MB-820 exam experience

Over the past twenty plus years, I have passed almost 100 Microsoft certification exams, a target that I want to reach. I have however run out of exams to take in my field, so I look for exams that I have some related experience and last month I passed the DP-300 exam, Administering Microsoft Azure SQL Solutions, and am now one step closer to my goal.

I wanted to write about an experience that I had with an exam; one that I didn’t pass.

I have written exam items for Microsoft exams and MeasureUp tests, so I understand how exam items are constructed. Having written items and taken so many exams, I can often deduce the objective of an exam item and to be able to formulate an answer to it, even when I was unsure of the correct answer. Coupled with access to Microsoft Learn during an exam, I always feel confident when sitting an exam.

Although I focus on Dynamics 365 Sales and Service and the Microsoft Power Platform, I do have some experience with Dynamics 365 Business Central and I was able to leverage that limited experience to pass the MB-800 exam and earn the Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant associate certification when it was released in 2021.

The release of the MB-820 Business Central Developer exam in 2024 filled a large gap in the Dynamics 365 certification suite and I know was welcomed by many in the Business Central community. I was keen to take this exam even though I had only a small amount of exposure to several of the topics covered by the exam.

I prepared by reading many of the Microsoft Learn modules and getting some hands-on developing in Business Central with the labs and exercises provided. So, with this preparation I thought I stood a good change to pass the exam.

When I sat the exam, I found it was the most rigorous Microsoft exam I have ever sat. There were no simple easy questions. Most questions combined several factors that you needed to understand how they combined for that question to be able to answer correctly. Microsoft Learn documentation although clear on individual elements of the question, didn’t really help as the exam items relied on real-world application of the tools and how the features in the question scenario came together to affect the correct answer.

The final aspect was all the distractors, the wrong answers, were plausible or would be correct for other slightly different scenarios and were not easily dismissed. I never felt so at a loss when answering the questions, in fact I found myself laughing at my hubris towards the end of the exam. The resulting score was I think generous and if I ever sit this exam again, I am going to have to spend some time working as a business central developer. So, if you have passed this exam, you have done well and you should reflect that you have mastered the Business Central developer role.

So this post is really in praise of the item writers, technical reviewers, and editors who created a highly effective test of knowledge and skills. Chapeau.

Original Post https://ukcrm.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/mb-820-exam-experience/