The correct answer includes Azure Traffic Manager, Azure Load Balancer, and Availability Sets. This architecture achieves cross-region high availability for Azure VMs by layering traffic distribution: Traffic Manager routes users to the healthy region at the DNS level, while the regional Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic across VMs within that region, and Availability Sets protect against hardware failures within a single datacenter. On the AZ-305 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the difference between cross-region and intra-region resiliency components—a common trap is confusing Availability Zones (which are regional) with Availability Sets (which are datacenter-level). Remember that Traffic Manager handles global failover, Load Balancer handles local distribution, and Availability Sets handle rack-level redundancy. A useful memory tip is “Global, Local, Rack”—Traffic Manager for global routing, Load Balancer for local balancing, and Availability Sets for rack-level fault tolerance.
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.
Your company is designing a new application that will run on Azure VMs. The application must be highly available across two Azure regions. You need to ensure that the application can automatically fail over if a regional outage occurs. Which THREE components should you include in the architecture? (Choose three.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure Traffic Manager
Option A, Option C, and Option D are correct. Azure Traffic Manager distributes traffic across regions. Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic within a region. Availability Sets protect against failures within a datacenter. Option B is wrong because Availability Zones are within a region, not across regions. Option E is wrong because Azure Application Gateway is a regional load balancer but not necessary if using Traffic Manager and Load Balancer.
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
Why it's wrong here
Application Gateway is a regional load balancer; not required if already using Traffic Manager and Load Balancer.
✓
Azure Traffic Manager
Why this is correct
Traffic Manager provides global load balancing across regions.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Availability Sets
Why this is correct
Availability Sets protect against hardware failures within a datacenter.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Availability Zones
Why it's wrong here
Availability Zones are within a single region, not across regions.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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.
Identify which AZ-305 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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 Traffic Manager — Option A, Option C, and Option D are correct. Azure Traffic Manager distributes traffic across regions. Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic within a region. Availability Sets protect against failures within a datacenter. Option B is wrong because Availability Zones are within a region, not across regions. Option E is wrong because Azure Application Gateway is a regional load balancer but not necessary if using Traffic Manager and Load Balancer.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Identify which AZ-305 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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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