Marco Grimaldi

Marco Grimaldi

Cloud Resiliency Consultant @ Concentrix · Language Teacher

🏅 Cert Review: MS-700 – Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate

9 minute read

🔐 MS-700 Overview: Teams Administrator Associate

❗ Just a heads-up: This review reflects my personal experience only. It is not sponsored or endorsed in any way.

ℹ️ Introduction

I obtained the Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate certification at the very beginning of my journey at NTT DATA, while transitioning from a broader App/Cloud Support Associate position at Accenture into a L2 Managed Services Engineer role and needed to quickly build confidence and upskill proficiency with Microsoft Teams administration, among other things.

A decisive accelerator in this process was attending a Microsoft Virtual Training Day focused on hybrid work with Teams toward the end of 2022. The event proved particularly valuable because it emphasized practical, how-to scenarios rather than abstract theory, clearly mapping exam topics to real administrative and engineering tasks. This hands-on perspective made it significantly easier to translate certification objectives into day-to-day actions.

When I officially started the role in early 2023, the combination of structured MS-700 preparation and scenario-driven training allowed me to apply Teams administration concepts with confidence from day one. This resulted in a noticeably shorter ramp-up period, faster upskilling, and the ability to deliver consistent and tangible results early in the journey. In retrospect, MS-700 represented more than a certification milestone: it established the technical and conceptual foundation needed to manage Microsoft Teams as a collaboration platform at scale, besides being my first Associate-level Microsoft certification.

👥 Why MS-700 Matters

The MS-700 certification sits at a critical intersection between end-user experience and enterprise-grade administration. Learners who pursue this certification do not simply acquire theoretical knowledge; they become fluent power users and administrators of Microsoft Teams environments, capable of actively unblocking collaboration and enabling productive interactions across organizations.

MS-700 provides the depth required to understand how Teams truly operates as a collaboration hub. It goes beyond basic usage and focuses on fine-tuning collaboration experiences by configuring meeting policies, optimizing different meeting formats, integrating and managing Teams-certified devices, and enabling calling features that support both internal and external communication scenarios, just to mention a few.

Equally important is its strong emphasis on environment lifecycle management and governance. Candidates learn how to design, configure, and maintain Teams environments in a sustainable way—balancing user empowerment with security, compliance, and operational control. This includes managing policies, access models, guest and external collaboration, and monitoring usage to proactively identify and resolve issues.

In practice, MS-700 equips professionals to act as enablers of collaboration, ensuring that Microsoft Teams is not just available, but intentionally designed, governed, and optimized to support the way people actually work.

📊 Skills Measured (Updated on February 11, 2025)

The skills measured for the MS-700 exam fall into four main knowledge domains. Each carries a different weight in the overall exam:

  • Configure and manage a Teams environment (40–45%)
    • Plan and configure Microsoft Teams settings and policies
    • Manage Teams roles and permissions
    • Configure and manage Teams devices
    • Manage external access and guest access
    • Implement security and compliance for Teams
    • Manage Teams lifecycle and governance
  • Manage teams, channels, chats, and apps (20–25%)
    • Create and manage teams and channels
    • Manage private channels and shared channels
    • Manage chat settings and policies
    • Manage and deploy apps in Teams
    • Manage tabs, connectors, and bots
  • Manage meetings and calling (15–20%)
    • Configure meeting policies and settings
    • Manage meeting experiences (lobby, breakout rooms, recordings)
    • Configure and manage audio conferencing
    • Manage Teams calling features and policies
    • Configure and manage phone system and calling plans
  • Monitor, report on, and troubleshoot Teams (15–20%)
    • Monitor Teams usage and performance
    • Generate and interpret Teams reports and analytics
    • Troubleshoot Teams issues (connectivity, meetings, calling, apps)
    • Use Microsoft Teams

💡 Practical Tips for Passing MS-700

  • Prioritize by weighting: Pay attention that almost half of the exam weight - up to a 45% - revolves around configuring and managing a Teams environment. This implies interiorizing networking concepts, security settings, licensing considerations and governance practices, among other things. Otherwise, you may find yourself underprepared for a significant portion of the test and you will likely need too many educated guesses to pass.
  • Leverage official Microsoft Learn paths: Use Microsoft’s free learning modules, which directly follow the exam outline and are updated regularly.
  • Use practice exams strategically: Microsoft’s practice assessments are closely aligned with the test and highlight areas needing improvement.
  • Track weak areas: Practice assessments provide a breakdown of your performance, making it easier to focus revision where it’s most needed.
  • Know the exam mechanics:
    • Expect between approximately 40–60 questions in multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, or true/false formats, including case study scenarios, which prove your knowledge with ~4-6 dedicated questions - they are counted against the total number. Differently from Fundamentals certs, the scenarios contained in Associate-level certifications test your ability to apply knowledge in practical situations by presenting real-world problems that require comprehensive solutions. Be mindful that you cannot skip case studies and return to them later on, nor will you be able to revisit standard questions once you are being presented with a case study. This means you need to manage your time effectively and ensure you understand the case’s environment and requirements before answering its related questions. Additionally, should you not encounter any case study at the beginning of your exam, be prepared for it to appear later on and make sure to allocate enough time to address it thoroughly. Additionally, be aware that although the total number of questions may vary, the depth of Associate-level questions might need a greater effort to answer correctly if compared to Fundamentals exams.
    • You’ll have ~100 minutes to complete the test - way more than Fundamentals-level exams -, need a score of 700/1000 to pass, and can choose between online proctoring or an in-person Pearson VUE center.

🗂️ Study Strategy

One major difference with respect to Fundamentals exams is the need to gain hands-on experience and more specifically to the MS-700, with Microsoft Teams administration, which is crucial for understanding real-world applications of the concepts covered in the exam. Associate-level exams typically require a deeper understanding of the subject matter due to the need of completing the above-mentioned case study. Therefore, having some exposure to labs, hands-on practice, or real-world scenarios can significantly enhance your readiness for the exam.

For this Associate certification I followed an approach consistent with other Microsoft Fundamentals certifications I achieved in the past, focusing on structured learning and targeted practice. Here’s the strategy I used:

  • Gather and organize all relevant resources and keep them handy.
  • Complete Microsoft’s official MS-700 course. It’s comprehensive, free, and updated consistently.
  • Attempt Microsoft’s practice assessments. They closely mirror the actual exam and help identify weak areas.
  • Revisit weak areas based on practice test results. Focus your study on topics where you scored lower to strengthen your understanding.
  • John Christopher’s Udemy course on MS-700. This paid course includes lab simulations that provide hands-on experience, which is invaluable for understanding practical applications. Since there are no materials curated by John Savill specifically for MS-7xx series - MS-700 and MS-721 -, this course fills that gap effectively and I personally found John Christopher’s teaching style very clear and engaging. It expands the technical concepts in a straightforward manner, while keeping the focus on the exam objectives as outlined by Microsoft and skills that will be measured on test day.
  • Trust your preparation and stay confident on exam day. By the time you sit for the test, you’ll have built a solid foundation through structured study. Focus on what you know, manage your time wisely, and approach the exam with a clear mindset.

🎟️ Exam Vouchers and Discounts

When I first took the MS-700 at the end of March 2023, I was lucky enough to obtain a free exam voucher through the attendance of the Microsoft Virtual Training Day focused on Teams management: Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Enable Hybrid Work with Microsoft Teams. Those insights were extremely remarkable and helped me solidify my understanding of core concepts, which proved beneficial not only in terms of passing the exam, but also on a daily basis afterwards, since I spent a significant amount of time in administrating and supporting Teams environments while working as a Collaboration and Voice Engineer at NTT.

As I am writing these lines at the end of 2025, the landscape has slightly shifted. 100% free vouchers are now more difficult to come by, but Microsoft still offers discount opportunities periodically via specific events, challenges or tailored promotions.

If you’re considering MS-700 or any other Microsoft certification, I strongly recommend keeping an eye on Microsoft Events as well as checking Microsoft-related blogs, newsletters and social media channels to stay up to date.

📦 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

The Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate stands out as the right choice for professionals who want to go beyond surface-level usage of Microsoft Teams and develop a solid, hands-on understanding of how Teams is administered, governed, and integrated within the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

This certification is particularly well suited for those aiming to work with real-world Teams environments, where collaboration, meetings, calling, devices, and security considerations must coexist in a controlled and scalable manner. MS-700 strikes a pragmatic balance between conceptual knowledge and operational execution, making it highly relevant for engineers, administrators, and consultants who are directly responsible for keeping collaboration platforms reliable and effective.

From a learning-path perspective, MS-700 also represents an excellent starting point for deeper specialization. For anyone interested in expanding their expertise in Cloud Voice and advanced Teams workloads, the natural next step is MS-721, which builds on this foundation by focusing on Teams Phone, Teams Rooms, certified devices, PSTN connectivity, and advanced voice scenarios. Together, MS-700 and MS-721 form a coherent progression toward mastering enterprise-grade collaboration and voice solutions in Microsoft environments.

On the other hand, if your goal is to gain broader, more theoretical visibility into Microsoft 365 as a whole, without diving deeply into administration or hands-on configuration, Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900) may be a more appropriate entry point. MS-900 provides a high-level overview of Microsoft 365 services, licensing concepts, and cloud principles, making it ideal for those seeking foundational knowledge or exploring the ecosystem for the first time. This certification will be the focus of the next article in this certification review series.

In summary, MS-700 is best viewed as a practical, role-oriented certification: a strong enabler for professionals who want to design, operate, and continuously improve Microsoft Teams environments with confidence and intent.

🚨 Disclaimer: This article is solely based on my personal account. I have not received any endorsement or compensation from Microsoft or any related party. My aim is to share insights that may help others assess whether the MS-700 aligns with their own goals and needs. Whenever possible, I also encourage you to look into available discounts, vouchers or community resources that may help cover the costs of such exams.

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