Microsoft • AZ-305
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) Practice Test
Measures your ability to design cloud and hybrid solutions on Azure, including identity, governance, monitoring, data storage, business continuity, and infrastructure solutions.
Exam Details
Questions
530
Duration
120 minutes
Passing Score
700/1000
Difficulty
ExpertLast Updated
Jan 2026
Topics Covered
Identity, governance, and monitoring solutionsData storage solutionsBusiness continuity solutionsInfrastructure solutions
Exam Domain Breakdown
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions28%
Design data storage solutions23%
Design business continuity solutions18%
Design infrastructure solutions33%
Exam Overview
The AZ-305 exam, titled 'Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions,' validates expert-level competency in architecting cloud and hybrid solutions on Microsoft Azure. Candidates demonstrate mastery across compute, networking, storage, monitoring, and security design — translating complex business requirements into Azure solutions that conform to the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure. The exam was significantly updated on October 18, 2024, and was reviewed for technical accuracy as recently as January 14, 2026, making it reflective of current Azure capabilities and architectural best practices.
Passing this exam, in combination with the prerequisite AZ-104 Azure Administrator Associate certification, earns the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential. This expert-level designation signals that a professional can operate at the intersection of business strategy and technical implementation — advising stakeholders, evaluating trade-offs across solution domains, and collaborating with developers, security engineers, administrators, and data engineers to deliver end-to-end Azure architectures.
Who Should Take This Exam
This certification is designed for senior IT professionals who function in an architecture or lead technical role, such as Azure Solutions Architect, Cloud Architect, Senior Cloud Engineer, or Technical Architect. Ideal candidates have advanced experience across IT operations domains including networking, virtualization, identity management, security, disaster recovery, data platforms, and governance — and understand how architectural decisions in one domain affect the overall solution.
Candidates typically have hands-on background in Azure administration (AZ-104 level), Azure development, and DevOps practices. Professionals transitioning from on-premises infrastructure architecture, senior cloud engineers looking to move into design-focused roles, and consultants advising enterprises on Azure adoption strategies are well-suited for this certification.
Prerequisites
There are no formal exam prerequisites for sitting the AZ-305 exam itself, but earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification requires holding an active Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification. Candidates may take AZ-305 before AZ-104, but the Expert credential will not be awarded until both are satisfied.
In terms of recommended experience, Microsoft advises that candidates have strong conceptual and practical knowledge of Azure compute technologies (VMs, containers, serverless), Azure Virtual Networking including load balancers, Azure Storage technologies (unstructured and database), and general application design concepts such as messaging and high availability. Prior experience with DevOps processes and Azure development workflows also helps candidates contextualize the architecture design scenarios presented on the exam.
Exam Format
The AZ-305 exam is delivered through Pearson VUE and is available both online (proctored) and at testing centers. The exam includes approximately 40–60 questions, which may include multiple-choice, multi-select, drag-and-drop, case study scenarios, and short-answer formats. Case studies present a business scenario requiring candidates to recommend architectural solutions aligned with stated requirements. The time limit is 120 minutes.
The passing score is 700 out of 1000 on Microsoft's scaled scoring system, where raw scores are converted and do not correspond to a simple percentage of correct answers. The exam is available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), and Italian. Candidates taking a localized version may request an additional 30 minutes if their preferred language version is not yet updated to match the current English version. The exam has no scheduled retirement date.
Skills Measured
- 1.Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25–30%): Covers designing logging and monitoring solutions (recommending log routing, monitoring tools), authentication and authorization solutions (identity management, access to Azure and on-premises resources, secrets/certificates/keys management via Azure Key Vault), and governance (management group and subscription structure, resource tagging, compliance solutions using Azure Policy, and identity governance).
- 2.Design data storage solutions (20–25%): Covers relational data storage (selecting the right Azure SQL service tier, scalability, and data protection strategies), semi-structured and unstructured data storage (Cosmos DB, Azure Blob, Azure Data Lake), balancing features/performance/cost trade-offs, and data integration and analysis solutions using services like Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics.
- 3.Design business continuity solutions (15–20%): Covers backup and disaster recovery for Azure and hybrid workloads — including compute (VMs, containers), databases (Azure SQL, managed instances), and unstructured data — meeting defined RPO/RTO objectives using Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery. Also includes high availability design for compute, relational data, and semi-structured/unstructured data.
- 4.Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%): The largest domain, covering compute solution design (VMs, containers via AKS, serverless via Azure Functions/Logic Apps, batch processing), application architecture (messaging with Service Bus/Event Hubs, event-driven patterns, API Management, caching with Azure Cache for Redis, automated deployment), migration strategies using the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (evaluating on-premises servers, databases, and unstructured data for IaaS/PaaS migration), and network solutions (internet connectivity, hybrid connectivity via VPN/ExpressRoute, network performance, security with Azure Firewall/NSGs, and load balancing/routing with Azure Load Balancer/Traffic Manager/Front Door).
Study Tips
- Use the official AZ-305 Study Guide on Microsoft Learn (aka.ms/AZ305-StudyGuide) as your syllabus backbone — it lists every objective domain, subtopic, and links to relevant Microsoft documentation, ensuring you cover the exact skills measured as of October 18, 2024.
- Watch the official 'Exam Readiness Zone' AZ-305 video series on Microsoft Learn, which covers each of the four domains in dedicated episodes and explains how Microsoft frames architectural decision-making questions on the exam.
- Take the free Official Practice Assessment for AZ-305 available directly on the Microsoft Learn exam page — these questions are authored by Microsoft and closely reflect the format and phrasing of real exam scenarios, making them the most reliable indicator of readiness.
- Enroll in the instructor-led course AZ-305T00: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, which uses case studies to practice translating business requirements into architecture designs — the exact skill tested in AZ-305 scenario and case study questions.
- Practice hands-on architecture design by working through the Azure Architecture Center (learn.microsoft.com/azure/architecture) and studying reference architectures for common patterns like hub-and-spoke networking, multi-region high availability, and data lake analytics — these scenarios frequently appear in case study questions.
- Use the Azure Sandbox and exam sandbox (go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2226877) to familiarize yourself with the exam interface and question types before exam day, particularly the drag-and-drop and case study formats that can be time-consuming if encountered unexpectedly.
- After completing your studies, attempt the MindHub Microsoft Official Practice Test for AZ-305 to simulate full exam conditions and identify any remaining knowledge gaps across the four domains before your scheduled exam date.
Career Benefits
The Azure Solutions Architect Expert is consistently ranked among the highest-paying Microsoft certifications. In the United States, certified professionals typically earn between $130,000 and $200,000+ annually, with ZipRecruiter reporting an average of approximately $146,601 and Glassdoor showing median total compensation exceeding $228,000 for Azure Architect roles as of early 2026. Top earners in senior principal and enterprise architect roles can command $215,000 or more. This premium reflects the seniority of the role — architects directly influence infrastructure spend, security posture, and business continuity across entire organizations.
Job titles unlocked include Azure Solutions Architect, Cloud Architect, Senior Cloud Engineer, Principal Cloud Architect, and Technical/Pre-sales Consultant. Compared to the associate-level AZ-104, this expert credential signals readiness for design-leadership roles rather than administrative execution, and it is often a prerequisite for senior or staff-level cloud positions at large enterprises and consulting firms. Organizations heavily invested in Azure — including financial services, healthcare, and government sectors — show consistent demand for this credential. The certification renews annually for free via an online assessment on Microsoft Learn, keeping the credential current without requiring a full re-examination.
Sample Questions
Preview — answers shown5 sample questions with correct answers and explanations. Start a practice session to test yourself across all 530 questions.
1. A video streaming startup needs to store its content, which consists of large video files ranging from 50 MB to 12 GB. To optimize the user experience, the storage solution must provide the fastest possible read performance for streaming. To keep the business viable, storage costs must also be minimized. Which Azure storage solution best balances these requirements for fast reads of large files at a reasonable cost?
AAzure Blob Storage
BAzure SQL Database
CAzure Files
DAzure Data Lake Storage Gen2
Explanation
Azure Blob Storage is the best recommendation. It is specifically designed and optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured object data, such as video files. It provides high-throughput streaming capabilities required for fast read performance. When combined with a Content Delivery Network (CDN), it offers the best performance for global video distribution. It is also the most cost-effective solution for storing large files compared to other database or file share services. A. SQL Database is for structured, relational data and is not suitable or cost-effective for storing large video files. C. Azure Files is optimized for shared file access (SMB protocol) and is generally more expensive for storing large amounts of data than blob storage. D. Data Lake Storage is optimized for big data analytics workloads, and while it can store large files, standard blob storage is more directly suited and cost-effective for this video streaming use case.
2. A large corporation wants to improve its security posture by ensuring all users with administrative privileges are enrolled in Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). They want an intelligent, policy-driven approach that prompts any newly assigned administrator to register for MFA upon their next sign-in, rather than relying on manual communication. Which Microsoft Entra service is best suited for creating this automated MFA registration policy?
APer-user MFA management UI
BMicrosoft Entra Identity Protection
CSecurity defaults
DMicrosoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Explanation
Microsoft Entra Identity Protection is the best service for this task. It allows you to create risk-based policies. A common and powerful policy you can create is a sign-in risk policy that, when triggered, can require the user to perform MFA. A key part of this is that if the user is not yet registered for MFA, the policy will force them through the registration process first. By targeting this policy to your administrative users, you can ensure they are prompted to register as part of a controlled, automated security workflow. Security defaults is an all-or-nothing setting that can't be targeted. PIM is for managing privileged roles but isn't the primary tool for enforcing MFA registration. The per-user MFA UI is a legacy, manual approach.
3. A financial analytics company is setting up an Azure Databricks environment. Their data scientists will work with sensitive financial data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, where permissions are managed by strict Access Control Lists (ACLs) on different project folders. To ensure security, when a data scientist runs a notebook, Databricks must access the data lake using that specific scientist's own identity to properly enforce the folder permissions. Which Azure Databricks pricing tier includes the feature necessary for this capability?
APremium
BStandard
CStandard with High Concurrency
DFree Trial
Explanation
The Premium pricing tier is required. The feature needed here is called 'Credential Passthrough'. This feature allows the user's Microsoft Entra ID credentials, which they used to log into Databricks, to be automatically 'passed through' to Azure Data Lake Storage for authentication and authorization. This ensures that ADLS enforces the correct folder-level ACLs for that specific user. Credential Passthrough is an advanced security and governance feature that is only available in the Premium tier of Azure Databricks. The Standard tier does not include this feature, forcing you to use less secure methods like mounting the storage with a single, shared service principal.
4. A company is migrating a large on-premises file server, which contains 15 TB of data organized in a deep folder structure, to Azure. They need a cloud storage solution that preserves the hierarchical folder structure and provides POSIX-compliant access control lists (ACLs) for granular permissions on folders and files, as the data will be used for big data analytics. Which Azure storage solution should they use?
AAzure Data Lake Storage Gen2
BAzure Disk Storage attached to a file server VM
CAzure Blob Storage with a flat namespace
DAzure Files with the Premium tier
Explanation
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is the service designed for this requirement. ADLS Gen2 is built on Azure Blob Storage but adds a hierarchical namespace. This feature allows for true directory and folder structures, which is critical for organizing analytics data and provides significant performance benefits for analytics workloads. It also supports POSIX-compliant Access Control Lists (ACLs), enabling fine-grained, folder-level permissions, which is another key requirement. Blob storage with a flat namespace cannot efficiently represent a folder hierarchy. Azure Files is for general-purpose file shares, not optimized for big data analytics. An IaaS file server would have significant management overhead compared to the PaaS ADLS Gen2 service.
5. A government contractor is building an application in Azure that requires the use of encryption keys. The contract specifies that the keys must be stored and processed in a hardware security module (HSM) that is compliant with the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 standard. The solution must be a fully managed service and should be the most cost-effective option that meets the FIPS requirement. Which solution should you use?
AAzure Key Vault Standard tier
BSelf-hosted HSM in an Azure VM
CAzure Managed HSM
DAzure Key Vault Premium tier
Explanation
Azure Key Vault Premium tier is the correct answer. This tier uses FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated multi-tenant HSMs to protect your keys, meeting the core compliance requirement. It is a fully managed PaaS service, which satisfies the management requirement, and it is more cost-effective than the higher-level HSM offerings. This makes it the ideal choice for this scenario. A. The Standard tier uses software-based keys and is not FIPS 140-2 Level 2 compliant. B. Azure Managed HSM uses FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated dedicated HSMs. While it exceeds the compliance requirement, it is also more expensive than the Premium tier. C. A self-hosted HSM would not be a fully managed service and would incur significant operational overhead.
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