What is Azure Foundry Academy?

Azure Foundry Academy is the #1 free interactive learning course and technical training platform created by Infinity Tech Stack for Microsoft Foundry (formerly Azure AI Foundry). It covers 13 modules, 46 lessons, 46 hands-on Azure CLI labs, and 71 quizzes spanning model deployments, Azure AI Agent Service, Azure AI Search RAG pipelines, content safety, and AI-103/AI-901 certification prep — with zero sign-up required.

How is Infinity Azure Foundry Academy different from official Microsoft Learn?

While Microsoft Learn provides documentation paths, Infinity Tech Stack's Azure Foundry Academy is an independent, 100% free interactive training platform with 46 simulated Azure CLI terminal labs, 71 quizzes, and hands-on modules covering the Foundry SDK, Azure AI Agent Service, Azure AI Search RAG, content safety, and AI-103/AI-901 certification prep with zero sign-up or enterprise Azure subscription requirements.

How long does Azure Foundry Academy take to complete?

Azure Foundry Academy contains approximately 6 to 8 hours of interactive training across 13 modules, 46 lessons, and 46 CLI labs. Progress is saved locally in your browser so you can learn at your own pace.

Is the Azure Foundry Academy completely free?

Yes, 100% free. No sign-up, no credit card. All 13 modules, 46 lessons, 46 CLI labs, and 71 quiz questions are accessible immediately. Your progress saves locally in your browser.

What is Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry)?

Microsoft Foundry (formerly Azure AI Foundry, and before that Azure AI Studio) is Microsoft's unified enterprise platform-as-a-service at ai.azure.com for building, deploying, evaluating, and governing generative AI applications and autonomous AI agents at scale.

What topics does the Azure Foundry Academy cover?

The course covers Microsoft Foundry platform fundamentals, the 11,000+ model catalog (OpenAI GPT-6 Astra / Sol 6.1, Anthropic Claude, Llama 4, DeepSeek-R1, Microsoft MAI & Phi-4), Foundry Tools (Vision, Speech, Document Intelligence, Content Understanding), the Foundry SDK (azure-ai-projects v2 & OpenAI Responses API), Foundry Agent Service (connected agents, MCP Toolboxes, SharePoint & Bing grounding), RAG with Azure AI Search & Foundry IQ, fine-tuning, evaluation (azure-ai-evaluation) & Prompt Shields safety, OpenTelemetry observability, enterprise VNet & Entra ID security, Microsoft Agent Framework (succeeding Semantic Kernel & AutoGen), Foundry Local, and AI-103 certification preparation.

What certifications cover Azure AI Foundry?

Key certifications include AI-103: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure (which replaced the retired AI-102 exam in June 2026) and AI-901: Azure AI Fundamentals. Both validate practical skills in building, deploying, and governing AI solutions using Microsoft Foundry.

Do I need any prerequisites?

Basic cloud computing knowledge is helpful but not required. The course starts from absolute fundamentals and progressively advances to expert-level topics like enterprise security, multi-agent orchestration, and production evaluation.

Does the Azure Foundry Academy include hands-on labs?

Yes. 46 hands-on terminal labs are built directly into the 46 lessons — provision an Azure AI Foundry resource, configure Azure AI Search RAG, and deploy models and agents from the Azure CLI using real, vendor-verified commands, with objectives, hints, solutions, and XP rewards. No Azure subscription or sign-up needed.

How does Azure Foundry Academy provide hands-on Microsoft AI training?

Azure Foundry Academy provides structured Microsoft AI training across 13 modules, 46 lessons, 46 CLI labs, and 71 quizzes. Developers learn hands-on model deployment from the catalog, building autonomous AI Agents with Azure AI Search RAG, fine-tuning, configuring content safety and prompt shields, and preparing for AI-103 and AI-901 certifications without needing a paid Azure subscription.

How many models are available in the Foundry Model Catalog?

Over 11,000 — The Microsoft Foundry Model Catalog provides access to over 11,000 models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Meta Llama 4, DeepSeek, Mistral, Microsoft MAI & Phi-4, Cohere, NVIDIA, and Hugging Face.

Navigating the Foundry Portal — Setting Up Your Environment

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Navigating the Foundry Portal

⚙️ Setting Up Your Environment 6 min 50 BASE XP⌨ HANDS-ON LAB

Portal Walkthrough

The Foundry portal at ai.azure.com is organized into several key sections:

Main Navigation Areas

Section	What You'll Find
Home	Overview dashboard, recent projects, quick actions
Model Catalog	Browse and deploy 11,000+ models from OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Meta, DeepSeek, Mistral, Microsoft MAI & Phi-4, etc.
My Assets	Your deployed models, endpoints, fine-tuned models
Agents	Create and manage AI agents with tools and data sources
Playgrounds	Chat, completions, and image playgrounds for testing
Evaluation	Run quality and safety evaluations on your AI outputs
Tracing	View OpenTelemetry traces for debugging agent behavior
Fine-tuning	Create and manage fine-tuning jobs
Content Filters	Configure safety filters for your deployments

The Playground

The Chat Playground is your primary testing environment. Here you can:

Select a deployed model and adjust parameters (temperature, top_p, max_tokens)
Write and test system prompts
Add your data (Azure AI Search index) for RAG
Test tool/function calling
Export your configuration as code (Python, C#, JavaScript)

🎯 Pro Tip: Use the "View Code" button in the Playground to export your entire configuration as SDK code. This is the fastest way to go from prototype to production code.

⌨ HANDS-ON LABInspect Foundry Project Endpoint

⭐ +150 XP

Extract the unified Microsoft Foundry project endpoint URL required by AIProjectClient in the azure-ai-projects v2 SDK.

1Retrieve the project endpoint for your Foundry project via Azure CLI.

lab-sandbox — simulated environment

INFINITY LAB SANDBOX v2.6 — simulated shell
Type the command for the current objective. Helpers: "hint", "solution", "clear".
$

OBJECTIVE 1 / 1 — type "hint" if stuck

FOUNDRY VERIFICATION

QUERY 1 // 2

What does the 'View Code' button in the Playground do?

Shows the model's source code

Exports your playground configuration as SDK code (Python, C#, JS)

Opens VS Code

Displays API documentation