real exam questions?
No, the AI-300 bundle contains no exam questions, and every practice question is original.
How is the AI-300 bundle different from Microsoft's free materials?
Microsoft's free pages set out what the AI-300 exam covers. The AI-300 bundle adds a 59-page study guide that covers every exam domain, and two practice exams with 120 original questions, every answer explained. When Microsoft revises the exam, a new edition follows if the changes warrant it, included while your access lasts. Take Microsoft's AI-300 practice assessment as well; none of the bundle's questions come from it.
How do I get updates?
Updates to the AI-300 bundle arrive as new editions. Every bundle includes 6 months of access: download the PDFs, and any new editions, until 6 months after your purchase date. Download each new edition at overqual.com/download with the license key from your receipt email. The change log on the exam facts page says what changed.
Can I get a refund?
No. Sales of the AI-300 bundle are final, because downloaded PDFs cannot be returned. Read the free exam facts and try the 5 free sample questions first. If a download fails or you paid twice by mistake, contact Overqual to have the download fixed or the second payment refunded.
How is AI-300 different from DP-100?
AI-300 replaced DP-100 (Azure Data Scientist Associate) on May 12, 2026, and DP-100 retired on Jun 1, 2026, per Microsoft's Partner Center announcements and its retired exams list. Microsoft's AI-300 announcement says DP-100 focused on data science solutions, including data exploration, model training, evaluation and deployment, and that AI-300 keeps training and evaluation but puts more emphasis on automation, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, lifecycle governance, observability, drift detection, cost control and operating generative AI systems. Its comparison table sets AI-300's CI/CD with Bicep, Azure CLI and GitHub Actions against DP-100's basic workspace and compute setup, and AI-300's end-to-end GenAIOps lifecycle with Foundry against DP-100's basic generative AI setup and experimentation. In Microsoft's AI-300 study guide, Domains 1 and 2 (MLOps on Azure Machine Learning) carry 40-50% of the exam and Domains 3 to 5 (generative AI) carry 40-55%.
Does AI-300 include hands-on labs?
Microsoft does not say whether AI-300 includes labs. The AI-300 exam page says the exam is proctored and that "you may have interactive components to complete", and the exam duration page says Microsoft does not provide a list of exams with labs because labs can be removed at any time. AI-300's 120 minutes matches the exam time that page gives for associate and expert exams that may contain labs. Per the exam FAQ, the introduction at the start of an exam says whether it has labs and how many, and each lab contains 7-15 tasks. The exam sandbox lets you try the question types in the exam interface, and the exam duration page has a sample video of a lab.
Is AI-300 still a beta exam?
AI-300 is not marked as a beta exam on its Microsoft Learn exam page. The AI-300 exam page shows no beta label, beta window or beta price; it lists English as the exam language, 120 minutes and a Pearson VUE scheduling link. Microsoft's June 2026 Partner Center announcements say AI-300 replaced DP-100 on May 12, 2026. Microsoft announced the AI-300 beta in a Skills Hub post on Mar 5, 2026, with a discount on the beta exam for the first 300 candidates through Apr 2, 2026, and said general availability would follow in May 2026. Microsoft posts announcements for upcoming beta exams on the Microsoft Learn blog, with discounted seats for a 3-4 week window, per its beta exams page.
Ready for AI-300?
Three PDFs, 107 pages: the study guide and two practice exams.
Which Microsoft products and tools does AI-300 cover?
The AI-300 outline is split between two Azure platforms. Azure Machine Learning carries Domains 1 and 2 (40-50% of the exam) and Microsoft Foundry carries Domains 3 and 4 (30-40%); Domain 5 (10-15%) covers RAG tuning and fine-tuning without naming a platform. Bicep and Azure CLI appear in the audience profile and in Domains 1 and 3, GitHub Actions in the audience profile and Domain 1, and Git in Domains 1 and 3.
Source: Microsoft's AI-300 study guide
Azure Machine Learning (Domains 1 and 2)
- Workspaces, datastores and compute targets
- Data assets, environments and components
- Registries for sharing assets across workspaces
- MLflow experiment tracking and model registration
- Automated machine learning, notebooks and hyperparameter tuning
- Distributed training and training pipelines
- Feature retrieval specification packaged with the model artifact
- Responsible AI evaluation of a model
- Real-time and batch endpoints with managed inference
- Progressive rollout, safe rollback, data drift detection and retraining or alert triggers
Microsoft Foundry (Domains 3 and 4)
- Foundry resources and project environments
- Managed identities and role-based access control (RBAC)
- Network security and private networking
- Serverless API endpoints and managed compute for foundation models
- Provisioned throughput units
- Model versioning and production deployment strategies
- Prompt variants and prompt version control in Git
- Quality metrics for groundedness, relevance, coherence and fluency
- Risk and safety evaluations
- Continuous monitoring, tracing, logging and token cost metrics
Retrieval and fine-tuning (Domain 5)
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
- Similarity thresholds, chunk sizes and retrieval strategies
- Embedding model selection and fine-tuning
- Hybrid search combining semantic and keyword-based retrieval
- Relevance metrics and A/B testing
- Advanced fine-tuning methods and synthetic data
- Fine-tuned model lifecycle from development to production deployment
Shared tooling (audience profile; Domains 1 and 3)
- GitHub Actions workflows
- Git for code and prompts
- Bicep templates
- Azure CLI
How is it delivered?
The AI-300 exam is proctored, scheduled through Pearson VUE.
- Delivery
- Proctored, scheduled through Pearson VUE
- Languages
- English
- Validity
- 1 year
- Retakes
- 24 hours after a first failed attempt; 14 days between later attempts; at most 5 attempts in 12 months
- Test aids
- Microsoft Learn is accessible during associate and expert exams
Source: Microsoft exam page
What are the key dates?
The dates Microsoft has published for AI-300.
- Jun 1, 2026
- DP-100 retires
Source: Microsoft exam page
Fact sheet
Show the 30 factsHide the facts
- Time
- 120 minutes Source: Microsoft exam page
- Fee
- $165 Source: Microsoft exam page
- Passing score
- 700 Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Score range
- 1-1,000 Source: Microsoft page
- Languages
- English Source: Microsoft exam page
- Delivery
- Proctored, scheduled through Pearson VUE Source: Microsoft exam page
- Validity
- 1 year Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Retakes
- 24 hours after a first failed attempt; 14 days between later attempts; at most 5 attempts in 12 months Source: Microsoft page
- Test aids
- Microsoft Learn is accessible during associate and expert exams Source: Microsoft page
- Domain weights
- D1 15-20% / D2 25-30% / D3 20-25% / D4 10-15% / D5 10-15% Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Certification earned
- Microsoft Certified: Machine Learning Operations Engineer Associate Source: Microsoft exam page
- Level
- Intermediate Source: Microsoft exam page
- Products
- Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Foundry Source: Microsoft exam page
- Format
- Proctored; may include interactive components Source: Microsoft exam page
- Seat time
- 140 minutes Source: Microsoft page
- Labs
- Microsoft does not provide a list of exams with labs Source: Microsoft page
- Typical question count (most Microsoft exams)
- 40-60 questions Source: Microsoft page
- Scoring
- No penalty for guessing; some questions may not be included in your score Source: Microsoft page
- Skills outline
- 5 skill areas, 14 skill groups, 58 bullets Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Skill area weights
- 15-20% / 25-30% / 20-25% / 10-15% / 10-15% Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Preview features
- Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used. Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Extra time if the exam is not in your language
- 30 minutes on request (AI-300 is offered in English only) Source: Microsoft exam guide
- Renewal
- Free online renewal assessment, unproctored and open book, in the six-month window before expiry; passing extends the certification one year from the expiration date Source: Microsoft page
- Breaks
- Five minutes built in for unscheduled breaks; the exam clock keeps running Source: Microsoft page
- Scheduling
- Schedule through Pearson VUE no more than 90 days in advance; at most two Microsoft Certification exams scheduled at a time Source: Microsoft page
- Practice assessment
- Practice Assessment on AI Skills Navigator (sign-in required) Source: Microsoft exam page
- Exam sandbox
- Exam sandbox demo of the question types and interface Source: Microsoft exam page
- Instructor-led course
- AI-300T00-A: Operationalize machine learning and generative AI solutions, 4 days Source: Microsoft page
- Predecessor
- DP-100 (Azure Data Scientist Associate) retired Jun 1, 2026; replaced by AI-300 on May 12, 2026 Source: Microsoft page
- Registration account
- Microsoft recommends registering with a personal Microsoft account; records under a work or school account are lost if you leave it Source: Microsoft exam page
What has changed, and when?
Changes to the exam and to the products it covers, newest first.
- AI-300 and its certification replaced DP-100 and the Azure Data Scientist Associate certification, which retired on Jun 1, 2026. Microsoft page
- Microsoft announced the Machine Learning Operations Engineer Associate certification and the AI-300 beta, with general availability planned for May 2026. Microsoft page
To watch Microsoft directly, check the exam page.