AZ-305 Design infrastructure solutions Practice Question
A company has Azure virtual networks (VNets) in three different Azure regions (West US, East US, and West Europe). They also have an on-premises data center connected to the East US region via ExpressRoute. They need to connect all VNets to each other and to the on-premises network. The solution must support transitive routing between all sites and provide centralized management of connectivity and routing policies. Which Azure service should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume VNet peering can be chained to achieve transitive routing, but Azure explicitly blocks transitive routing through peered VNets unless a network virtual appliance or Azure Virtual WAN is used.
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 Virtual WAN
Azure Virtual WAN is correct because it provides a hub-and-spoke architecture with built-in transitive routing between all VNets and on-premises sites. It supports automatic connectivity through Virtual Hub routers, which use BGP to propagate routes across all spokes and branches, meeting the requirement for centralized management of connectivity and routing policies.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
VNet peering
Why it's wrong here
VNet peering provides connectivity between two VNets but is not transitive. It would require a full mesh of peerings to connect all VNets, and it does not natively connect to on-premises networks or provide centralized management.
- ✓
Azure Virtual WAN
Why this is correct
Azure Virtual WAN is the correct architectural solution because it creates regional hubs connected in an any-to-any mesh, and each hub contains a fully managed virtual router with built-in VPN/ExpressRoute gateways. It provides transitive routing between VNets attached to different hubs as well as between VNets and on-premises sites, using a single, centrally managed route table and route propagation via BGP. This eliminates the need to build a full mesh of VNet peerings and gives centralized monitoring, routing, and security policy management across all regions.
- ✗
VPN Gateway
Why it's wrong here
A VPN Gateway is a per-VNet resource that terminates a single IPsec tunnel to one on-premises site; it does not natively route between VNets. In a multi-region environment, you would need a separate VPN gateway in every VNet plus a costly mesh of site-to-site tunnels or VNet-to-VNet connections, and even then Azure VPN Gateway does not support transitive routing—traffic from VNet A cannot flow through VNet B to reach VNet C. It also offers no centralized cross-region routing administration, making it operationally complex and brittle for hub-and-spoke requirements.
- ✗
ExpressRoute Direct
Why it's wrong here
ExpressRoute Direct is merely a physical port provisioning model that lets you connect your own routers directly to Microsoft's edge at a peering location using 10 Gbps or 100 Gbps ports. It does not create any logical connectivity between virtual networks; you still need an ExpressRoute virtual network gateway in each VNet and an ExpressRoute circuit attachment to reach on-premises routes, and even then only the on-premises prefixes are exchanged—no VNet-to-VNet transitive routing is provided. Thus ExpressRoute Direct serves as a Layer 2/3 transport option, not as a routing or connectivity meshing service, so it cannot solve multi-region VNet-to-VNet connectivity.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.