Is SC-500 still in beta?

As of July 2026 the certification page is still labelled beta. Microsoft said general availability was expected in July 2026, but it has not landed yet. Beta exams are not scored immediately because Microsoft is gathering data on the quality of the questions. Microsoft states that if you take a beta exam, you will not receive results until the exam completes the beta process and goes live.

What are the SC-500 domain weights?

Four domains. Secure storage, databases, and networking is the largest at 25 to 30 percent. Manage identity, access, and governance is 20 to 25 percent, secure compute is 20 to 25 percent, and manage and monitor security posture is 20 to 25 percent. It is the flattest domain spread of any Azure security exam.

Where is the AI content on SC-500?

Inside Secure compute, which surprises almost everyone. There is no standalone AI domain. Microsoft Entra Agent ID, Copilot Studio agent protection, Microsoft Foundry guardrails, AI Gateway in Azure API Management, Defender for AI Service and Purview DSPM for AI all sit under the Secure compute functional group at 20 to 25 percent.

How long is the SC-500 exam and how many questions?

Microsoft's certification page states you have 120 minutes to complete the assessment, which is longer than AZ-500's 100 minutes. Microsoft does not publish a question count for SC-500. Its general guidance is that most exams contain 40 to 60 questions. Any site quoting an exact SC-500 question count invented it.

How much does the SC-500 exam cost?

$165 USD in the United States, the standard price for Microsoft role-based associate exams. Microsoft runs discounted seats during a beta window, but that window opened in May 2026 and any beta discount for SC-500 is gone. Budget the full fee.

Do you need AZ-500 before SC-500?

No. Microsoft lists no formal prerequisite for SC-500. It recommends practical experience administering Azure and hybrid environments including compute, network and storage, strong familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID, and familiarity with Microsoft 365 administration. That Microsoft 365 requirement is new relative to AZ-500.

SC-500 practice test

SC-500 Practice Test, Practice Questions and Exam Prep From Your Own Security Notes

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SC-500 is Microsoft's new cloud and AI security exam, and it is the one to take instead of AZ-500. Its full title is Implementing End-to-End Security Controls for Cloud and AI Workloads, and passing it earns the Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate certification. AZ-500 and the Azure Security Engineer Associate certification retire on August 31, 2026. SC-500 runs 120 minutes, needs 700 out of 1000, costs $165, has no prerequisite, and is English-only. Its largest domain is Secure storage, databases, and networking at 25 to 30 percent. As of July 2026 it is still in beta and has no official practice assessment, which is exactly why the material you study has to come from somewhere else.

Last updated July 2026

There is no official SC-500 question bank, so be careful who you buy from

Microsoft is unusually direct about this. On the SC-500 certification page:

"The Practice Assessment for this exam is not currently available. Practice Assessments are usually available within 8 weeks of the exam being out of beta and generally available."

Read that alongside a second fact: SC-500 is still in beta. The certification page is titled "Microsoft Certified: Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (beta)" today. Microsoft's own launch announcement said general availability was expected in July 2026, and that has not happened yet. Beta exams are not even scored immediately, because Microsoft is still gathering data on how the questions perform. In Microsoft's words, if you took a beta exam you will not receive results until the exam completes the beta process and goes live.

Now hold those two facts next to what is being sold. There is no official question bank. The exam's questions are still being validated by Microsoft. And yet:

What is being sold	The claim	The problem
betastudy.app	"Official SC-500 exam format", "Questions: 50"	Microsoft publishes no question count for any exam. The giveaway: the same site lists "50 questions" for AI-103 and AI-200 too. It is one hardcoded template number being sold as each exam's official format.
open-exam-prep.com	"Microsoft lists ... roughly 40-60 questions", then "50 scored questions"	Attributes an invented count to Microsoft in a labelled stat tile, then contradicts itself on the same page with a flat 50.
aguidetocloud.com	"Official Exam Details: Duration 100 minutes"	Microsoft's SC-500 page says 120 minutes. They stamped AZ-500's 100 minutes onto SC-500 under a heading that says "Official." The page never uses the word "beta."
azurecertprep.github.io	"Exam version: Skills measured as of July 2025"	Impossible. The SC-500 beta did not exist until May 2026, and the study guide's own footer reads "Last updated on 2026-05-13."

Not one of those pages uses the word "beta." Microsoft publishes no per-exam question count for SC-500 or anything else. Its only published statement is that most exams "typically contain between 40-60 questions" and that the number can vary by exam. Anyone printing an exact figure is either guessing or selling you someone else's guess.

The honest way to practice a brand-new exam is to generate questions from the material the exam is actually built on: Microsoft's own documentation for the services in the outline, plus your own team's security notes. Upload it and build a question bank from your security runbook. That works on day one of a beta, with no waiting for anyone's bank to appear.

Exam time: 120 minutes
Passing score: 700 / 1000
Exam fee: $165
Practice questions: Unlimited

SC-500 skills measured, and where the AI content actually lives

Four domains, from Microsoft's study guide for Exam SC-500. Note how flat the spread is: no domain is under 20 percent, and the largest is only 30 percent. You cannot safely skip anything.

Domain	What is actually in it	Weight
Secure storage, databases, and networking	Storage account security and firewall rules, Defender for Storage, Azure SQL platform security and auditing, Defender for Databases. Then networking: NSGs and ASGs, Azure Virtual Network Manager, Virtual WAN, VPN, Entra Private Access, private endpoints, Private Link, Azure Firewall, Network Watcher. The largest domain.	25 to 30%
Manage identity, access, and governance	Entra ID (PIM, conditional access, MFA and passwordless, app registrations, OAuth consent, managed identities), Azure Key Vault end to end, then governance: Azure Policy, regulatory compliance in Defender for Cloud, resource locks, RBAC and custom roles, overprivileged access, Azure Backup protection, security controls in infrastructure as code.	20 to 25%
Secure compute (this is where the AI is)	Security for AI: data overexposure in SharePoint, Copilot and AI app risk via Purview DSPM, real-time protection for Copilot Studio agents, conditional access for Entra Agent ID, blast-radius analysis in Defender XDR, AI Gateway in API Management for Microsoft Foundry, Defender for AI Service, guardrails in Foundry. Plus servers and VMs (disk encryption, Bastion, JIT access, Azure Arc, Defender for Servers, secure boot, vTPM) and app platform (Defender for Containers, AKS, ACR, Container Apps, Functions, Logic Apps, App Service, WAF, API Management).	20 to 25%
Manage and monitor security posture	Defender for Cloud (CSPM, compliance frameworks, workload protection plans, connecting AWS and GCP, Defender Vulnerability Management, Defender EASM), Microsoft Sentinel (workspaces, roles, content hub, connectors, syslog and CEF, data collection rules, custom log tables, automation rules and playbooks, retention), and Microsoft Security Copilot (workspaces, permissions, plugins, agents).	20 to 25%

The placement of the AI material is the single most counterintuitive thing about this exam, and it is the thing most people will get wrong when they plan their revision. There is no AI domain. Entra Agent ID, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry guardrails and Purview DSPM for AI are all filed under Secure compute, sitting alongside VM disk encryption and Azure Bastion. If you look at the four domain titles and conclude the AI content is optional, you will walk into a fifth of the paper unprepared.

The other quiet shift is Microsoft Security Copilot appearing as an examinable product in its own right, under posture management. That is new. Studying an AZ-500 course will not cover it, because it is not on AZ-500.

Microsoft gives 120 minutes for the assessment and does not publish a question count. The exam is proctored, English-only, and offered at the intermediate level for the Security Engineer role. As an associate role-based exam it is open book: you can browse learn.microsoft.com while you sit it, excluding Q&A, practice assessments and your profile, with no extra time granted.

SC-500 compared with AZ-500, the exam it succeeds

One honest caveat first, because we would rather flag it than gloss it. Microsoft's public retirement announcement lists SC-500 as the exam to take instead of AZ-500, and that is the mapping we use here. But the two exams are not the same paper with a new sticker, and treating them that way is how people under-prepare.

	AZ-500 (retiring)	SC-500 (the replacement)
Certification	Azure Security Engineer Associate	Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate
Status	Retires August 31, 2026	Live, still labelled beta as of July 2026
Exam time	100 minutes	120 minutes, 20 more
Domains	4, ranging 15 to 35 percent	4, ranging 20 to 30 percent. Flatter, so less skippable
AI security content	None	Entra Agent ID, Copilot Studio, Foundry guardrails, Purview DSPM, Defender for AI Service, AI Gateway
Security Copilot	Not examined	Examined, under posture management
Microsoft 365	Not in the recommended experience	"Familiarity with Microsoft 365 administration" is now recommended
Official practice assessment	Yes	No, not until it exits beta
Exam fee (US)	$165	$165

The overlap is real: Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, Entra ID, Key Vault, network security, storage and database protection all carry over, and if you have been studying AZ-500 that work is not wasted. What is genuinely new is the entire AI security surface, Security Copilot, and a stronger Microsoft 365 flavor. Those are the parts no AZ-500 course will teach you, and they are the parts a bought question bank written for AZ-500 will silently omit.

If you are deciding between the two, our AZ-500 practice test page has a what-to-do-by-situation table. The short version: if you are not already booked, take SC-500.

What sitting a beta exam actually means

Most candidates have never taken one, and the mechanics are different in ways worth knowing before you book.

You do not get your score on the day. Microsoft states that beta exams are not scored immediately because it is gathering data on the quality of the questions, and that you will not receive results until the exam completes the beta process and goes live. Microsoft has not published a date for that. If you need a credential by a fixed date for a job or a partner requirement, budget for an open-ended wait.

The questions are being validated using your attempt. That is the trade. Some items may be experimental. It also means the item pool is fresh, so anything sold as "the real questions" is, at best, someone's recollection of a paper that is still being tuned.

You pay the full fee. Microsoft discounts seats during a beta window, and SC-500's beta opened back in May 2026. That window is closed, so budget the full $165.

Renewal terms are not published yet. Microsoft's associate certifications expire after 12 months and are renewed free, unproctored and open book on Microsoft Learn, in a six-month window before expiry. The SC-500 certification page does not yet state a renewal frequency, because it is in beta. Expect the standard 12-month associate cycle, but that is our inference, not Microsoft's published word, and we would rather tell you which is which.

How to make SC-500 practice questions when no official bank exists

For a brand-new exam, generating questions from the source material beats waiting for a question bank that may not be accurate when it arrives.

1 Upload the real source: Microsoft documentation for the services in the outline, your organization's security runbook, or your own study notes.
2 Do not skip the AI material: It is hidden inside Secure compute, worth 20 to 25 percent, and no AZ-500 course covers it.
3 AI writes the questions: Exam-style items with an answer key and explanations, in the current product vocabulary rather than 2022's.
4 Cover all four domains: The spread is flat. Nothing is under 20 percent, so there is no domain you can safely trade away.

SC-500 questions, answered

What is Exam SC-500?: SC-500 is Microsoft's exam titled Implementing End-to-End Security Controls for Cloud and AI Workloads. Passing it earns the Microsoft Certified: Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate certification. Microsoft lists it as the exam to prepare for instead of AZ-500, which retires on August 31, 2026.
Is SC-500 still in beta?: As of July 2026 the certification page is still labelled beta. Microsoft said general availability was expected in July 2026, but it has not landed yet. Beta exams are not scored immediately because Microsoft is gathering data on the quality of the questions. Microsoft states that if you take a beta exam, you will not receive results until the exam completes the beta process and goes live.
What are the SC-500 domain weights?: Four domains. Secure storage, databases, and networking is the largest at 25 to 30 percent. Manage identity, access, and governance is 20 to 25 percent, secure compute is 20 to 25 percent, and manage and monitor security posture is 20 to 25 percent. It is the flattest domain spread of any Azure security exam.
Where is the AI content on SC-500?: Inside Secure compute, which surprises almost everyone. There is no standalone AI domain. Microsoft Entra Agent ID, Copilot Studio agent protection, Microsoft Foundry guardrails, AI Gateway in Azure API Management, Defender for AI Service and Purview DSPM for AI all sit under the Secure compute functional group at 20 to 25 percent.
How long is the SC-500 exam and how many questions?: Microsoft's certification page states you have 120 minutes to complete the assessment, which is longer than AZ-500's 100 minutes. Microsoft does not publish a question count for SC-500. Its general guidance is that most exams contain 40 to 60 questions. Any site quoting an exact SC-500 question count invented it.
How much does the SC-500 exam cost?: $165 USD in the United States, the standard price for Microsoft role-based associate exams. Microsoft runs discounted seats during a beta window, but that window opened in May 2026 and any beta discount for SC-500 is gone. Budget the full fee.
Is there an official SC-500 practice assessment?: No. Microsoft states plainly that the practice assessment for this exam is not currently available, and that practice assessments are usually available within 8 weeks of an exam leaving beta and becoming generally available. Until then there is no official question bank of any kind for SC-500.
Do you need AZ-500 before SC-500?: No. Microsoft lists no formal prerequisite for SC-500. It recommends practical experience administering Azure and hybrid environments including compute, network and storage, strong familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID, and familiarity with Microsoft 365 administration. That Microsoft 365 requirement is new relative to AZ-500.
What score do you need to pass SC-500?: 700 or greater on a scale of 1 to 1000. Microsoft explicitly notes that because this is a scaled score, it may not equal 70 percent of the points. Microsoft publishes no pass rate for SC-500 or for any of its exams, so treat any pass-rate figure you see as invented.

PDFQuiz is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft, Azure, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Purview and Security Copilot are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. This generator builds practice questions from material you upload and is a study aid, not a substitute for Microsoft's official learning paths. SC-500 is a new exam and its details are still changing: always confirm on Microsoft's own pages before you book.

Related study tools

The exam SC-500 replaces has its own generator: the AZ-500 practice test generator, with the full retirement timeline. Most cloud security engineers come through administration, so the AZ-104 practice test generator is the natural companion, and the AZ-900 practice test generator covers the fundamentals exam that never expires. The AZ-204 practice test generator covers the developer exam caught in the same retirement wave, and the AZ-305 practice test generator covers architecture. On vendor-neutral security, see the CISSP practice questions generator, the Security+ practice test generator and the CySA+ practice test generator for security operations. For any source document, use the certification exam generator.

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