AZ-305 Exam Overview

AZ-305 is the required exam for Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Microsoft lists four current skills areas: Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25–30%); Design data storage solutions (20–25%); Design business continuity solutions (15–20%); and Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%). Use these official ranges as study guidance rather than local counts or practice-bank distribution.

Microsoft describes the candidate as an Azure solutions architect with subject matter expertise designing cloud and hybrid solutions that run on Azure. The role advises stakeholders and translates business requirements into designs aligned with the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure. The candidate should understand how decisions in networking, identity, security, governance, continuity, data, and operations affect the full solution.

The exam can involve Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, management groups, subscriptions, Azure Policy, Key Vault, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Storage Accounts, Azure SQL, Managed Instance, Cosmos DB, backup, Site Recovery, Availability Zones, Virtual Networks, ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Azure Firewall, Application Gateway, Front Door, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager, Azure DNS, Private Link, App Service, Functions, AKS, Container Apps, and VM Scale Sets.

AZ-305 scenarios usually ask for the best design, not the exact button to click. Read for constraints such as compliance, latency, cost, RTO, RPO, hybrid connectivity, identity boundaries, governance, data consistency, and operational visibility. The most attractive answer is often the one that balances those constraints with the least unnecessary complexity.