Welcome to my AZ-305 Exam Study Guide! This guide collates all the relevant Microsoft Learn documents for each skills in the exam skills outline. This guide has been updated as of 2023!
The below guide will help you study for and pass the AZ-305 exam, earning the title of Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert. To give yourself the best possible chance at passing, ensure you combine your studying with a mix of Microsoft Learn pathways, Microsoft Docs, Labs and Books! Below I will share everything I know for passing the AZ-305 exam.
About the AZ-305 Exam
The AZ-305 exam is expert level, this means it is not designed for those new to Azure, but instead aimed at seasoned professionals to validate there skills. But really, with the right study and effort, there is no wrong time in your career to take the exam, so I encourage you to go for it!
Info from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/azure-solutions-architect/
Candidates for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification should have subject matter expertise in designing cloud and hybrid solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including compute, network, storage, monitoring, and security.
Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into designs for secure, scalable, and reliable Azure solutions.
An Azure solutions architect partners with developers, administrators, and other roles responsible for implementing solutions on Azure.
A candidate for this certification should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platforms, and governance. A professional in this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, they should have experience in Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps processes.
How to earn the Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification
If you are looking to book the AZ-305 exam, it is likely you are looking to become a Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert. So with that in mind, are you familiar with the pre-requisite exams?
To earn the title, there is one exam you must complete, before you (or after) you pass the AZ-305, that is:
- AZ-104 (Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate)
If you have not already passed this exam, I recommend you pause this guide now and head over to my AZ-104 Exam Study Guide.
How long is the AZ-305 exam?
The AZ-305 exam is 120 minutes long. 120 minutes is the maximum amount of time to complete the exam, you may of-course finish the exam in less that 120 minutes. You are also likely to get between 40-60 questions for your exam and each question will be weighted appropriately towards the total score.
How hard is the AZ-305 Exam?
The AZ-305 exam will achieve you an expert level certification, so it is deemed hard. The scope of the exam is very broad, encompassing almost all thinkable areas of Azure. It is expected that you have a very good working knowledge of most, if not all areas of Azure. Even if you are not deeply technical with every skill listed in the outline below, you should have enough knowledge to use that function in your designs and solutions.
Microsoft Learn Pathways
Microsoft Learn has some fantastic, expert-written learning paths that will take you through the core concepts and materials to help you study for the exam. Us the below links to take you to the necessary learn pathways.
AZ-305 Exam Skills Reference
Design Identity, Governance, and Monitoring Solutions (25-30%)
Design a Solution for Logging and Monitoring
Design a log routing solution
Recommend an appropriate level of logging
Recommend a monitoring tool(s) for a solution
Design Authentication and Authorization Solutions
Recommend a solution for securing resources with role-based access controls
Recommend an identity management solution
Recommend a solution for securing identities
Design Governance
Recommend an organizational and hierarchical structure for Azure resources
Recommend a solution for enforcing and auditing compliance
Design Identities and Access for Applications
Recommend solutions to allow applications to access Azure resources
Recommend a solution that securely stores passwords and secrets
Recommend a solution for integrating applications into Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), part of Microsoft Entra
Recommend a user consent solution for applications
Design data storage solutions (25-30%)
Design a Data Storage Solution for Relational Data
Recommend database service tier sizing
Recommend a solution for database scalability
Recommend a solution for encrypting data at rest, data in transmission, and data in use
Design Data Integration
Recommend a solution for data integration
Recommend a solution for data analysis
Recommend a data storage solution
Recommend a solution for storing relational data
Recommend a solution for storing semi-structured data
Recommend a solution for storing non-relational data
Design a Data Storage Solution for Non-relational Data
Recommend access control solutions to data storage
Recommend a data storage solution to balance features, performance, and cost
Resign a data solution for protection and durability
Design business continuity solutions (10-15%)
Design a Solution for Backup and Disaster Recovery
Recommend a recovery solution for Azure, hybrid, and on-premises workloads that meets recovery objectives (RTO, RLO, RPO)
Understand the recovery solutions for containers
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
Identify the availability requirements of Azure resources
Recommend a high availability solution for Compute
Recommend a high availability solution for non-relational data storage
Recommend a high availability solution for relational data storage
Design infrastructure solutions (25-30%)
Design a Compute Solution
Recommend a Virtual Machine-based compute solution
Recommend an appropriately sized compute solution based on workload requirements
Recommend a Container-based compute solution
Recommend a Serverless-based compute solution
Design an Application Architecture
Recommend a caching solution for applications
Recommend a messaging architecture
Recommend an event-driven architecture
- What is Azure Event Grid?
- Event-Driven Architecture in the Cloud with Azure Event Grid
- Quickstart: Route custom events to web endpoint with the Azure portal and Event Grid
- Tutorial: Monitor virtual machine changes by using Azure Event Grid and Logic Apps
- Features and terminology in Azure Event Hubs
- Quickstart: Create an event hub using Azure portal
- Tutorial: Stream data into Azure Databricks using Event Hubs
Recommend an automated deployment solution for your applications
Recommend an application configuration management solution
Recommend a solution for API integration
Design Migrations
Evaluate migration solution that leverages the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Assess and interpret on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
Recommend a solution for migrating applications and Virtual Machines
Recommend a solution for migrating databases
Recommend a solution for migrating unstructured data
Design Network Solutions
Recommend a network architecture solution based on workload requirements
Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to the Internet
Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to on-premises networks
Optimize network performance for applications
Recommend a solution to optimize network security
- What is Azure Firewall?
- Network security groups
- Azure Web Application Firewall on Azure Application Gateway
- What is Azure Firewall Manager?
- Create an Azure Bastion host
- Azure security baseline for Virtual Network
- Integrate Azure services with virtual networks for network isolation
- Azure DDoS Protection Standard overview
Recommend a load balancing and routing solution
- Tutorial: Balance internal traffic load with a Basic load balancer in the Azure portal
- Create an internal load balancer by using the Azure PowerShell module
- Quickstart: Create a Load Balancer to load balance VMs using the Azure portal
- What is Azure Front Door Service?
- Quickstart: Create a Front Door for a highly available global web application
Summary
Thank you for taking the time to ready my study guide for the AZ-305 exam. I strive to keep the content and links in this guide up to date and as meaningful as possible. For the best possible chance at passing the exam, ensure you are confident which each of the skills outlined above. If you have any question, please feel free to leave them below and I will do my best to reply as soon as possible.
