- A
Azure Front Door
Front Door provides global HTTP load balancing with SSL termination, WAF, and URL routing. It uses anycast to direct users to the nearest healthy endpoint, and supports path-based routing to different backends (AKS clusters).
- B
Azure Application Gateway
Why wrong: Application Gateway is a regional service. While it includes WAF and URL routing, it cannot provide global load balancing across multiple regions or anycast-based routing.
- C
Azure Traffic Manager
Why wrong: Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer. It does not offer SSL offloading, WAF, or URL path-based routing. It can only direct traffic based on DNS resolution, not at the application layer.
- D
Azure Load Balancer
Why wrong: Load Balancer operates at layer 4 and is regional. It does not provide SSL offloading, WAF, or URL routing, and cannot distribute traffic globally.
Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Front Door, as it is the only Azure service that combines global load balancing with automatic failover, SSL offloading, WAF, and URL path-based routing for multi-region AKS deployments. This works because Front Door uses Anycast-based routing to direct users to the nearest healthy endpoint, automatically detecting regional failures and rerouting traffic without manual intervention. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between global HTTP load balancing (Front Door) and regional load balancing (Azure Traffic Manager or Application Gateway)—a common trap is choosing Traffic Manager, which lacks native SSL offloading and WAF integration. Remember that Front Door operates at Layer 7 with full application awareness, making it ideal for microservices with path-based routing. Memory tip: think "Front Door = Global + WAF + SSL + Paths" to instantly rule out other services.
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 global company is deploying a microservices application on AKS clusters in multiple Azure regions. They need to provide a single endpoint for users worldwide with SSL offloading, web application firewall, and URL path-based routing to the nearest healthy AKS cluster. They also need global load balancing with automatic failover. Which Azure service 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 Front Door
Azure Front Door is the correct choice because it provides global HTTP/HTTPS load balancing with SSL offloading, web application firewall (WAF) integration, and URL path-based routing. It uses Anycast-based routing to direct users to the nearest healthy AKS cluster, ensuring low latency and automatic failover across regions.
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 Front Door
Why this is correct
Front Door provides global HTTP load balancing with SSL termination, WAF, and URL routing. It uses anycast to direct users to the nearest healthy endpoint, and supports path-based routing to different backends (AKS clusters).
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Application Gateway
Why it's wrong here
Application Gateway is a regional service. While it includes WAF and URL routing, it cannot provide global load balancing across multiple regions or anycast-based routing.
- ✗
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer. It does not offer SSL offloading, WAF, or URL path-based routing. It can only direct traffic based on DNS resolution, not at the application layer.
- ✗
Azure Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Load Balancer operates at layer 4 and is regional. It does not provide SSL offloading, WAF, or URL routing, and cannot distribute traffic globally.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Front Door with Azure Traffic Manager, but Traffic Manager only provides DNS-level routing without application-layer features like SSL offloading, WAF, or path-based routing.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Front Door uses Anycast networking with a distributed edge network, allowing it to terminate TLS at the edge and forward traffic over Microsoft's backbone to the nearest healthy backend. Its WAF policies can be applied globally, and URL path-based routing enables granular traffic distribution to different AKS services (e.g., /api to one cluster, /app to another). Automatic failover is achieved through health probes that monitor backend endpoints and reroute traffic within seconds of a failure.
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
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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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Design infrastructure solutions practice 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 Front Door — Azure Front Door is the correct choice because it provides global HTTP/HTTPS load balancing with SSL offloading, web application firewall (WAF) integration, and URL path-based routing. It uses Anycast-based routing to direct users to the nearest healthy AKS cluster, ensuring low latency and automatic failover across regions.
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 →
Same concept, more angles
1 more ways this is tested on AZ-305
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. You are designing a high-availability solution for a stateless web application running on Azure VMs. The solution must provide automatic failover to another region in the event of a regional outage. Which Azure service should you use to distribute traffic across regions?
easy- A.Azure Application Gateway
- B.Azure Load Balancer
- ✓ C.Azure Front Door
- D.Azure Traffic Manager
Why C: Option C is correct because Azure Front Door provides global load balancing with automatic failover across regions. Option A is wrong because Azure Traffic Manager is DNS-based and can also do cross-region failover, but Front Door provides more features like SSL offload and WAF. Option B is wrong because Azure Load Balancer is for regional load balancing. Option D is wrong because Application Gateway is regional.
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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