Every month, Microsoft quietly refreshes its Azure Leaderboard — a neat little Hall of Fame for people who spend their nights fixing strangers’ Azure problems before their own servers crash.
It’s not a marketing stunt and it’s not a paid gig. It’s pure community obsession.
And only non-Microsoft contributors qualify — the die-hard enthusiasts who keep the ecosystem alive while Redmond sleeps.
🏆 The 2025 Line-Up
Here’s the real scoreboard — starting with the latest month and rolling back through the year.
No PR sugar-coating, no inflated adjectives, just the names that actually did the heavy lifting.
| Month (2025) | Leader – “All Azure tags” | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| October | Alex Burlachenko | Still dominating the board. Three-time top finisher, probably wired directly into Azure CLI. |
| September | Alex Burlachenko | Closed Q3 as No. 1 — steady output, razor-sharp replies. |
| August | Toby Phipps | Veteran comeback; you can almost hear the coffee machine whirring. |
| July | Alex Burlachenko | Momentum intact — speed, precision, and too many browser tabs. |
| June | Alex Burlachenko | Breakout month; entered the leaderboard and never looked back. |
| March | Toby Phipps | Infrastructure maestro. Answers faster than most people read the question. |
| February | Marcin Policht | PowerShell sage — calm, consistent, quietly everywhere. |
(Source: learn.microsoft.com/answers/support/azure/azure-leaderboard)
📊 What the Trend Shows
The pattern’s clear:
a core trio — Alex Burlachenko, Toby Phipps, and Marcin Policht — practically own the Azure Q&A space.
They appear month after month, reshuffling positions but never leaving the frame.
In short:
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Q&A runs on a handful of sleepless heroes.
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Most accepted answers trace back to them.
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Microsoft effectively crowdsourced a support department — powered by caffeine and altruism.
💼 Why Microsoft Loves It
From a corporate standpoint, this setup is genius:
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Fewer support costs. The community handles half the workload.
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Higher engagement. Leaderboards turn troubleshooting into sport.
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Ever-growing knowledge base. Each answer becomes searchable documentation.
For contributors, it’s professional gold — recruiters and MVP programmes notice when your name keeps popping up in the top three.
🧠 The Catch
Of course, leaderboards aren’t pure truth.
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They reward volume, not necessarily value.
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No public metrics on votes or accepted rates.
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You can climb the chart purely through persistence — and mild insomnia.
So yes, impressive… but not peer-reviewed science.
⚙️ The Big Picture
2025 is shaping up as the year of Alex Burlachenko, dethroning long-time leaders like Toby Phipps while maintaining absurd consistency.
It’s proof that Microsoft Q&A isn’t just a helpdesk — it’s a living, breathing, slightly chaotic organism powered by a few remarkable people.
Behind every statistic is someone debugging your deployment before you’ve even posted the stack trace.
💡 Key Names
Alex Burlachenko · Toby Phipps · Marcin Policht · Sina Salam · Amira Bedhiafi · Michele-Ariis
💬 Key Categories
Apps & Management | Data & AI | Infrastructure & Monitoring