Home/Learn/Windows & Microsoft 365 Administrator/30-day plan
30-day lab plan · 🪟 Windows & Microsoft 365 Administrator

Become job-ready as awindows & microsoft 365 administrator in 30 days.

One focused task a day, four weeks, ending with a portfolio and a mock interview. Built for students and engineers in India who learn by doing — about 2 hours a day on weekdays, a little more on weekends.

What you needInterview questions →Role path →
Your kit

Set up before day 1

Windows Server 2022 eval (2 VMs), Windows 11 client, a free Microsoft 365 developer/trial tenant, and our password/DNS tools. Everything here is free or has a free tier; a laptop with 16 GB RAM is enough for most labs (32 GB for nested clusters).

  • Daily ruleFinish the task, write 5 lines of notes, commit to Git. Notes become your interview stories.
  • Weekend ruleDay 7 of each week is a review: redo the hardest task from memory.
  • Stuck rule30 minutes max, then ask in a community or our engineer network.
Week 1

AD foundations

  1. Day 1Install Windows Server; promote to DC; DNS/DHCP roles
  2. Day 2Create OUs, users, groups; delegate control
  3. Day 3GPOs: password policy, drive maps, desktop lockdown; gpresult
  4. Day 4Join Windows 11 client; test logon scripts
  5. Day 5Second DC; replication health (repadmin, dcdiag)
  6. Day 6File server with NTFS/share permissions and ABE
  7. Day 7Review: AD design document for a 100-user company
Week 2

Services

  1. Day 8Print server and deployed printers via GPO
  2. Day 9DFS namespace + replication
  3. Day 10Windows Server Backup: system state backup and object restore (AD Recycle Bin)
  4. Day 11WSUS: approve updates to a test group
  5. Day 12Certificate Services: internal CA and auto-enrolment
  6. Day 13Hyper-V role: create a VM; checkpoint and export
  7. Day 14Review: runbooks for each service
Week 3

Cloud & security

  1. Day 15Entra Connect: sync lab AD to the M365 tenant
  2. Day 16MFA + conditional access policies; test from client
  3. Day 17Intune: enrol the client; compliance and BitLocker policy
  4. Day 18Exchange Online: mail flow rules; check SPF/DKIM/DMARC with our tool
  5. Day 19Defender for Endpoint onboarding (trial)
  6. Day 20LAPS + tiered admin model in lab
  7. Day 21Review: M365 security baseline doc
Week 4

Automation & portfolio

  1. Day 22PowerShell: bulk users from CSV, reports (last logon, stale computers)
  2. Day 23PowerShell DSC or Intune scripts for config
  3. Day 24Migration lab: file server → SharePoint with Migration Manager
  4. Day 25Troubleshooting day: slow logon, lockouts, GPO not applying
  5. Day 26Write a Windows Server 2012 → 2022 migration plan
  6. Day 27Mock interview with our question bank
  7. Day 28Publish scripts (sanitised) on GitHub; update resume
After day 30

What you will have

  • A portfolio repoDiagrams, configs, scripts and runbooks a hiring manager can read in five minutes.
  • Interview storiesReal faults you fixed — the answers to “tell me about a time…”.
  • A certification targetSee the role path for which exam to book next.
  • A place in our networkFinish the plan, share the repo, and apply — we mentor and place engineers who complete it.

Finished the plan? Show us.

Share your repo and notes; completed plans get a technical conversation with our architects and first paid tasks through the engineer network.

Apply to the networkPractice interview questions