Exam Quick Facts
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Exam Code | AZ-305 |
| Title | Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions |
| Level | Expert |
| Pass Score | 700 / 1000 |
| Duration | 100 minutes |
| Questions | ~40–60 (case studies, design scenarios) |
| Cost | $165 USD (varies by region) |
| Scheduling | Pearson VUE |
| Skills Updated | April 17, 2026 |
| Prerequisite | AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) recommended |
Official Learning Paths
- 📘 Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — Authentication, authorisation, governance, logging
- 📘 Design data storage solutions — Relational, non-relational, data integration
- 📘 Design business continuity solutions — Backup, disaster recovery, high availability
- 📘 Design infrastructure solutions — Compute, app architecture, migrations, networking
📖 Study Resources
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| 📝 Official Exam Page | Microsoft Learn — AZ-305 |
| 📖 Official Study Guide | Microsoft Study Guide |
| 🎯 Free Practice Assessment | Start Practice Assessment |
| 🖥️ Exam Sandbox | Try the exam interface |
| 🎬 Exam Readiness Zone | Video prep series |
| 📐 Azure Architecture Center | Browse architectures |
Skills at a Glance
| 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% |
Who is this exam for?
The AZ-305 is Microsoft’s expert-level Azure architecture exam. Unlike the AZ-104 (which tests hands-on administration), the AZ-305 tests your ability to design solutions — choosing the right services, patterns, and trade-offs for given business requirements.
You should have advanced experience in Azure administration, networking, security, data platforms, and governance. The exam uses case studies and design scenarios where you recommend solutions based on requirements like cost, performance, security, and reliability. Think of it as “which Azure service should I use and why?”
💡 Tip: Study the Azure Well-Architected Framework and the Cloud Adoption Framework — both are heavily referenced.
Skills Measured — with Microsoft Learn Links
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25–30%)
This domain covers how to design the identity, governance, and observability layer of an Azure solution. You need to recommend the right authentication methods, authorisation models, governance structures, and monitoring solutions for different scenarios.
Design solutions for logging and monitoring
Design authentication and authorization solutions
Choosing the right identity approach is one of the most common exam scenarios. You need to decide between Entra ID, B2C, and external identities, recommend when to use managed identities vs service principals, and design authorisation using RBAC, Azure Policy, or Conditional Access.
- Recommend an authentication solution
- Recommend an identity management solution
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to Azure resources
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to on-premises resources
- Recommend a solution to manage secrets, certificates, and keys
Design governance
- Recommend a structure for management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, and a strategy for resource tagging
- Recommend a solution for managing compliance
- Recommend a solution for identity governance
Design data storage solutions (20–25%)
This domain covers choosing the right storage and database services for different data types and workloads. You need to recommend the right database tier, design for scalability and data protection, and choose between relational and non-relational options.
Design data storage solutions for relational data
- Recommend a solution for storing relational data
- Recommend a database service tier and compute tier
- Recommend a solution for database scalability
- Recommend a solution for data protection
Design data storage solutions for semi-structured and unstructured data
- Recommend a solution for storing semi-structured data
- Recommend a solution for storing unstructured data
- Recommend a data storage solution to balance features, performance, and costs
- Recommend a data solution for protection and durability
Design data integration
Design business continuity solutions (15–20%)
Business continuity is about keeping things running when something goes wrong. This domain covers designing backup strategies (what to back up, how often, where to store it), disaster recovery (replicating workloads to a secondary region), and high availability (ensuring services survive individual component failures).
Design solutions for backup and disaster recovery
Know the difference between RPO (how much data you can afford to lose) and RTO (how quickly you need to recover). Different workloads need different strategies — VMs use Azure Backup and Site Recovery, databases have built-in geo-replication, and unstructured data uses storage redundancy.
- Recommend a recovery solution for Azure and hybrid workloads that meets recovery objectives
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for compute
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for databases
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for unstructured data
Design for high availability
- Recommend a high availability solution for compute
- Recommend a high availability solution for relational data
- Recommend a high availability solution for semi-structured and unstructured data
Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%)
This is the largest domain — over a third of the exam. It covers designing compute solutions (VMs, containers, serverless), application architectures (messaging, events, APIs, caching), migration strategies, and network designs. Expect complex case study questions here.
Design compute solutions
You need to match the right compute service to the workload requirements. VMs for lift-and-shift, containers for microservices, App Service for web apps, Functions for event-driven workloads, and Batch for large-scale parallel processing.
- Specify components of a compute solution based on workload requirements
- Recommend a virtual machine-based solution
- Recommend a container-based solution
- Recommend a serverless-based solution
- Recommend a compute solution for batch processing
Design an application architecture
Modern applications are built from loosely coupled components that communicate through messages and events. You need to know when to use Service Bus vs Event Grid vs Event Hubs, when to add a caching layer (Redis), and how to design API integrations.
- Recommend a messaging architecture
- Recommend an event-driven architecture
- Recommend a solution for API integration
- Recommend a caching solution for applications
- Recommend an application configuration management solution
- Recommend an automated deployment solution for applications
Design migrations
Migration is a major topic — moving on-premises workloads to Azure. You need to know the Cloud Adoption Framework, assessment tools (Azure Migrate), and when to recommend IaaS (lift-and-shift) vs PaaS (modernise). Database migrations and unstructured data migrations have their own patterns.
- Evaluate a migration solution that leverages the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
- Evaluate on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
- Recommend a solution for migrating workloads to IaaS and PaaS
- Recommend a solution for migrating databases
- Recommend a solution for migrating unstructured data
Design network solutions
Networking ties everything together. You need to design connectivity to the internet (public IPs, NAT Gateway), to on-premises (VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute), optimise performance (Front Door, CDN, Traffic Manager), secure the network (firewalls, NSGs, private endpoints), and balance loads.
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to the internet
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to on-premises networks
- Recommend a solution to optimize network performance
- Recommend a solution to optimize network security
- Recommend a load-balancing and routing solution
Quick Links
- 📝 Official Exam Page
- 📖 Microsoft Study Guide
- 🎯 Practice Assessment
- 📐 Azure Architecture Center | 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% |
Skills Measured
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25–30%)
Design solutions for logging and monitoring
- Recommend a logging solution
- Recommend a solution for routing logs
- Recommend a monitoring solution
Design authentication and authorization solutions
- Recommend an authentication solution
- Recommend an identity management solution
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to Azure resources
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to on-premises resources
- Recommend a solution to manage secrets, certificates, and keys
Design governance
- Recommend a structure for management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, and a strategy for resource tagging
- Recommend a solution for managing compliance
- Recommend a solution for identity governance
Design data storage solutions (20–25%)
Design data storage solutions for relational data
- Recommend a solution for storing relational data
- Recommend a database service tier and compute tier
- Recommend a solution for database scalability
- Recommend a solution for data protection
Design data storage solutions for semi-structured and unstructured data
- Recommend a solution for storing semi-structured data
- Recommend a solution for storing unstructured data
- Recommend a data storage solution to balance features, performance, and costs
- Recommend a data solution for protection and durability
Design data integration
- Recommend a solution for data integration
- Recommend a solution for data analysis
Design business continuity solutions (15–20%)
Design solutions for backup and disaster recovery
- Recommend a recovery solution for Azure and hybrid workloads that meets recovery objectives
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for compute
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for databases
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for unstructured data
Design for high availability
- Recommend a high availability solution for compute
- Recommend a high availability solution for relational data
- Recommend a high availability solution for semi-structured and unstructured data
Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%)
Design compute solutions
- Specify components of a compute solution based on workload requirements
- Recommend a virtual machine-based solution
- Recommend a container-based solution
- Recommend a serverless-based solution
- Recommend a compute solution for batch processing
Design an application architecture
- Recommend a messaging architecture
- Recommend an event-driven architecture
- Recommend a solution for API integration
- Recommend a caching solution for applications
- Recommend an application configuration management solution
- Recommend an automated deployment solution for applications
Design migrations
- Evaluate a migration solution that leverages the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
- Evaluate on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
- Recommend a solution for migrating workloads to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS)
- Recommend a solution for migrating databases
- Recommend a solution for migrating unstructured data
Design network solutions
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to the internet
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to on-premises networks
- Recommend a solution to optimize network performance
- Recommend a solution to optimize network security
- Recommend a load-balancing and routing solution