Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect ExpertStudy guide
The expert certification for designing identity, governance, monitoring, data, business continuity, and infrastructure on Azure (AZ-305).
About Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) is a Professional / Expert-level certification from Microsoft. This page organizes the exam scope into a 4-chapter, 12-section study guide and lets you check your understanding with exam-style practice questions. A good flow is to read the chapters below in order, then test yourself via "Practice questions."
Exam domains (approximate weighting)
- Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions~27%
- Design data storage solutions~22%
- Design business continuity solutions~18%
- Design infrastructure solutions~33%
Weights are approximate guidance for the live exam. Each domain is covered in detail in the chapters and sections below.
Official exam information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/resources/study-guides/az-305
1Design Identity, Governance, and Monitoring Solutions
- 1.1Designing Identity and Access
Understand designing authentication/authorization on Azure—Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, Conditional Access, managed identities, PIM, and B2B/B2C. Design a secure identity foundation with least privilege.
- 1.2Designing Governance
Understand organization-scale governance—management groups/subscriptions, Azure Policy, landing zones, tags, cost management, and resource locks. Design consistent guardrails and cost control.
- 1.3Designing Monitoring
Understand designing observability—Azure Monitor, Log Analytics (KQL), Application Insights, alerts/action groups, and Network Watcher. Make operations visible with metrics, logs, and traces.
2Design Data Storage Solutions
- 2.1Designing Relational Databases
Understand choosing relational data—Azure SQL Database/SQL Managed Instance/SQL on VM, service tiers, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL. Pick the managed DB that fits requirements.
- 2.2Designing Non-Relational and Storage
Understand non-relational and object storage—Azure Cosmos DB (APIs/consistency), Blob Storage (access tiers), Azure Files, and queues/tables. Pick stores matching access patterns.
- 2.3Designing Data Integration, Analytics, and Protection
Understand using and protecting data—Data Lake Storage, Synapse Analytics, Data Factory, caching (Azure Cache for Redis), and encryption (at rest/in transit). Integrate/analyze data and keep it secure.
3Design Business Continuity Solutions
- 3.1Designing Backup and Data Protection
Understand data protection design—Azure Backup, recovery points (RPO)/retention, soft delete/immutable storage, and geo-redundant storage (GRS). Recover reliably from data loss or mistakes.
- 3.2Designing High Availability
Understand availability design—availability zones/availability sets, load balancing, zone-redundant services, and SLAs. Eliminate single points of failure and meet required availability.
- 3.3Designing Disaster Recovery
Understand DR design—Azure Site Recovery (ASR), region pairs, RTO/RPO, and database geo-replication/failover groups. Design strategies to recover from regional failures.
4Design Infrastructure Solutions
- 4.1Designing Compute
Understand compute choices—VMs/VMSS, App Service, Azure Functions, and AKS/ACI/Container Apps. Pick the runtime that fits the workload.
- 4.2Designing App Integration and Messaging
Understand loosely coupled integration—Service Bus/Event Grid/Event Hubs, API Management, Logic Apps, and Azure Cache for Redis. Decouple components and integrate at scale.
- 4.3Designing Networking
Understand networking design—VNet/subnets/NSG, peering/hub-spoke, VPN Gateway/ExpressRoute, Front Door/App Gateway/Load Balancer, and Private Link. Design secure, scalable connectivity.