Exam Review: 70-740 – Windows Server 2016!

Overview

This exam (70-740) finally went gold recently (Jan 2017) – emerging from a long Beta period. I was super interested in the gold code since I am writing a book on how to pass it! 🙂

MCSA 70-740 Cert Guide: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016 

I am looking to beat that June 1 publication date by the way!

So now that the shameless self promotion is out of the way – let’s get to the exam.

The 70-740 Exam

You can expect about 47 questions on this 70-740 exam with a passing score of about 700. You have 120 minutes for the exam. Time pressure is NOT an issue. I say this even as a very fast test taker and an author of a text on how to pass.

The exam breaks down accurately into the following sections. Notice the percentage breakdown on the number of questions you will face!

  • Install Windows Servers in host and compute environments (10–15%)
  • Implement storage solutions (10–15%)
  • Implement Hyper-V (20–25%)
  • Implement Windows containers (5–10%)
  • Implement high availability (30–35%)
  • Maintain and monitor server environments (10–15%)

So the 70-740 exam is biased toward High Availability? YES! Sorry for all of you that were excited about Windows containers like I was – not a big part of this test at all as Microsoft advertised. What are the topics in the most important High Availability domain? Here they are:

  • Live Migration
  • Failover Clustering
  • Storage Spaces Direct
  • Network Load Balancing

Know these – and know them well. The exam almost seems crazily biased toward them.

Question Types

What types of questions can you expect? Here they are:

  • Simple multiple choice – this is actually the least common question type you face
  • Scenario-based multiple choice – here is your most common question type – you are presented with a scenario of text and tables and things, and then you get a bunch of multiple choice based questions on that information; the scenario does not change – just the multiple choice questions change; this is great, saving you a ton of reading since the scenario is exactly the same
  • Drag and drop steps in the correct order – you can expect bogus steps in the list of steps that you are to order; for example, you might need to select the three steps needed and order them correctly out of 7 possible steps
  • Select the correct command or parameter from a drop-down – here you choose the correct PowerShell or command line option
  • Select the correct command or parameter using drag and drop – note that this is basically the same as the above; how awesome we never need to enter in command syntax from just our brain matter – we are always selecting from options presented in some fashion

Final Thoughts

This 70-740 exam is pretty easy. Please, of course, study. But compared to previous Server exams, it is definitely on the easier scale. Knowing key facts can carry you through many questions. And you have a relative few questions to deal with. I really enjoyed how this exam hammered important facts, and not trivia.

70-740

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18 thoughts on “Exam Review: 70-740 – Windows Server 2016!

  1. Hi Anthony,
    It is pretty strange that the exam contains about 47 questions because at least in my case, I got about 60 questions during each of 741, 742 and 744.
    Which version of 740 did you pass – live or beta?

  2. I noticed in your book chapter 18 on the did you know questions, question 4. The answer key says the answer is D but it seems more likely to be C.

    1. Hi Ray – you are absolutely correct – I will report this to Pearson so they can being the errata. Thank you so much for reporting this!

    1. slmz how are you, brother?
      please can you help me with these exams and I would like to know how did you pass it (resources)

  3. Any words on how much focus is on Nano server, and remote vs local administration?
    I’ve noticed the CBT videos do most of the administration locally on the server (at least up until video 22, where I’m currently at).

    1. There will be VERY few questions if any at all on the Nano server. Most of your questions focus on local administration with a little bit or remote sprinkled in!

      1. ok thanks.

        I might wanna re-think my lab setup then, since its mainly focused on remote administration.

        Time for another rebuild 🙂

  4. YOu are saying its fairly easy. I have read over the internet its pretty hard – can you explain ? 🙂 I think you have a lot of experience maybe thats why

    1. You might be reading reviews of the previous Windows Server exam (2012 R2) which was very hard in comparison. Also, as you point out – easy vs hard is very subjective!

  5. I did not have much understanding of server environment earlier. I have bought a course from Udemy and also going through some YouTube videos. Get understanding of different topics like Hyper-V, High Availablity, Active Directory etc. From today’s date, I have exactly one month to attend my 70-740 exam. Now, I am looking for some Online sample question and also a virtual lab where I can implement the theories and the step by step set up. Could you please suggest me about some online sample exam source or virtual lab? Thank You.

    1. The CBT Nuggets course provides step by step hands on lab work with real (virtualized) Server 2016 systems. We also offer practice exams and quiz questions. For free hands on practice – start an AWS or Azure trial and spin up some boxes.

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