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 within a single region. They need to distribute incoming HTTP traffic across multiple VMs, offload SSL encryption, and maintain session persistence (sticky sessions) for user sessions. Which Azure load balancing solution should they use?
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 can route HTTP/HTTPS traffic, offload SSL/TLS encryption, and support session affinity (sticky sessions) using cookies. Unlike a Layer 4 load balancer, it can inspect application-layer data, making it ideal for web applications requiring SSL termination and persistent user sessions.
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
Incorrect. Azure Load Balancer is Layer 4 and cannot offload SSL or maintain session persistence based on HTTP cookies.
✓
Azure Application Gateway
Why this is correct
Correct. Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer that offloads SSL, supports sticky sessions, and distributes HTTP traffic.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Traffic Manager operates at the DNS level and does not handle SSL offloading or session persistence.
✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Front Door is a global service, not the best choice for traffic distribution within a single region.
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 support SSL offloading and sticky sessions, but only Layer 7 solutions like Application Gateway or Front Door provide these application-layer features.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Application Gateway uses a Web Application Firewall (WAF) policy to inspect and filter HTTP traffic, and it supports end-to-end TLS encryption by decrypting traffic at the gateway, then re-encrypting it to backend VMs if needed. Session affinity is achieved via a gateway-managed cookie (ApplicationGatewayAffinity) that binds a user session to a specific backend server, which is critical for stateful applications like shopping carts. In a real-world scenario, if the application uses WebSocket or requires URL-based routing, Application Gateway can also route traffic based on URL paths, which Azure Load Balancer cannot do.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-305 question in full detail.
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 can route HTTP/HTTPS traffic, offload SSL/TLS encryption, and support session affinity (sticky sessions) using cookies. Unlike a Layer 4 load balancer, it can inspect application-layer data, making it ideal for web applications requiring SSL termination and persistent user sessions.
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.
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Question Discussion
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