AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions is the exam for Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, one of the most valued Azure credentials for senior cloud roles in India. It is a design exam: you recommend the right identity, data, continuity and infrastructure solution for a scenario, in line with the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework.
This guide follows Microsoft's study guide (skills measured as of 17 April 2026): every skill area with its weight, the decision tables architects use, a 6-week plan and 15 original scenario questions.
Quick facts (Microsoft Learn, November 2026)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam | AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert |
| Prerequisite | Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) |
| Passing score | 700 |
| Renewal | Every 12 months, free online assessment |
| Price | Set by the country where you take the exam |
Check the official AZ-305 study guide before booking. A free Practice Assessment is available on AI Skills Navigator.
Skills measured and weights
| Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions | 25–30% |
| Design data storage solutions | 20–25% |
| Design business continuity solutions | 15–20% |
| Design infrastructure solutions | 30–35% |
1. Identity, governance and monitoring (25–30%)
- Logging and monitoring: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics workspaces, diagnostic settings, routing logs to storage, Event Hubs or a SIEM.
- Authentication and identity: Microsoft Entra ID, Conditional Access, MFA, B2B and external identities, hybrid identity with Entra Connect.
- Authorisation: Azure RBAC, managed identities, Privileged Identity Management, access to on-premises resources.
- Secrets: Key Vault for secrets, certificates and keys.
- Governance: management groups, subscriptions, resource groups and tagging; Azure Policy for compliance; identity governance (access reviews, entitlement management).
2. Data storage (20–25%)
| Need | Typical recommendation |
|---|---|
| Lift-and-shift SQL Server with near-full compatibility | Azure SQL Managed Instance (or SQL Server on VMs for full control) |
| New cloud-native relational app | Azure SQL Database (serverless or Hyperscale for growth) |
| Open-source relational | Azure Database for PostgreSQL or MySQL Flexible Server |
| Globally distributed, low-latency semi-structured data | Azure Cosmos DB |
| Files, images, backups, data lake | Blob Storage / Data Lake Storage Gen2 with access tiers |
| Data integration and pipelines | Azure Data Factory; analytics with Microsoft Fabric or Azure Databricks |
Also expect service and compute tiers, scalability (read replicas, sharding, elastic pools), and data protection (encryption, Transparent Data Encryption, immutable storage).
3. Business continuity (15–20%)
- Recovery objectives: map RPO and RTO to solutions.
- Backup: Azure Backup for VMs, databases, files and blobs; long-term retention.
- Disaster recovery: Azure Site Recovery for VMs; geo-replication and failover groups for Azure SQL; geo-redundant storage options (GRS, GZRS, RA-GRS).
- High availability: availability zones vs availability sets, zone-redundant services, multi-region designs with Front Door or Traffic Manager.
4. Infrastructure (30–35%)
- Compute: choose between VMs, VM Scale Sets, App Service, Container Apps, AKS, Functions and Azure Batch from workload requirements.
- Application architecture: messaging (Service Bus, Storage queues), events (Event Grid, Event Hubs), API integration (API Management), caching (Azure Cache for Redis / Azure Managed Redis), configuration (App Configuration), automated deployment.
- Migrations: Cloud Adoption Framework, Azure Migrate assessments, IaaS vs PaaS targets, Database Migration Service, AzCopy and Data Box for unstructured data.
- Networking: internet connectivity, VPN Gateway vs ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN, hub-and-spoke, private endpoints, NSGs, Azure Firewall, DDoS Protection, and load balancing (Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Front Door, Traffic Manager).
Load-balancing decision table
| Traffic | Scope | Service |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP(S), with WAF and path routing | Regional | Application Gateway |
| HTTP(S), with WAF, caching and acceleration | Global | Azure Front Door |
| Any TCP/UDP | Regional | Azure Load Balancer |
| DNS-based routing for any protocol | Global | Traffic Manager |
6-week study plan
| Week | Focus | Exercise |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Well-Architected and Cloud Adoption Frameworks; governance and identity | Design a management-group hierarchy with Azure Policy for a 3-business-unit company |
| 2 | Monitoring, logging, secrets | Central Log Analytics design with diagnostic settings and Key Vault |
| 3 | Relational and non-relational data; integration | Choose data stores for an e-commerce app and justify tiers |
| 4 | Backup, DR, high availability | Meet RPO 15 min / RTO 1 hour for a VM-based app |
| 5 | Compute, app architecture, migrations | Plan a migration of 50 on-premises servers with Azure Migrate |
| 6 | Networking and load balancing; practice assessment twice | Hub-and-spoke with ExpressRoute and private endpoints; book the exam |
Read the Azure Architecture Center reference architectures alongside each week.
15 scenario questions with answers
These are original scenarios written for this guide, not exam questions.
1. Enforce that all resources carry a cost-centre tag. What do you use?
Azure Policy with a deny or modify effect, assigned at a management group.
2. Admins need elevated rights only when required, with approval. Which service?
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management.
3. Migrate SQL Server with SQL Agent jobs and cross-database queries, minimal changes. Which target?
Azure SQL Managed Instance.
4. A global app needs single-digit-millisecond reads in several regions. Which database?
Azure Cosmos DB with multi-region replication.
5. Archive files rarely accessed for 7 years at the lowest cost. What?
Blob Storage archive tier with lifecycle management (and immutability if required).
6. Replicate on-premises VMs to Azure for DR. Which service?
Azure Site Recovery.
7. An Azure SQL database must fail over automatically to another region. What?
Auto-failover groups (active geo-replication).
8. Protect against a single data-centre failure within a region. What?
Availability zones / zone-redundant services.
9. Private, dedicated connectivity from on-premises with predictable latency. What?
ExpressRoute.
10. Reach a storage account from a VNet without public internet exposure. What?
A private endpoint, with public network access disabled.
11. Global HTTP app with WAF and edge caching. Which service?
Azure Front Door.
12. Decouple order processing so spikes don't overload the back end. What?
Azure Service Bus queues.
13. Event-driven code that runs only when a file lands in storage. Which compute?
Azure Functions with a Blob or Event Grid trigger.
14. Assess on-premises servers for size and cost before migration. Which tool?
Azure Migrate.
15. Apps must read secrets without storing credentials. How?
Managed identities with Key Vault access.
After AZ-305
- Add AZ-400 for DevOps, or AI-103 for AI solutions.
- See all 2026 changes: Microsoft certifications retired in 2026. Live roles: Azure jobs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the prerequisite for Azure Solutions Architect Expert?
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104), plus passing AZ-305.
What is the AZ-305 passing score?
700.
Which AZ-305 area has the most weight?
Design infrastructure solutions, at 30–35%.
Is AZ-305 hands-on?
It is a design exam: you recommend solutions for scenarios. Hands-on Azure experience still helps a lot.
How often must the certification be renewed?
Every 12 months, through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn.
When were the AZ-305 skills last updated?
The English exam's skills measured were updated on 17 April 2026.
