What does the MS-700 exam cover?
The MS-700 exam tests the skills required to plan, deploy, configure, and manage Microsoft Teams environments in an enterprise setting. Topics include Teams governance and lifecycle management, telephony and voice configuration, meetings and live events, security and compliance, and integration with Microsoft 365 services. The exam assumes 1-2 years of experience administering Teams in a medium to large organization.
The Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate credential, earned by passing the MS-700 exam, validates expertise in managing Microsoft Teams -- the collaboration platform that has become the operational center of Microsoft 365 for millions of organizations worldwide. Since Teams overtook Slack in daily active users in 2020 and surpassed 300 million monthly active users by 2023, demand for certified Teams administrators has grown substantially.
Teams administration is more complex than it appears from the user perspective. Behind a video call lies a layer of telephony configuration, network planning, security policies, governance rules, and identity management that falls squarely in the administrator's domain. The MS-700 validates command of this entire layer -- from dial plan configuration and call queue routing to retention policies and sensitivity label integration.
Teams administration roles are consistently listed in the top 20 most in-demand Microsoft 365 positions. Organizations that have standardized on Teams for meetings, voice communication, and collaboration need administrators who can manage the platform proactively, diagnose issues systematically, and deploy new capabilities without disrupting the workforce.
MS-700 Exam Overview
The MS-700 exam contains 40-60 questions with 180 minutes allowed. The passing score is 700 out of 1000. The exam includes multiple choice, multiple select, drag-and-drop, and case study questions. Performance-based lab simulations may appear, requiring task completion in a simulated Teams admin center or PowerShell environment.
| Domain | Approximate Weight |
|---|---|
| Plan and configure a Microsoft Teams environment | 45-50% |
| Manage chat, calling, and meetings | 20-25% |
| Manage Teams and app policies | 20-25% |
| Monitor and troubleshoot a Teams environment | 5-10% |
Microsoft updates exam objectives periodically. Verify current content at learn.microsoft.com/certifications/teams-administrator before scheduling.
The breadth of this exam is significant. Teams administration spans identity management through Entra ID, network assessment for media quality, telephony configuration through Calling Plans and Direct Routing, compliance through Microsoft Purview, and device management through Teams devices admin center. Candidates need working experience across all of these areas.
Domain 1: Plan and Configure a Teams Environment (45-50%)
Network Planning for Teams
Teams is a real-time communication platform and its performance is fundamentally constrained by network quality. The MS-700 exam tests network planning knowledge extensively.
Network Assessment Tool (Microsoft Teams Network Assessment Tool) measures network conditions including packet loss, latency, and jitter from a specific location to Microsoft's relay servers. Results inform whether a location can support high-quality Teams calls before deployment.
Bandwidth requirements: Microsoft publishes specific bandwidth recommendations per modality:
| Teams Modality | Minimum Bandwidth | Recommended Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| Audio (1:1 call) | 30 Kbps up/down | 100 Kbps up/down |
| HD video (1:1) | 1 Mbps up/down | 4 Mbps up/down |
| Screen sharing | 200 Kbps up/down | 1.5 Mbps up/down |
| Large meetings | 2.5 Mbps up/down | 4 Mbps up/down |
Quality of Service (QoS) configuration marks Teams media traffic with DSCP values to prioritize it over non-real-time traffic on corporate networks. The exam tests DSCP marking values for audio (46, Expedited Forwarding), video (34, Assured Forwarding), and application sharing (18).
Split tunneling for VPN is the recommended configuration for remote users accessing Teams. Forcing Teams media traffic through a VPN concentrator adds latency and introduces packet loss. Microsoft's documented approach involves excluding Teams media endpoints from VPN tunneling while routing other corporate traffic normally.
Teams Governance and Lifecycle
Teams policies control what features users can access. Administrators assign policies to users or groups. Key policy types:
- Teams policy: Controls whether users can create teams, add private channels, and use certain features
- Messaging policy: Controls features like read receipts, URL previews, message translation, and immersive reader
- Meeting policy: Controls meeting capabilities including who can present, recording permissions, lobby bypass, and Together Mode availability
- App permission policy: Controls which apps users can install
- App setup policy: Pins apps to the Teams navigation bar for specific user groups
Microsoft 365 Groups lifecycle underpins Teams lifecycle management. Every team is backed by a Microsoft 365 Group. Administrators can:
- Set group expiration policies (teams with no activity for a defined period are flagged for deletion with owner notification)
- Configure naming policies (apply prefixes/suffixes or block specific words in team names)
- Set group creation restrictions (limit who can create teams to prevent Teams sprawl)
"Teams governance is where most organizations fall short. The initial rollout creates hundreds of teams, channels go stale, and nobody owns cleanup. A governance model defined before rollout -- naming conventions, lifecycle policies, channel standards -- prevents a six-month cleanup project eighteen months later." -- Loryan Strant, Microsoft MVP and Teams specialist, from the Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2023
External Access and Guest Access
External access (federation) allows Teams users to find, call, and chat with users in other organizations. It can be configured to allow all external domains, specific allowed domains only, or no external organizations.
Guest access allows individuals outside the organization to join teams and channels as guests. Guests must have an email address (any email provider if Azure B2B collaboration is enabled) and are managed separately from member users. The MS-700 tests granular guest permission settings -- whether guests can see team members, use video in meetings, and share files.
Telephony Configuration
Telephony is one of the most technically dense areas of the MS-700 and one of the most differentiated skills for Teams administrators.
Microsoft Calling Plans provide PSTN connectivity directly from Microsoft without any on-premises telephony infrastructure. Available in most countries but not universally.
Operator Connect allows Microsoft-certified telephony providers to provision phone numbers directly into Teams through a marketplace portal, without the configuration complexity of Direct Routing.
Direct Routing connects Teams to a Session Border Controller (SBC) which connects to a third-party PSTN provider. This approach is preferred when organizations have existing telephony contracts, need to serve countries without Calling Plans, or require complex call routing scenarios.
Dial plans normalize dialed numbers into E.164 format. An organization in the United States might create normalization rules that convert 7-digit local numbers (e.g., 8675309) to full E.164 format (+18005551234). Administrators configure dial plans as tenant dial plans (applied globally) or user dial plans (applied to specific users).
Call queues distribute incoming calls to a group of agents with configurable overflow and timeout actions. Auto attendants provide phone menus that route callers based on keypad input or speech recognition. The exam tests configuration of both, including business hours schedules, holiday sets, and after-hours routing.
"Direct Routing is where Teams telephony candidates most often struggle. It requires understanding SIP, TLS, and media paths -- networking concepts that many Microsoft 365 administrators have not needed before. Budget extra study time for the telephony domains." -- Tom Arbuthnot, Microsoft MVP and co-founder of Symity, from the UC Today podcast
Domain 2: Manage Chat, Calling, and Meetings (20-25%)
Meeting Configuration
Meeting settings (tenant-wide) control how meetings function globally. Meeting policies (per-user) control what individual users or groups can do in meetings.
Critical meeting policy settings tested on the exam:
- Who can present: Everyone, everyone in organization, specific people, organizer only
- Automatically admit people: Who can bypass the lobby (everyone, everyone in organization, invited users only, organizer only)
- Allow recording: Whether meeting organizers and participants can record
- Allow cloud recording: Where recordings are stored (OneDrive for the recorder, SharePoint for channel meetings)
- Allow transcription: Real-time transcription during meetings
- Meeting expiration: How long meeting recordings are retained before expiration
Live events in Teams support large broadcasts (up to 20,000 attendees for Teams live events, up to 100,000 for Teams Town Hall). The exam distinguishes between Teams meetings (interactive, up to 1,000), Town Hall (one-to-many, up to 10,000), and Webinar (structured with registration, up to 1,000).
Voice Policies
Emergency calling policies configure dynamic emergency services location, required for compliance in many jurisdictions. The exam covers E911 configuration including emergency call routing, emergency call notifications to security desk, and location-based routing.
Caller ID policies control what phone number is displayed when users make outgoing PSTN calls -- their direct number, a service number, or a blocked caller ID.
Domain 3: Manage Teams and App Policies (20-25%)
App Management
The Teams app store contains thousands of first-party Microsoft apps, third-party commercial apps, and line-of-business custom apps. Administrators manage this through three policy layers:
- App permission policies: Allow, block, or restrict which apps users can install
- App setup policies: Pin specific apps to the Teams navigation bar, install apps silently on behalf of users
- Custom app policies: Control whether users can upload custom/developer apps to Teams
The exam tests the organizational app permission flow: an app must be allowed at the tenant level (managed by IT) and then allowed by the user's permission policy before it appears in the user's app store.
Teams Device Management
Teams device management in the Teams admin center covers IP phones, Teams Rooms devices, panels, and displays. The exam covers:
- Enrolling devices and assigning device configuration profiles
- Updating firmware and Teams app versions on managed devices
- Monitoring device health and call quality from Teams devices
- Teams Rooms configuration for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows and Android
Domain 4: Monitor and Troubleshoot (5-10%)
Call Quality Dashboard
Call Quality Dashboard (CQD) at cqd.teams.microsoft.com provides organization-wide call quality analytics. The exam tests understanding of:
- Building data upload (maps subnets to building names and locations for location-based reporting)
- Key metrics: poor stream ratio, setup failure rate, call drop rate
- Report types: summary, location-enhanced, user-level
Teams Call Analytics (per-user) in the Teams admin center provides individual call records with quality metrics for specific users, useful for diagnosing individual user call quality complaints.
Troubleshooting Frameworks
The MS-700 tests systematic troubleshooting approaches:
- Teams sign-in issues: Verify user license assignment, confirm Entra ID authentication, check conditional access policies
- Audio/video quality issues: Review CQD data, run network assessment, check QoS configuration
- Meeting access issues: Review meeting policy for the organizer, check lobby settings, verify guest access configuration
- Telephony issues: Verify phone number assignment, check dial plan normalization, review voice routing policy
| Tool | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Call Quality Dashboard | Aggregate quality trends |
| Call Analytics | Individual user call investigation |
| Network Assessment Tool | Pre-deployment network validation |
| Teams admin center | Policy and configuration management |
| Microsoft 365 admin center | License and user management |
Preparation Resources and Strategy
Microsoft Learn Path
The official MS-700 learning path on learn.microsoft.com covers all exam objectives with structured modules and interactive exercises. The path requires approximately 15-20 hours to complete. Teams administrators with active experience in a production environment often find they can move quickly through familiar sections and focus study time on gaps.
Lab Environment Recommendations
An active Microsoft 365 developer tenant (available free through the Microsoft 365 Developer Program) provides a lab environment for practicing Teams administration without risk to production systems. The developer tenant includes 25 E5 licenses for lab users, Teams Phone add-on eligibility, and the ability to configure most Teams admin settings.
Exam Day Preparation
Teams administration knowledge degrades quickly without active use. Candidates who study for MS-700 but do not administer Teams daily should schedule the exam within 2-4 weeks of completing preparation to keep knowledge fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the MS-700 exam cover?
The MS-700 exam tests the skills required to plan, deploy, configure, and manage Microsoft Teams environments in an enterprise setting. Topics include Teams governance and lifecycle management, telephony and voice configuration, meetings and live events, security and compliance, and integration with Microsoft 365 services. The exam assumes 1-2 years of experience administering Teams in a medium to large organization.
Is the MS-700 harder than the MS-900?
Yes, significantly. The MS-900 tests basic conceptual awareness of Microsoft 365 services. The MS-700 tests hands-on administrative expertise with Microsoft Teams, including complex telephony configuration, network planning, policy management, and troubleshooting. Most MS-700 candidates need 60-100 hours of focused preparation.
Do I need telephony experience to pass MS-700?
Not prior telephony experience, but you need to learn the Teams telephony model thoroughly. The exam covers Direct Routing, Calling Plans, Operator Connect, dial plans, auto attendants, and call queues in sufficient depth that a complete telephony novice will struggle. Dedicating extra study time to the telephony sections is essential for candidates without voice over IP backgrounds.
References
- Microsoft. "Exam MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams." Microsoft Learn, 2024.
- Microsoft. "Microsoft Teams Administrator Certification." Microsoft Learn, 2024.
- Microsoft. "Plan for Microsoft Teams." Microsoft Teams documentation, 2024.
- Strant, Loryan. "Microsoft Teams Governance Best Practices." Microsoft 365 Community Conference, 2023.
- Arbuthnot, Tom. "Teams Direct Routing Fundamentals." UC Today podcast, 2024.
- Microsoft. "Call Quality Dashboard Documentation." Microsoft Teams documentation, 2024.
- Microsoft. "Network readiness for Microsoft Teams." Microsoft Teams technical documentation, 2024.