Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) Exam Guide

The AZ-305 validates your ability to design solutions that run on Azure, including compute, network, storage, monitoring, and security. It's the expert-level Azure architecture certification.

Exam Overview

Detail	Value
Exam Code	AZ-305
Questions	40-60 (multiple choice + case studies)
Length	150 minutes
Passing Score	700/1000
Price	~$165 USD
Prerequisite	AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) recommended

Domain Breakdown

Domain	Weight
Design Identity, Governance, and Monitor Solutions	30%
Design Data Storage Solutions	25%
Design Business Continuity Solutions	20%
Design Infrastructure Solutions	25%

Key Design Areas

Identity and Governance

• Entra ID — Identity architecture, hybrid identity, Azure AD Connect, PIM, Conditional Access
• RBAC — Custom roles, scopes, Azure Policy, management groups, Blueprints
• Governance — Policy-driven guardrails, tagging strategy, cost management, management groups
• Monitor — Log Analytics, Application Insights, Azure Monitor, alerts, workbooks

Data Storage

• Relational — SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL, Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL
• NoSQL — Cosmos DB (APIs: SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, Table), partitioning strategies
• Storage — Blob (Hot/Cool/Archive), Files, Disk, Storage Actions, lifecycle management
• Data Integration — Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, Databricks

Business Continuity

• Backup — Recovery Services vault, backup policies, soft delete, cross-region restore
• DR — Site Recovery, failover/failback, recovery plans, RTO/RPO targets
• HA — Availability Zones, Availability Sets, SLA calculations, redundant storage

Infrastructure

• Compute — VM sizing, VMSS, AKS, Container Apps, Functions, Logic Apps
• Networking — Hub-spoke topology, VNet peering, ExpressRoute, VPN, Azure Firewall, WAF, Front Door
• Migration — Azure Migrate, Data Box, Database Migration Service, App Service Migration

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