- A
Azure Application Gateway v2.
Application Gateway supports HTTPS termination, cookie-based session persistence, and health probes, all at layer 7. It is designed for web traffic within a region and can be deployed across availability zones.
- B
Azure Load Balancer (Standard).
Why wrong: Standard Load Balancer is a layer 4 load balancer. It cannot terminate SSL or provide session persistence based on application cookies.
- C
Azure Traffic Manager.
Why wrong: Traffic Manager is a DNS-based global traffic routing service. It does not handle SSL termination or session persistence, and it operates across regions, not within a single region.
- D
Azure Front Door.
Why wrong: Front Door is a global application delivery network. It provides SSL termination and session persistence, but it is designed for global scenarios, adding unnecessary complexity and latency for a single-region deployment.
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 VMs across availability zones. They need to distribute HTTPS traffic, offload SSL termination, and maintain session persistence. They do not require traffic inspection. Which Azure load balancing solution should they use?
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 v2.
Azure Application Gateway v2 is the correct choice because it is a Layer 7 load balancer that supports HTTPS traffic distribution, SSL termination (offloading the decryption burden from backend VMs), and session persistence via cookie-based affinity. It meets all requirements without needing traffic inspection, which is optional and can be disabled.
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 Application Gateway v2.
Why this is correct
Application Gateway supports HTTPS termination, cookie-based session persistence, and health probes, all at layer 7. It is designed for web traffic within a region and can be deployed across availability zones.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Load Balancer (Standard).
Why it's wrong here
Standard Load Balancer is a layer 4 load balancer. It cannot terminate SSL or provide session persistence based on application cookies.
- ✗
Azure Traffic Manager.
- ✗
Azure Front Door.
Why it's wrong here
Front Door is a global application delivery network. It provides SSL termination and session persistence, but it is designed for global scenarios, adding unnecessary complexity and latency for a single-region deployment.
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, but only Layer 7 solutions like Application Gateway or Front Door can offload SSL and maintain session persistence at the application layer.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
Front Door is a global application delivery network. It provides SSL termination and session persistence, but it is designed for global scenarios, adding unnecessary complexity and latency for a single-region deployment.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Application Gateway v2 uses a private front-end IP within a virtual network and supports end-to-end TLS with certificate management, including automatic rotation. Session persistence is achieved through Application Gateway cookie-based affinity, which sets a cookie (ApplicationGatewayAffinity) to route subsequent requests from the same client to the same backend VM, ensuring stateful interactions without requiring client IP affinity. Under the hood, it leverages a scalable set of instances that can handle up to 1,000 SSL connections per second per unit, making it ideal for high-throughput web applications.
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
- →
Design infrastructure solutions practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All AZ-305 questions
999 questions across all exam domains
- →
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert AZ-305 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
AZ-305 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related AZ-305 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions.
Design data storage solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design data storage solutions.
Design business continuity solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design business continuity solutions.
Design infrastructure solutions practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to Design infrastructure solutions.
SAA-C03 VPC practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions
Practise AZ-305 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Start a free AZ-305 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
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 v2. — Azure Application Gateway v2 is the correct choice because it is a Layer 7 load balancer that supports HTTPS traffic distribution, SSL termination (offloading the decryption burden from backend VMs), and session persistence via cookie-based affinity. It meets all requirements without needing traffic inspection, which is optional and can be disabled.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Keep practising
More AZ-305 practice questions
- A company has multiple Azure virtual networks (VNets) in different regions and an on-premises data center connected via…
- A company is designing hub-and-spoke networking. Spoke VNets must use a central Azure Firewall for outbound internet tra…
- A company has virtual machines in Azure that need to be grouped across multiple fault domains and update domains to ensu…
- A company plans to migrate on-premises applications to Azure. They require users to authenticate using their existing on…
- A company has multiple Azure subscriptions and wants to enforce that all administrators must use multi-factor authentica…
- A company has two on-premises data centers and an Azure subscription. They need to connect each data center to Azure wit…
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.