AZ-305 Practice Tests

Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Design cloud and hybrid solutions that run on Azure. Get exam-ready with blueprint-aligned design scenarios, infrastructure case studies, and detailed readiness assessment aligned to the latest April 2026 exam updates.

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Duration

100 minutes (120 minutes seat time)

Questions

40 to 60 questions (typical for role-based exams)

Cost

Varies by region (priced where you are proctored)
Where to register
Microsoft

Issued by Microsoft. Delivered via Pearson VUE. Price varies by region (priced where you are proctored). Renew annually at no cost by passing an online assessment on Microsoft Learn.

Register on learn.microsoft.com
01·Overview

Certification overview

The format, prerequisites, and what to expect on exam day.

Exam details

  • Exam Code

    AZ-305

  • Duration

    100 minutes (120 minutes seat time)

  • Questions

    40 to 60 questions (typical for role-based exams)

  • Format

    Multiple choice, multiple response, case studies, design scenarios

  • Passing Score

    700/1000

  • Cost

    Varies by region (priced where you are proctored)

  • Validity

    12 months. Renew free by passing online assessment

  • Languages

    English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), Italian

Prerequisites
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification required
  • Advanced experience with Azure administration, development, and DevOps processes
  • Deep knowledge of networking, virtualization, identity, and security
  • Experience with business continuity and disaster recovery planning
  • Familiarity with data platforms and governance frameworks
  • Hands-on experience designing solutions that align with Azure Well-Architected Framework
02·Domains

Exam domains

Topics on the official blueprint, with their relative weight.

01
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions
25-30% of exam
  • Recommend logging and monitoring solutions
  • Design solutions for routing logs
  • Recommend authentication and identity management solutions
  • Design authorization for Azure and on-premises resources
  • Recommend solutions for managing secrets, certificates, and keys
  • Design governance structure for management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups
  • Recommend resource tagging strategy and compliance solutions
02
Design data storage solutions
20-25% of exam
  • Recommend solutions for storing relational data
  • Specify database service and compute tiers
  • Design solutions for database scalability
  • Recommend solutions for semi-structured and unstructured data
  • Design data protection and recovery strategies
  • Design data integration solutions
  • Balance features, performance, and costs in storage design
03
Design business continuity solutions
15-20% of exam
  • Recommend recovery solutions for Azure and hybrid workloads
  • Design backup and recovery for compute resources
  • Design backup and recovery for databases
  • Design backup and recovery for unstructured data
  • Recommend high availability solutions for compute
  • Design high availability for relational and semi-structured data
  • Recommend solutions that meet recovery objectives
04
Design infrastructure solutions
30-35% of exam
  • Specify compute solution components based on workload requirements
  • Recommend virtual machine-based and container-based solutions
  • Recommend serverless and batch processing solutions
  • Design messaging and event-driven architectures
  • Recommend API integration and caching solutions
  • Design migrations leveraging Cloud Adoption Framework
  • Design network solutions for connectivity and performance
  • Recommend load-balancing and routing solutions
03·Key topics

What you actually study

Service families and concept clusters that show up across questions.

Identity & Governance

  • Microsoft Entra ID and authentication
  • Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • Azure Policy and compliance
  • Secrets and certificate management
  • Resource governance patterns

Storage & Databases

  • Relational database design
  • Blob and file storage strategies
  • Data integration patterns
  • Backup and disaster recovery
  • Data redundancy and protection

Compute Architecture

  • Virtual machine design
  • Container and serverless options
  • App Service and deployment
  • Scaling and load balancing
  • Infrastructure as Code

Networking

  • Virtual network design
  • Hybrid connectivity
  • Network security and segmentation
  • DNS and traffic management
  • Performance optimization

Business Continuity

  • Availability zone design
  • Backup strategies
  • Disaster recovery planning
  • Recovery objectives (RTO/RPO)
  • Failover automation

Design Methodology

  • Well-Architected Framework pillars
  • Cloud Adoption Framework
  • Design decision documentation
  • Trade-off analysis
  • Workload assessment
04·Study tips

How to actually pass it

Practical strategies for the weeks before, and the morning of.

Preparation strategy
  • Complete Azure Administrator (AZ-104) if not yet certified to establish foundational knowledge
  • Review the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework documents
  • Work through Microsoft Learn design paths covering each of the four skill domains
  • Study real-world architecture scenarios and design case studies
  • Practice with design decision exercises that require trade-off analysis
  • Familiarize yourself with service limits, pricing tiers, and capacity planning concepts
  • Take practice assessments to gauge readiness across all four domains
Exam day
  • Read case studies and design scenarios carefully, noting all constraints and requirements before answering
  • Think about the Well-Architected Framework pillars: reliability, security, cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency
  • For infrastructure questions, consider both IaaS and PaaS approaches and their tradeoffs
  • Pay attention to hybrid scenarios that involve both Azure and on-premises resources
  • Consider monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery requirements even if not explicitly stated
  • Manage time across design scenarios, some may require 2-3 minutes to fully analyze
  • Focus on architectural principles and tradeoffs rather than product-specific commands

Design solutions that scale, not just systems that work.

Infrastructure design questions aligned to the latest exam blueprint. Start free, no card required.

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