- A
Azure Load Balancer
Why wrong: Azure Load Balancer works at layer-4 (TCP/UDP) and cannot offload SSL/TLS or use application-layer cookies for session persistence. It is not suitable for HTTPS traffic with session affinity.
- B
Azure Application Gateway
Application Gateway is a layer-7 load balancer that provides SSL termination, cookie-based session affinity, and URL-based routing. It can distribute HTTPS traffic across VMs in availability zones.
- C
Azure Traffic Manager
Why wrong: Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer for directing traffic across different endpoints (e.g., different regions). It does not handle SSL termination or session persistence for a single-region deployment.
- D
Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Front Door is a global application delivery network with layer-7 capabilities, but it is optimized for multi-region load balancing. For a single-region, multi-zone deployment, Application Gateway is the more appropriate and cost-effective choice.
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. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. 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 on Azure virtual machines (VMs) across multiple availability zones in the East US region. The application receives HTTPS traffic. They need to distribute incoming traffic across the VMs, offload SSL/TLS termination, and ensure that client requests from the same user session are always sent to the same backend VM (session persistence). Which Azure load balancing solution should they choose?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"always"Why it matters: Absolute qualifier. An answer using 'always' is only correct if there are genuinely no exceptions — absolute statements are often wrong in networking.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
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 the correct choice because it is a Layer 7 load balancer that supports SSL/TLS termination, cookie-based session persistence (affinity), and can distribute HTTPS traffic across VMs in multiple availability zones. These features directly match all three requirements: SSL offloading, session persistence, and cross-zone traffic distribution.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Azure Load Balancer works at layer-4 (TCP/UDP) and cannot offload SSL/TLS or use application-layer cookies for session persistence. It is not suitable for HTTPS traffic with session affinity.
- ✓
Azure Application Gateway
Why this is correct
Application Gateway is a layer-7 load balancer that provides SSL termination, cookie-based session affinity, and URL-based routing. It can distribute HTTPS traffic across VMs in availability zones.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "always" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer for directing traffic across different endpoints (e.g., different regions). It does not handle SSL termination or session persistence for a single-region deployment.
- ✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Front Door is a global application delivery network with layer-7 capabilities, but it is optimized for multi-region load balancing. For a single-region, multi-zone deployment, Application Gateway is the more appropriate and cost-effective choice.
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 any load balancer can handle SSL termination and session persistence, but only Layer 7 solutions like Application Gateway or Front Door provide cookie-based affinity and SSL offload.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Application Gateway uses a cookie named 'ApplicationGatewayAffinity' to bind a user session to a specific backend server, ensuring all requests from that session hit the same VM. SSL termination at the gateway reduces backend CPU load by decrypting traffic once, and the gateway can be deployed in a zone-redundant configuration to survive an entire availability zone failure. In practice, this setup is ideal for e-commerce or banking apps where cart state or login tokens must persist on the same backend server.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Design infrastructure solutions — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-305 question test?
Design infrastructure solutions — This question tests Design infrastructure solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Application Gateway — Azure Application Gateway is the correct choice because it is a Layer 7 load balancer that supports SSL/TLS termination, cookie-based session persistence (affinity), and can distribute HTTPS traffic across VMs in multiple availability zones. These features directly match all three requirements: SSL offloading, session persistence, and cross-zone traffic distribution.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "always". Absolute qualifier. An answer using 'always' is only correct if there are genuinely no exceptions — absolute statements are often wrong in networking.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This AZ-305 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-305 exam.
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