The short version
This sheet is a last-pass review for AZ-305, not a replacement for study. It lists the exam facts, then the ideas that decide most design questions, grouped by the four domains. It does not cover everything on the exam and it contains no real exam questions. Exam facts were checked on Microsoft Learn on October 22, 2026; service behavior can change, so confirm details in the Microsoft documentation.
Exam facts at a glance
| Item | Fact |
|---|---|
| Exam | AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions |
| Credential | Azure Solutions Architect Expert (also requires Azure Administrator Associate) |
| Skills list | English version updated April 17, 2026 |
| Passing score | 700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000 |
| Domains | Identity, governance, monitoring 25-30%; data storage 20-25%; business continuity 15-20%; infrastructure 30-35% |
| Languages | 10, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian |
| Retirement date | None listed |
| Retake | 24 hours after the first failure, then 14 days; five attempts in 12 months |
| Renewal | Free online assessment in the six months before expiry |
The habit that wins points
Read the requirements first, then the options. Underline every constraint: cost limit, recovery target, data residency, “minimize administrative effort”, “no code changes”, “least privilege”. Eliminate each option that breaks one constraint. When two options remain, the cheaper or simpler one that still meets every constraint usually wins.
Domain 1: Identity, governance, and monitoring
Key concepts
- Scope order for inheritance: management group, subscription, resource group, resource. Policy and role assignments flow downward.
- Managed identity: an identity tied to an Azure resource, with no secret for you to store. Service principal: an app identity you manage yourself.
- Key Vault holds secrets, keys, and certificates so apps do not carry them.
- Azure Monitor collects metrics and logs; Log Analytics workspaces store and query logs.
Look-alike pairs
- Azure Policy controls what resources may look like. Role-based access control controls who can do what.
- Tags help with organization and cost reporting. They do not enforce anything by themselves.
- A diagnostic setting routes logs somewhere. An alert rule notifies someone.
- System-assigned managed identity lives and dies with its resource. User-assigned can be shared by several resources.
Decision rules
- If the stem says “no secrets in code”, think managed identity and Key Vault.
- If it says “apply to all subscriptions”, think management group.
- If it says “external partners need access”, think about guest access options and access reviews.
Domain 2: Data storage
Key concepts
- Relational choices: Azure SQL Database (single database or elastic pool), SQL Managed Instance, SQL Server on a VM. More instance-level compatibility generally means more management.
- Blob storage has access tiers; cooler tiers cost less to store and more to read.
- Immutability policies protect data from change for a set period.
- Cosmos DB offers several consistency levels, a trade between consistency, latency, and availability.
Look-alike pairs
- Redundancy keeps data available after a failure. Backup recovers from deletion or corruption.
- Elastic pool shares resources among many databases with varying load. A single database fits one steady workload.
- Managed Instance suits lift-and-shift needing instance-level features. SQL Database suits new cloud-first apps.
Decision rules
- “Archive, rarely read” points to a cool or archive tier.
- “Globally distributed, low latency writes” points to a multi-region capable database.
- “Must not be modified or deleted” points to immutability, not just access control.
Domain 3: Business continuity
Key concepts
- RPO is how much data you can lose. RTO is how long you can be down.
- Failure units grow from a disk to a zone to a region.
- Availability zones protect within a region. Paired or secondary regions protect against regional loss.
Look-alike pairs
- Azure Backup protects data and restores it. Azure Site Recovery replicates machines for failover.
- Availability set spreads machines across racks within a datacenter. Availability zones spread across separate datacenters in a region.
- Zone-redundant keeps running across zones. Geo-redundant keeps a copy in another region.
Decision rules
- Write RPO and RTO beside each scenario. Pick the lightest design that meets them.
- If only zone failure matters, a cross-region design is overbuilt.
- If the problem is accidental deletion, high availability does not help; backup does.
Domain 4: Infrastructure
Key concepts
- Compute spectrum: virtual machines (most control), containers, App Service, serverless functions (least management).
- Messaging and events differ in behavior, not only name.
- Hub-and-spoke networks centralize shared services. Hybrid links connect on-premises networks to Azure.
- Migration choices trade effort against modernization.
Look-alike pairs
- Service Bus delivers messages for reliable processing. Event Grid reacts to events. Event Hubs ingests streams of telemetry.
- Private endpoint gives a service a private address in your network. Service endpoint keeps traffic on the Azure backbone but the service keeps its public address.
- Load Balancer works at the transport layer. Application Gateway understands web traffic. Front Door and Traffic Manager route across regions, with different capabilities.
- VPN Gateway uses the internet with encryption. ExpressRoute uses a private connection.
Decision rules
- “Minimize administrative effort” points toward platform services over virtual machines.
- “Needs OS-level control or custom software” points toward virtual machines.
- “Global web traffic with failover” points toward a global entry service.
Common traps
- Choosing the biggest tier when the stem says cost matters.
- Treating redundancy as backup.
- Ignoring one requirement because the first half of the option looks right.
- Reading “most cost-effective” as “cheapest”, when the option must still meet every requirement.
- Memorizing one product name instead of the behavior that separates it from its neighbor.
Last-day checklist
- Reread this sheet once, then stop.
- Skim your notes on the look-alike pairs above.
- Confirm your exam time, ID, and check-in steps; see the exam day guide.
- Remember: no penalty for guessing, so answer every question.
- Sleep. A rested brain reads constraints better.
More guides for AZ-305
- AZ-305 Exam Format, Scoring, and Retakes
- AZ-305 Study Plan: 4-Week and 8-Week
- Is AZ-305 Hard? An Honest Difficulty Check
- AZ-305 Prerequisites and Skills Check
- AZ-305 Renewal and Retakes Explained
- Is AZ-305 Worth It? An Honest Look
- AZ-305 vs AZ-400: Which Exam First?
- AZ-104 vs AZ-305: Which First?
Next step
Build the missing depth with the domains explained page and the sample questions. Then check yourself with the AZ-305 practice tests, or return to the AZ-305 overview.