70-342 Exam Guide: Advanced Exchange Server 2013 Preparation and Credential Decisions
Exam 70-342, Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, was intended for professionals experienced with Exchange Server 2013 and formed part of the older MCSE: Messaging path alongside 70-341. Its subject matter centers on designing, deploying, administering, and troubleshooting advanced Exchange environments. This guide helps you make the important decision first: whether researching this legacy exam is appropriate for your credential goal, or whether you should pursue a current Microsoft role-based alternative while using the Exchange 2013 documentation for targeted technical study.
What did 70-342 validate?
70-342 validated advanced knowledge of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 rather than beginner familiarity with email administration. Microsoft described it as “Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013” and presented it for people experienced with Exchange Server 2013. The exam was discussed with 70-341 as part of the MCSE: Messaging certification requirements at the time of the Microsoft preparation session.
The supplied Microsoft material does not include a current exam detail page, official skills-measured document, question count, scoring method, exam duration, language list, or delivery format for 70-342. Do not treat figures published on third-party pages as verified Microsoft requirements. The practical focus should instead be reconstructed from Microsoft’s Exchange 2013 product documentation and the historical exam context.
The historical certification role
Microsoft’s 2015 exam-preparation session stated that 70-341 and 70-342 were required for the MCSE: Messaging certification at that time. A later Microsoft mapping article associated 70-342 with the Messaging Administrator role-based certification path requiring MS-200 and MS-201. That mapping is useful for understanding the exam’s place in Microsoft’s former program, but it is not a current 70-342 registration instruction.
Microsoft’s credential policies also distinguish old and current credential models. The expiration policy states that MTA, MCSA, MCSD, and MCSE Certifications do not expire, while Microsoft role-based and specialty Certifications are valid for one (1) year from the date all requirements are completed. Therefore, identify the exact credential on your transcript before assuming that an old Exchange exam has the same renewal treatment as a current role-based certification.
Who should consider studying this exam?
The strongest fit is an administrator, consultant, or infrastructure professional who already understands Exchange Server 2013 and needs to organize that knowledge around advanced deployment and operations decisions. Microsoft’s own preparation session was aimed at candidates experienced with the product, not people encountering Exchange for the first time.
Exchange 2013 documentation covers planning, deployment, messaging policy, compliance, mail flow, recipients, collaboration, address books, clients and mobile access, Unified Messaging, transport roles, high availability, site resilience, server health, performance, and PowerShell. A candidate who has only clicked through the Exchange admin center will need broader preparation than someone who has planned Active Directory integration, deployed servers, diagnosed mail flow, and managed resilient services.
A useful readiness test
Before committing to an exam attempt, explain the reason for each major deployment step without copying a checklist. You should be able to connect system requirements and prerequisites to Active Directory preparation, installation choices, post-installation work, permissions, mail flow, and service resilience.
You should also be able to move between administrative interfaces. Exchange 2013 documentation includes the Exchange admin center and the Exchange Management Shell, so preparation should include both graphical configuration and PowerShell reasoning. If you cannot predict which configuration area or command family would be relevant to a scenario, begin with foundational lab work rather than memorization.
What skills should your study plan cover?
The supplied sources do not provide an official 70-342 blueprint or percentage weighting. The safest study plan uses Exchange Server 2013’s documented top-level areas as working domains, labels them as preparation categories, and avoids presenting them as official exam weights. Your objective is to understand how design, implementation, security, mail flow, availability, and operations affect one another.
Use the following categories to build a study matrix. Mark each topic as unfamiliar, understood in theory, practiced in a lab, or explainable under a scenario. That last category matters because advanced administration questions generally require choosing an appropriate design or troubleshooting action, not merely recognizing a product term.
Planning, prerequisites, and deployment
Start with the documented deployment sequence: review system requirements, establish prerequisites, prepare Active Directory and domains, install Exchange, and complete post-installation tasks. Microsoft also points readers to release notes before deployment and describes the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant as a tool that creates a customized deployment checklist from answers about an environment.
Study the dependencies rather than treating installation as an isolated wizard exercise. Write down what must be prepared before setup, what changes setup makes, and which post-installation checks confirm that the environment is ready for administration. Practice comparing a clean installation plan with a change plan for an existing organization.
Messaging, policy, and compliance
Exchange 2013 documentation identifies messaging policy and compliance, anti-spam and anti-malware protection, mail flow, recipients, email addresses, address books, and sharing as separate areas. Prepare by tracing a message from sender to recipient and identifying where policy, transport, recipient configuration, and protection controls can change the result.
Build scenario notes around intent: enforce a policy, protect a boundary, control delivery, manage recipient data, or expose address information. For each scenario, record the administrative surface involved, the expected effect, and a way to verify the result. This prevents the common mistake of learning isolated features without understanding their operational purpose.
Client access and communications services
The Exchange 2013 documentation set includes clients and mobile, Unified Messaging, Mailbox and Client Access servers, and Edge Transport servers. Treat these as service relationships. A client-access problem may involve authentication, namespace planning, connectivity, certificates, server roles, or service health rather than a mailbox setting alone.
Use a diagram showing users, clients, access services, transport boundaries, mailbox services, and external dependencies. Then annotate what should happen when one component is unavailable. This exercise exposes gaps that a feature-by-feature reading often hides, especially when a question combines user experience with server architecture.
High availability, site resilience, and operations
High availability and site resilience are explicit top-level Exchange 2013 documentation areas, as are server health and performance. Study the difference between keeping a service available inside a site and designing for a site-level failure. Connect each design choice to failure detection, workload placement, recovery objectives, and administrative validation.
Do not reduce resilience preparation to terminology cards. Draw a failure scenario, state which service or data path is affected, identify the expected surviving components, and list the evidence you would collect before changing configuration. Add performance signals and health checks to the exercise so that troubleshooting begins with diagnosis rather than guesswork.
PowerShell and administrative control
Microsoft’s Exchange 2013 help includes guidance for using PowerShell through the Exchange Management Shell. Include PowerShell in every major study domain: deployment, recipient administration, mail flow, permissions, health, and recovery. The goal is not to memorize arbitrary syntax but to understand what can be configured, queried, tested, and verified through the shell.
For each lab task, perform it through the interface you are studying, then find the corresponding administrative command or query. Record the object being changed, the scope of the change, the expected output, and a safe rollback or validation step. This creates operational understanding without relying on leaked or purported exam questions.
How should you prepare with the official documentation?
Use the Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 help as the organizing source, not as a book to read from the first page to the last. Begin with planning and deployment, then follow the operational path into permissions, messaging, mail flow, recipients, client access, transport, availability, and health. The technical articles provide a second layer for administration and troubleshooting context.
Keep a decision log while reading. Each entry should answer four questions: what problem does this feature solve, what prerequisite does it have, what could go wrong, and how would an administrator verify the outcome? This approach turns documentation into scenario practice and gives you material for targeted review.
Build a dependency map before taking notes
Create one page for the environment and separate pages for identity, servers, namespaces, transport, recipients, clients, and resilience. Add arrows for dependencies and mark the control plane used to administer each area. When documentation introduces a prerequisite, place it before the feature that depends on it.
This map is more useful than a glossary because it helps answer “what must be true first?” questions. It also highlights where a change can have multiple effects, such as a permission, namespace, transport, or availability decision that influences users and administrators in different ways.
Turn documentation into verification tasks
Every reading session should end with a task you can perform or explain. Examples include producing a deployment checklist from an environment description, checking the assumptions behind Active Directory preparation, tracing a mail-flow decision, documenting a mobile-client dependency, or proposing validation steps after a high-availability change.
Avoid copying Microsoft text into notes without adding your own test. A useful note says what you would observe if the configuration were correct and what evidence would distinguish a configuration error from a service-health problem.
Use the technical articles selectively
Microsoft describes its Exchange Server 2013 technical articles as resources that can help manage an Exchange 2013 environment. Use them when a topic in the main help content raises an operational question, particularly around management, troubleshooting, or implementation detail.
Do not let supplementary reading replace the core architecture. First identify the product area and dependency in the main documentation, then consult a technical article to deepen one concrete task. This sequence keeps study time connected to the exam’s advanced-solution orientation.
What practical lab work adds to preparation
A lab is valuable because Exchange decisions are connected: identity preparation affects deployment, deployment affects administration, and service configuration affects mail flow, client access, and resilience. The supplied sources do not promise that the exam uses a lab or simulation, so use lab work as preparation for reasoning, not as evidence about the exam interface.
Keep the environment small enough to reset and document. The lab should let you inspect configuration, make a controlled change, test an expected outcome, and review the resulting health or logs. If a full environment is unavailable, use architecture diagrams, command examples from Microsoft documentation, and written troubleshooting exercises rather than pretending that unperformed work is experience.
Lab sequence for a first pass
Start with the documented deployment order and write the prerequisites before attempting installation. After deployment, record the administrative endpoints, permissions assumptions, server roles, and basic health checks. Add one recipient and one mail-flow path, then test how a policy or transport decision changes the path.
Next, model client and mobile access, external transport, and a failure condition. Finish with a PowerShell review: query the configuration, identify the object changed by each task, and write the validation command or observation you would use after a change.
Lab records that improve recall
For every exercise, save five items: the initial condition, the intended change, the command or interface used, the observed result, and the diagnosis if the result differed. Include the reason for the change in one sentence.
This record creates retrieval practice. Later, close the documentation and reconstruct the sequence from the problem statement. Reopen the source only to check a disputed dependency or technical detail. That is more reliable than repeatedly rereading pages that feel familiar.
Which study mistakes create false confidence?
The most serious mistake is preparing for a legacy exam without first checking whether it can still be scheduled and whether it serves your current credential objective. Microsoft’s retirement policy says that retired exams cannot be taken and the associated credential cannot be earned after the retirement date. Check Microsoft’s current retirement and certification pages before paying for preparation or making a schedule.
A second mistake is confusing historical mapping with current certification availability. Microsoft’s mapping article associated 70-342 with Messaging Administrator and MS-200/MS-201, but that article was published as part of the move to role-based certifications. Treat it as historical orientation, then verify the current path separately.
Avoid memorization without administration logic
Memorizing feature names, menu locations, or purported answers does not establish that you can select a safe design or diagnose a failure. Dumps and leaked-question claims are not a substitute for product knowledge, and memorization cannot guarantee a passing result.
Replace recognition drills with explain-and-verify drills. Given a requirement, state the design, prerequisites, configuration surface, expected behavior, and validation method. If you cannot justify one of those steps, add it to the review queue.
Do not study every topic at equal depth
The documentation contains a wide Exchange 2013 surface, but your role and previous experience should determine where to spend time. A deployment specialist may need deeper work on prerequisites and Active Directory; a messaging administrator may need more practice with policy, transport, recipients, and client access; an operations professional may need stronger resilience, health, performance, and troubleshooting work.
Because no official domain percentages are supplied here, do not invent a weighting-based schedule. Use an evidence-based gap score instead: unfamiliar, theoretical, practiced, or explainable. Revisit topics that remain theoretical even if they appear easy during reading.
Do not rely on stale setup assumptions
Exchange 2013 documentation includes release notes, system requirements, prerequisites, and updates. Legacy product material can contain assumptions that no longer match a current organization. If your goal is a modern job role, separate historical product study from current platform expectations and confirm the present certification route before presenting the old exam as a career target.
This distinction does not make Exchange 2013 study useless. It tells you how to describe it accurately: as preparation for a historical Microsoft technology exam or as background for maintaining and understanding an older Exchange environment, not automatically as a current credential recommendation.
A practical four-stage roadmap
Use a staged plan that ends with a readiness decision rather than an automatic booking. First confirm the exam and credential status on Microsoft Learn. Then establish Exchange 2013 foundations, practice integrated scenarios, and perform a final evidence-based review. The roadmap below is a study structure, not an official Microsoft schedule.
Adjust the stage length to your experience and lab access. A candidate with production Exchange administration experience can move quickly through terminology and spend more time on unfamiliar architecture. A candidate with limited hands-on work should extend the foundation and lab stages before attempting timed practice.
Stage 1: Confirm the target and baseline
Check Microsoft’s exam-retirement information, credential-retirement information, and your Microsoft Learn transcript. Confirm what you are trying to earn, whether 70-342 is still an actionable route, and whether an existing credential has a different expiration or retirement status.
Then complete a baseline assessment without third-party answer banks. List the Exchange 2013 areas you can explain, the areas you have administered, and the areas you have only read about. Mark dependencies that you cannot yet connect. The result should be a prioritized backlog, not a guessed score.
Stage 2: Establish the Exchange 2013 foundation
Work through planning and deployment in the sequence Microsoft provides: requirements, prerequisites, Active Directory and domain preparation, installation, and post-installation tasks. Add permissions and the basic administrative surfaces. Your output should be a deployment and validation checklist written in your own words.
Next, cover recipients, address books, mail flow, messaging policy, protection, and client access. For each area, write one normal-operation scenario and one failure scenario. Use the product documentation to verify terminology and dependencies rather than relying on a generic Exchange summary.
Stage 3: Integrate advanced scenarios
Combine domains in architecture exercises. For example, start with a deployment requirement, add a mail-flow or compliance requirement, introduce a client-access dependency, and then impose a server or site failure. Explain the order of decisions and the checks that would confirm each result.
Use PowerShell as the second expression of the same solution. Query the relevant objects, identify the scope of a change, and document how you would avoid an unnecessarily broad modification. The purpose is to develop controlled administration and troubleshooting habits.
Stage 4: Decide whether you are ready
You are ready to make a scheduling decision when you can explain the documented Exchange 2013 domains as connected systems, complete representative lab tasks, and diagnose unexpected outcomes using evidence. You should also know which topics remain uncertain and have a plan to resolve them from Microsoft sources.
Before scheduling, revisit the official status information. Microsoft says retirement information can change and recommends taking a retiring exam before its retirement date if you are preparing for it. If the exam is no longer available or does not support your present goal, redirect the effort to the current role-based path rather than forcing a legacy booking.
What are the scheduling and credential risks?
The supplied official research does not verify a current registration route, testing center or online delivery option, appointment availability, price, duration, question count, passing score, or language availability for 70-342. Those details should not be inferred from the historical Microsoft video or from a third-party exam page. Use Microsoft Learn’s current certification and retirement information for any live scheduling decision.
Retirement affects both planning and interpretation of an existing achievement. Microsoft states that after retirement candidates cannot take the exam or earn the associated credential, while an already-earned certification remains on the learner’s transcript. The exact transcript treatment can also depend on expiration policy, so review the policy that applies to your credential rather than assuming every historical certification behaves identically.
How to handle the old-to-new pathway
Microsoft’s 2019 mapping associated 70-342 with Messaging Administrator and MS-200/MS-201. The separate transition-exam article explains the general move from 70-xxx exams to role-based certifications, but its listed Exchange transition example concerns 70-345 and MS-202, not 70-342. Do not infer that a historical 70-342 holder automatically qualifies for a current certification or transition exam.
Use the mapping as a research lead only. Open the current Microsoft certification page, check prerequisites and required exams there, and compare the role’s measured skills with your intended work. This prevents a common planning error: investing in an obsolete exam because an old mapping table still appears in search results.
How to describe the credential accurately
If you earned the certification before retirement, describe the exact certification and exam history shown on your Microsoft Learn transcript. Microsoft’s retirement guidance says an earned certification remains on the transcript, while its credential-retirement guidance says a retired certification is no longer available in the offerings and later moves to the Historical Certifications section after it expires.
For a résumé or professional profile, pair the historical credential with current Exchange, messaging, identity, security, or cloud evidence where appropriate. Do not present 70-342 as proof of current product coverage unless your recent work and current credentials support that broader claim.
What should you do next?
Start with a status check, then build your study around Exchange 2013 architecture and verifiable administration tasks. If the exam is actionable for your situation, use Microsoft documentation to close skill gaps and make a measured scheduling decision. If it is retired or misaligned with your goal, preserve the useful technical study and redirect the credential effort to the current Microsoft path.
Your next actions are straightforward: open the retirement and credential pages, inspect your transcript, download or review the Exchange 2013 planning material, create a domain-and-dependency matrix, and perform a baseline self-assessment. After that, choose between a focused legacy-exam plan and a current role-based certification plan based on official status—not on third-party claims or exam-dump marketing.
A final readiness checklist
Confirm the exact exam and credential target. Verify current status with Microsoft. Identify the Exchange 2013 domains you need to study. Practice deployment dependencies, permissions, policy, protection, mail flow, recipients, client access, Unified Messaging, transport, high availability, site resilience, health, performance, and PowerShell. Record how each task is validated.
Finally, review your weak areas without using purported live questions. Explain solutions in terms of requirements, prerequisites, configuration, expected behavior, and verification. That process gives you a defensible preparation signal and remains useful even if the historical exam is no longer available.
Conclusion
70-342 belongs to Microsoft’s historical Exchange Server 2013 and MCSE: Messaging environment, and the supplied evidence supports an advanced, experience-based study approach rather than a current exam blueprint. Make status and credential alignment the first decision. If study remains relevant, use Microsoft’s Exchange documentation, dependency maps, labs, PowerShell exercises, and troubleshooting records. If the exam no longer fits your path, carry the technical knowledge forward while pursuing a current Microsoft certification verified through official sources.
