Microsoft · 2026 Edition
A complete preparation guide written by Microsoft-certified engineers. Covers the exam format,all 4 blueprint domains, a week-by-week study plan, and proven tips for passing first time.
4–6 months
Prep time
Advanced
Difficulty
50
Exam questions
700/1000
Pass mark
Exam code
AZ-305
Full name
Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Vendor
Microsoft
Duration
120 minutes
Questions
50 items
Passing score
700/1000 (scaled)
Domains covered
4 blueprint domains
Recommended experience
AZ-104 certification required; 2+ years of Azure solution design experience
Typical prep time
4–6 months
AZ-305 earns the Azure Solutions Architect Expert designation — one of the most valued Azure credentials in the industry. It validates the ability to design end-to-end Azure architectures that meet business, governance, security, and resilience requirements.
Job roles this opens
Domain percentage weights are not currently available for this exam. The checklist below is still useful for planning your study.
Weeks 1–3
Identity, Governance and Monitoring: Entra ID design, RBAC, Azure Policy, Monitor
Tip: AZ-305 asks you to choose between architectural options given constraints. For identity, know when to recommend Entra External ID (customer-facing), B2B collaboration (partner access), or Entra Domain Services (legacy domain services in cloud).
Weeks 4–6
Data Storage: relational, non-relational, file, blob, data integration
Tip: Database selection scenarios are common: Azure SQL Database (fully managed, broad PaaS feature set), Azure SQL Managed Instance (near-100% SQL Server compatibility, VNet integrated), SQL Server on VM (full control, lift-and-shift). Know when migration complexity or compatibility requirements make each the right choice.
Weeks 7–9
Business Continuity: backup, disaster recovery, HA patterns, RTO/RPO
Tip: Azure Site Recovery (replicates VMs/workloads for DR failover) vs Azure Backup (point-in-time restore for data recovery). Questions describe RTO/RPO requirements and ask which solution meets them.
Weeks 10–15
Infrastructure: compute, networking, application architecture patterns, migration
Tip: Know Azure architecture patterns: microservices (AKS, independent scaling), serverless (Functions + Event Grid, sporadic workloads), event-driven (decoupled asynchronous processing), CQRS, and circuit breaker. Questions give requirements and ask which pattern applies.
AZ-305 is a design exam, not a configuration exam. Questions give requirements (cost, availability, scalability, compliance) and ask which Azure services and patterns you would recommend. The right answer satisfies all stated constraints.
Azure Well-Architected Framework pillars appear on AZ-305: Reliability, Security, Cost Optimisation, Operational Excellence, Performance Efficiency. Questions describe an architecture weakness and ask which WAF pillar it violates.
Hub-and-spoke VNet topology: the hub VNet hosts shared services (firewall, VPN gateway, Azure Bastion); spoke VNets host workloads; VNet peering connects them. Azure Virtual WAN is a managed hub-and-spoke service for large-scale deployments.
Azure Front Door (global, layer 7, cross-region) vs Azure Application Gateway (regional, layer 7, WAF) vs Azure Load Balancer (regional, layer 4). Know which to recommend when the scenario specifies global traffic management, WAF, or simple TCP load balancing.
Prerequisite: AZ-104 must be held before earning the AZ-305 expert designation. If you do not hold AZ-104, study for and pass it first.
Apply everything in this guide with adaptive practice questions, detailed answer explanations, and domain analytics.
Deep-dive explanations of the key topics tested on AZ-305 — with exam key points and common misconceptions.