AZ-305 Design infrastructure solutions Practice Question
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design infrastructure solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. A key principle to apply: azure Application Gateway provides Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancing.. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company deploys a web application across multiple Azure VMs in a single region. They need to distribute incoming HTTP traffic, offload SSL termination, and perform URL-based routing to different backend pools (e.g., /images to one pool, /api to another). Which Azure load balancing solution should they use?
Correct: Application Gateway provides Layer 7 load balancing with path-based routing and SSL offload.
B
Azure Load Balancer
Why wrong: Incorrect: Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and cannot perform URL path routing.
C
Azure Traffic Manager
Why wrong: Incorrect: Traffic Manager is a DNS-level traffic router and cannot offload SSL or route based on URL paths.
D
Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Incorrect: Front Door is a global service that can do path-based routing, but it is optimized for global distribution; for a single-region deployment behind a single VNet, Application Gateway is more appropriate.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure Application Gateway
Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer that can distribute HTTP traffic, offload SSL termination, and perform URL-based routing to different backend pools. This directly matches the requirements for routing /images and /api traffic to separate pools while handling SSL termination at the gateway.
Incorrect: Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and cannot perform URL path routing.
✗
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Traffic Manager is a DNS-level traffic router and cannot offload SSL or route based on URL paths.
✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Front Door is a global service that can do path-based routing, but it is optimized for global distribution; for a single-region deployment behind a single VNet, Application Gateway is more appropriate.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Load Balancer (Layer 4) with Application Gateway (Layer 7), assuming all load balancers can handle HTTP routing and SSL termination, but only Layer 7 solutions like Application Gateway or Front Door can perform URL-based routing and SSL offloading.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Application Gateway uses a Web Application Firewall (WAF) policy and supports path-based routing rules defined via backend pools and path maps. Under the hood, it terminates SSL using certificates stored in Key Vault or directly on the gateway, then forwards plain HTTP or re-encrypted traffic to backend VMs. A real-world scenario where this matters is when you need to route /images to a VMSS optimized for static content and /api to a separate VMSS running a REST API, while ensuring all HTTPS traffic is decrypted once at the gateway.
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-305 question in full detail.
Review azure Application Gateway provides Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancing., then practise related AZ-305 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
The correct answer is: Azure Application Gateway — Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer that can distribute HTTP traffic, offload SSL termination, and perform URL-based routing to different backend pools. This directly matches the requirements for routing /images and /api traffic to separate pools while handling SSL termination at the gateway.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Review azure Application Gateway provides Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancing., then practise related AZ-305 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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