The correct choice is Azure Application Gateway with Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS Protection. This service provides Layer 7 load balancing with SSL termination at the gateway, offloading the encryption overhead from backend VMs, while health probes ensure traffic is only routed to healthy instances. The integrated WAF protects against common web vulnerabilities like the OWASP Top 10, and enabling Azure DDoS Network Protection on the virtual network hosting the gateway mitigates volumetric attacks, meeting all requirements for internet exposure, SSL offload, health monitoring, and dual-layer security. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your ability to differentiate between Layer 4 (Azure Load Balancer) and Layer 7 (Application Gateway) solutions—a common trap is choosing a standard load balancer, which lacks WAF and SSL termination. Remember the mnemonic: "WAF and DDoS on the Gateway" to recall that security and SSL offload happen at the application layer, not the network layer.
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 in an availability set. They need to expose the application to the internet with SSL termination and health probes. Additionally, they need to protect against DDoS attacks and common web vulnerabilities. Which Azure service 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 with Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS Protection
Azure Application Gateway with WAF and DDoS Protection is the correct choice because it provides Layer 7 load balancing with SSL termination at the gateway, health probes for backend VMs, and the WAF feature protects against common web vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP Top 10). DDoS Protection (Azure DDoS Network Protection) can be enabled on the virtual network hosting the Application Gateway to mitigate volumetric attacks. This combination directly meets all stated requirements: internet exposure, SSL offload, health monitoring, and dual-layer security.
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 with Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS Protection
Why this is correct
Application Gateway offers SSL termination, health probes, WAF, and can be combined with DDoS Protection.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure Front Door with WAF and DDoS Protection
Why it's wrong here
Front Door is a global service; for a single-region app, Application Gateway is more appropriate and cost-effective.
✗
Azure Traffic Manager and Azure Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager is DNS-based and does not handle SSL termination; Load Balancer works at Layer 4 without WAF.
✗
Azure CDN with WAF
Why it's wrong here
CDN is for content delivery, not a load balancer for the application itself; it lacks health probes.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Front Door (global, multi-region) with Application Gateway (regional, single-region), overlooking that the question specifies an availability set (single-region) and requires SSL termination and health probes at the gateway level, which Front Door does not natively provide for a single-region backend.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Azure Application Gateway uses a dedicated gateway instance that terminates SSL by decrypting traffic using a configured certificate, then re-encrypts or forwards plain HTTP to backend VMs based on health probe results (HTTP/HTTPS/TCP). The WAF operates in either detection or prevention mode, inspecting each request against OWASP 3.x rulesets, and can be combined with DDoS Protection Standard (which requires enabling on the VNet) to filter out layer 3/4 attacks before they reach the gateway. A real-world scenario is a retail web app with strict PCI DSS compliance, where SSL offload reduces backend CPU load and WAF blocks SQL injection attempts while DDoS Protection absorbs SYN floods.
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 with Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS Protection — Azure Application Gateway with WAF and DDoS Protection is the correct choice because it provides Layer 7 load balancing with SSL termination at the gateway, health probes for backend VMs, and the WAF feature protects against common web vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP Top 10). DDoS Protection (Azure DDoS Network Protection) can be enabled on the virtual network hosting the Application Gateway to mitigate volumetric attacks. This combination directly meets all stated requirements: internet exposure, SSL offload, health monitoring, and dual-layer security.
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
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Variation 1. A company deploys a web application on multiple Azure VMs within an availability set. They need to distribute incoming HTTP traffic evenly across the VMs and provide health probe monitoring. The solution must support SSL termination and source IP affinity (session persistence). Which Azure load balancing solution should they choose?
easy
A.Azure Load Balancer (Basic)
B.Azure Load Balancer (Standard)
✓ C.Azure Application Gateway v2
D.Azure Traffic Manager
Why C: Azure Application Gateway v2 is the correct choice because it is a Layer 7 load balancer that supports SSL termination, source IP affinity (session persistence), and health probe monitoring. It can distribute HTTP traffic evenly across VMs in an availability set while offloading SSL processing from the backend VMs.
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Question Discussion
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