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CAN YOU PROVIDE SOME RESOURCES OR TUTORIALS FOR BEGINNERS TO LEARN AZURE CAPSTONE PROJECTS?

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Microsoft Azure provides a wide range of cloud services that you can use to build real-world applications. When you are just starting out with Azure, it’s a good idea to take on capstone projects that allow you to gain hands-on experience with the platform. This will help reinforce your learning and prepare you to work on more advanced Azure projects.

Some good capstone project ideas for Azure beginners include:

Create a basic web application – This is a common first project that introduces key Azure services like Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure Blob Storage, etc. You’ll deploy a simple website that interacts with a database and stores files. Microsoft has tutorials for building websites using ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, etc.

Build a cloud-hosted REST API – APIs are the foundation of modern applications. You can develop a RESTful web API using Azure Functions, ASP.NET Web API, or another framework and deploy it to App Service. Include features like authentication, data access with Cosmos DB, etc.

Develop a serverless mobile backend – Use Azure Functions and other serverless compute services like Logic Apps as a backend for a simple mobile app. Consume APIs, store data in storage accounts or Cosmos DB, send push notifications with Notification Hubs, etc.

Implement cloud infrastructure automation – Learn to deploy and manage your Azure resources using infrastructure as code tools like Azure Resource Manager templates, Terraform, or Bicep. Automatically deploy virtual machines, web apps, databases and other services.

Build an image or file processing pipeline – Use Azure services like Blob Storage, Data Factory, Functions and Cognitive Services to implement a file upload workflow that processes images/files, extracts metadata, applies AI/ML models, and more.

Create an IoT solution – Build a basic IoT prototype that collects sensor data from simulated or real devices into IoT Hub, analyzes it using Stream Analytics, and visualizes metrics with Power BI.

Configure a highly available web application – Implement load balancing, auto-scaling, failover, and other high availability features for a web app using Azure App Service, Traffic Manager, and monitor it with Azure Monitor.

Here are some detailed tutorials and courses to help you successfully complete Azure capstone projects:

Microsoft Learn Modules – Microsoft’s official self-paced learning platform has excellent beginner modules on topics like “Build your first Azure app”, “Work with Azure Storage”, “Implement web apps on Azure”, etc.

Azure Documentation – The documentation includes dozens of step-by-step tutorials on Azure services, with detailed guidance on everything from account setup to building full solutions.

Cloud Skills Challenge – A beginner-friendly hands-on labs from Microsoft that teach core Azure skills through guided scenarios and projects. The “Azure Developer Fundamentals” pathway is very useful.

A Cloud Guru (a.k.a Linux Academy) – Paid courses from this top cloud training provider that teach Azure fundamentals and then guide learners through implementing solutions using common services.

CognoSphere Azure Tutorials – Free video tutorials that walk through building end-to-end cloud apps using Blazor, React, Python, Java and more on Azure. Great for visual learners.

Udemy – Many affordable and highly-rated project-based courses to learn Azure development, DevOps, AI/ML, serverless computing and more through guided tutorials.

edX Microsoft Azure Courses – Free courses from Microsoft on edX platform that range from introductory to advanced levels, from single services to fully-featured applications. Requires verification for certificates.

YouTube Azure Channels – YouTubers like Cloud Concepts, Kevin Williamson, Scott Hanselman, etc. provide project tutorials, code reviews and other guidance for Azure.

When taking on an Azure capstone project, be sure to thoroughly research documentation, ask questions on forums, and carefully plan each step. Break projects into small, well-defined tasks and celebrate incremental wins. Completing even simple capstone projects will accelerate your learning and give you confidence to tackle larger projects. With practice, it gets much easier to design and deploy solutions on the Azure cloud platform.

CAN YOU RECOMMEND ANY RESOURCES OR TUTORIALS FOR LEARNING ADVANCED EXCEL SKILLS?

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Free Online Excel Tutorials from ExcelIsFun:

The ExcelIsFun YouTube channel contains hundreds of free Excel video tutorials that cover a wide range of advanced topics. The videos are clear, well-explained, and help you learn by actually working through examples. Some advanced topics covered include VBA, PivotTables, Power Query, Dashboarding, financial modeling techniques and more. Having both a video and written component help reinforce the lessons. The channel has been teaching Excel skills to hundreds of thousands of users for over a decade so it’s a very reliable resource.

In addition to the videos, the ExcelIsFun website at excelisfun.com contains free written tutorials and downloadable Excel workbooks for many of the topics covered in the videos. Being able to read explanations and follow along in your own workbook is extremely valuable for learning complex functions and techniques.

LinkedIn Learning Excel Courses:

Previously known as Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of video tutorials taught by industry experts on a wide variety of software and business topics. They have several in-depth courses focused exclusively on Excel that are well worth the reasonable subscription cost. Courses like “Excel Skills for Business” and “Excel Data Analysis” delve into advanced functions, formulas, charts, automation through VBA and data modeling techniques.

Since the platform is focused on professional and career development, the courses teach practical skills that you can directly apply on the job. Unlike many free resources, there is no filler – every lesson is focused on helping you master valuable Excel topics. The videos can also be sped up to 1.5x or 2x speeds to efficiently learn complex skills.

Udemy Excel Courses:

Udemy has hundreds of Excel courses available on every topic imaginable. While many are quite basic, they do offer some in-depth courses taught by experts that focus exclusively on advanced features. Courses like “Advanced Excel” by Justin Bishop and “Financial Modeling in Excel” by Wall Street Prep both run 10+ hours and teach Skills like Power Pivot, Power Query, macros, financial functions and more in great detail with real-world examples.

What makes Udemy courses valuable is that they are more structured learning experiences compared to random YouTube videos. Every course has hours of high-definition video lessons, downloadable course files and instructors that are available to provide assistance. While courses sometimes cost $10-200, they are often discounted to $10-20 during frequent sales, providing excellent value for the hours of learning.

Excel Exposure – Website and Blog:

Run by working professional Joel Lee, Excel Exposure is a great free resource for advanced Excel topics. The blog contains hundreds of in-depth written tutorials on functions, automation, reporting and analysis techniques. It cuts through the filler to focus only on practical skills.

What sets Excel Exposure apart is that Joel also provides the step-by-step workbook examples that accompany each tutorial. This is extremely valuable for learning complex functions and formulas – you can’t just read about them, you need to try them out in your own files. The ability to download and follow along with the working samples makes it easy to absorb advanced Excel skills.

Coursera Excel Courses:

Coursera partners with top universities to offer online courses on just about any topic. They have some wonderful advanced Excel courses available absolutely free for audit as well as for a small fee if you need a verified certificate of completion.

Classes like “Data Analysis with Excel” from the University of Toronto are extremely comprehensive – taking dozens of hours to walk through cases studies, functions and formulas to perform powerful data analysis and visualization. Since the courses come from reputed institutions, you know the material and skills are very applicable in professional settings.

By leveraging free resources like ExcelIsFun YouTube tutorials, Excel Exposure tutorials and blogs, and Udemy’s frequent low-cost advanced Excel courses, anyone can learn best practices for automation, visualization, analysis and all the most useful advanced Excel skills from experienced instructors. Moving between video, written and hands-on workbook examples makes complex topics easy to understand and apply in your own work. I hope these resources provide a great starting point for your Excel learning journey!