Microsoft 70-487 Exam – Study Notes

Overview

Having recently passed the Microsoft 70-487 exam as part of the MCSD Web Developer certification, in this 70-487 Exam Study Guide I will share my thoughts and experiences to help you pass the exam.

The 70-487 exam covers a broad range of topics including web services, Azure, ORM’s, ADO.NET, web application deployment, Nuget package management etc. The exam is composed of several multiple choice and drag and drop questions. It also includes several ‘Case Study’ questions which provide questions based on ‘real world’ scenarios, complete with business and technical requirements.

The content covered in the 70-487: Developing Microsoft Azure and Web Services exam is as follows. Before attempting to complete the exam you should ensure you have knowledge in these key areas.

Accessing Data (20-25%)
> Choose data access technologies
> Implement caching
> Implement transactions
> Implement data storage in Microsoft Azure
> Create and implement a WCF Data Services service

Querying and Manipulating Data by Using the Entity Framework (20-25%)
> Query and manipulate data by using the Entity Framework
> Query and manipulate data by using Data Provider for Entity Framework
> Query data by using LINQ to Entities
> Query and manipulate data by using ADO.NET
> Create an Entity Framework data model
> Implement Entity Framework with third party databases

Creating and Consuming Web API-based services (20-25%)
> Design a Web API
> Implement a Web API
> Secure a Web API
> Host and manage Web API
> Consume Web API web services

Designing and Implementing Web Services (15-20%)
> Consume a WCF service
> Implement serverless Azure Web Services
> Implement traffic management in Azure
> Implement Azure API Management
> Monitor web services

Deploying Web Applications and Services (15-20%)
> Design a deployment strategy
> Choose a deployment strategy for Azure
> Configure a web application for deployment
> Manage packages by using NuGet
> Share assemblies between multiple applications and servers

My Approach

Similar to my previous posts regarding the 70-480 and 70-486 exams, my exam preparation strategy consisted of the following:

• Official 70-487 Microsoft Exam Reference Book
• Microsoft Virtual Academy Videos
• PluralSight
• Mind Mapping
• Official 70-487 Practice Test Exam

Exam Reference Book

The official exam reference book was invaluable to me and I can’t recommend it enough. It walks you through all the key concepts covered in the exam.

As with most Microsoft exams, this exam covered a lot more topics than I originally thought, but luckily I was prepared!

Microsoft Virtual Academy

Virtual Academy is a free online video training portal from Microsoft.

Check out the exam video series available at Microsoft Virtual Academy. It is specifically tailored to the 70-487 exam, and best of all it’s FREE!

Pluralsight

For those of you that have a subscription to the Pluralsight online IT training site checkout the PluralSight exam video series which touches on some of the key topics covered in the exam. I personally didn’t watch the entire thing, just the content that I was interested in learning more about. 

If you’re an IT professional and aren’t already familiar with Pluralsight then I recommend you try the free trial to try it out. It’s basically an all-you-can-eat online video training library. I’ve been a subscriber for quite a while now and have found it to be really invaluable.

=> CLICK HERE to access a FREE Pluralsight Trial<=

Mind Mapping

I’m naturally a visual learner, meaning that I can absorb information visually much more quickly than reading text. Mind mapping is a great visual learning technique that involves organising data in a visual manner.

I used the free online mind mapping tool Coggle to create a mind map to help me memorise the core concepts covered in the exam. I would periodically review the mind map, and if I found any concepts that I couldn’t remember, I’d go back and study them again.

You can find my mind map below.

Practice Exam

I also purchased the Official 70-487 Test Exam from Measure Up (which you can find here). The test exam is composed of randomly generated questions, some of which actually appeared in the actual exam. I sat the test exam multiple times until I was confident. Although it’s not overly apparent, if you pass the test exam and then fail the real exam, you can get your money back for the test exam.

Make sure you’re comfortable with all the topics covered in the exam prior to sitting it. I personally spent over 2 months preparing for the exam. Anyway, I hope this helps others. Good luck!

In the interest of transparency, some of the above external links are affiliate links. If you found this content useful and wish to return the favour, thank you!

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve found this 70-487 exam study guide to be useful in your preparation. I wish you all the best for the exam.

If you have any tips or personal experiences you would like to share of the 70-487 exam, feel free to share them in the comments below to help others out there.