AZ-305 · domain
Design data storage solutions
Practise Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert AZ-305 Design data storage solutions practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.
Focused practice
Practice Design data storage solutions questions
Scored sessions drawing only from this domain — pick a length below.
Start 20-question practice test →What this domain covers
What to know about Design data storage solutions
Design data storage solutions questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.
Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.
How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.
How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.
Watch out for
Common Design data storage solutions exam traps
- ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
- ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
- ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
- ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.
Question index
All Design data storage solutions questions (39)
Click any question to see the full explanation, or start a practice session above.
A company runs a line-of-business application on Azure VMs that requires a highly available, low-latency SMB file share with support for active-active access from multiple VMs. The application requires high IOPS and throughput, and the file share must be mountable on both Linux and Windows VMs. Which Azure file storage solution should they recommend?
Easy2A company ingests millions of IoT events per second from sensors around the world. Each event is a JSON message with timestamp, device ID, and readings. They need to support real-time analytics dashboards and also store all raw data for long-term historical analysis. They want to minimize operational overhead. Which Azure data storage solution should they recommend?
Hard3A global e-commerce platform uses Azure Cosmos DB for its product catalog. The application requires multi-region writes to provide low-latency updates from any geographic location. Two users may update the same product item concurrently, so the solution must automatically resolve conflicts. For real-time inventory checks, reads must be strongly consistent, while product description reads can be eventually consistent. Which Cosmos DB configuration should they choose?
Medium4A company is designing a solution for storing sensitive financial records that must be retained for 7 years. The solution must meet the following requirements: - Data must be immutable during the retention period. - After the retention period, data must be automatically deleted. - The solution must minimize storage costs. Which two Azure services should the company use? (Choose two.)
Medium5A gaming company is developing a multiplayer online game that requires a low-latency data store for player profiles, inventory, and session state. The data is accessed globally, and the solution must support millions of concurrent players. The company expects write-heavy workloads with occasional reads. The solution must provide single-digit millisecond latency for reads and writes. The company also needs to run analytics on the data to understand player behavior, but analytics queries can tolerate higher latency (minutes). Which Azure data storage solution should the company recommend for the transactional data?
Medium6A multinational company stores large amounts of unstructured data (documents, images) that must be read with low latency from multiple global regions. Data is written primarily in one region but read globally. Cost optimization is a key requirement. Which Azure storage replication option should they use?
Medium7A software company runs 50 small Azure SQL databases for different clients. Each database has low average usage but unpredictable spikes. The company wants to minimize cost while providing resources for peak loads and easily adding new databases without manual sizing. Which Azure data service should they use?
Easy8A startup is building a social media analytics platform that processes streaming data. They need a data store for time-series events with high write throughput and fast timestamp-based range queries. Which Azure data store is most suitable for this workload?
Medium9You run the above PowerShell script to upload a blob to Azure Storage. The script fails with an error: 'The specified container does not exist.' What should you do first to resolve the issue?
Hard10A company runs large-scale analytics workloads using Apache Hadoop and Spark. They need a cloud storage solution that is fully compatible with the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and provides unlimited storage with high throughput for parallel processing. They also want to take advantage of tiered storage to reduce costs for older data. Which Azure data service should they use?
Hard11Match each Azure governance tool to its description.
Medium12A company runs a custom analytics application that reads data using the NFS 3.0 protocol. The data consists of large files organized in a directory structure. The application also requires POSIX-like access control lists (ACLs) for fine-grained permissions. The solution must be fully managed and support high throughput for parallel reads. Which Azure data service should they use?
Medium13A company needs a data storage solution for a global application that frequently accesses recent data and less frequently older data. Data is unstructured blobs. They want to automatically move blobs to cool storage after 30 days and to archive storage after 90 days. Additionally, blobs must be retained for 7 years and cannot be deleted or modified during that period. Which Azure Blob Storage features should they combine?
Medium14A company needs to store large amounts of unstructured data (log files) for analytics. The data is accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then occasionally for the next 90 days, and rarely after that but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The data must not be modified or deleted during the retention period, and administrative access must not be able to bypass this restriction. They want to minimize storage costs. Which combination of Azure Blob Storage features should they configure?
Hard15A company ingests IoT sensor data into Azure Blob Storage. Data is written frequently and is accessed rarely after the first 24 hours. The company must retain the data for exactly 90 days for compliance. They want to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to the cheapest possible storage tier as soon as possible. Which Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy should they implement?
Medium16A software company hosts multiple small databases for different clients on Azure SQL Database. Each database has low average usage but experiences unpredictable spikes. The company wants to minimize cost by pooling resources across databases while allowing each database to consume resources up to a set limit during spikes. They also need the ability to easily add new databases without manual sizing. Which Azure SQL Database deployment option should they choose?
Medium17A company is building a global real-time collaboration platform. The application data is stored as JSON documents and needs to be available for low-latency reads and writes from multiple geographic regions. The application must support multi-region writes so that users can update data from any region with automatic conflict resolution. The company wants a fully managed database service with a guaranteed SLA for availability and throughput. Which Azure data service should they choose?
Medium18A media company needs to store large volumes of video files that are processed by an application. The files are accessed via REST APIs and are rarely accessed after the first few days. The company wants to minimize storage costs by automatically moving older files to a cheaper storage tier without any manual intervention. Which Azure storage solution should they use, and which feature should they configure?
Medium19A company is building a petabyte-scale data lake for analytics. They need a storage solution that supports a hierarchical namespace, POSIX-like permissions (ACLs), and is optimized for big data analytics workloads using Apache Spark and Hive. The data must be accessible over the Azure Blob Storage API. Which Azure data service should they use?
Hard20A small business is migrating its on-premises file server to Azure. The file server contains 2 TB of data that is accessed infrequently. The business wants to minimize costs and only pay for storage used. The solution must support SMB protocol and allow for on-premises caching to reduce latency. Which Azure storage solution should the business recommend?
Easy21A company wants to store log data from multiple applications for up to 30 days for analysis. The data is append-only, and queries are infrequent but need to be fast when run. Which Azure data storage solution should you recommend?
Easy22A company wants to store raw data from IoT devices, social media feeds, and transactional databases for analytics. They need a storage solution that supports a hierarchical namespace for organizing data into directories and allows fine-grained access control at the directory and file level. They also need to query the data using Azure Synapse Analytics in-place. Which Azure storage solution should they use?
Easy23A company wants to migrate its on-premises file server to Azure with minimal application changes. The application accesses files over the SMB protocol and requires identity-based access using the existing on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). They need the solution to be fully managed with low latency. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?
Easy24A company is migrating a MongoDB-compatible application to Azure. The application requires low-latency reads and writes globally. It needs to support multi-region writes so that updates can be made from any region with automatic conflict resolution. The data is JSON documents that can vary in schema. The company wants a fully managed database service with native support for MongoDB APIs. Which Azure data service should they choose?
Medium25A company deploys a web application on Azure VMs. The application stores session state and frequently accessed product data. They need a low-latency, in-memory cache to reduce database load and improve response times. The cache must be managed and support data persistence with replication across availability zones within the region. Which Azure service and tier should they choose?
Medium26A company stores large amounts of log data in Azure Blob Storage. Logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed afterward, but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The company wants to minimize storage costs. They need to configure automatic data movement and retention policies. Which combination of Azure Blob Storage access tiers and lifecycle management policy should they use?
Medium27A company stores JSON documents for a mobile app backend. The data needs to be accessible from multiple global regions with low latency writes from any region. The app uses a client-side library that supports automatic conflict resolution for concurrent updates. Which Azure data service should they choose?
Medium28A company needs to store sensor data from IoT devices. Each device sends a message every second. The data is time-series and will be queried for real-time dashboards and historical analysis. The solution must support high ingestion rates and low-latency queries on recent data. Which Azure service should they use?
Medium29A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a JSON document-oriented application that requires low latency (single-digit milliseconds) for reads and writes at any scale. The application will run globally and needs multi-region writes with automatic failover. Which Azure data store should they use?
Medium30A company is designing a disaster recovery strategy for a mission-critical Azure SQL Database. They require a recovery point objective (RPO) of 5 seconds and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 1 hour. Which replication option should they use?
Hard31A large enterprise is designing a data lake solution for its analytics platform. The data lake will store petabytes of structured and unstructured data from various sources, including IoT devices, logs, and transactional databases. The solution must support: - Multi-protocol access (ABFS, REST, and NFS 3.0) - Hierarchical namespace for folder-level permissions - Optimized for analytical workloads (Parquet format) - Cost-effective storage for cold data that is accessed less than once a year. Which Azure storage solution should the enterprise recommend for the data lake?
Hard32A company is building a petabyte-scale data lake for analytics. The workload includes Apache Spark and Hive jobs that read and write large files. The storage solution must support a hierarchical namespace for efficient directory operations, POSIX-like access control lists (ACLs) for fine-grained permissions, and must be accessible via the Azure Blob Storage API for compatibility with existing tools. Furthermore, the solution should be optimized for analytics workloads with high throughput. Which Azure data service should they choose?
Hard33A company manages a fleet of millions of IoT devices that send telemetry data every minute. The data must be stored for 10 years to meet compliance requirements. For the first 30 days, data is accessed frequently for real-time dashboards and alerting. After 30 days, data is only accessed occasionally for historical analysis and reporting. The solution must be cost-effective and support high ingestion rates. Which Azure service should the company use to store and query this data?
Medium34A company stores log data in Azure Blob Storage. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then only occasionally for up to 1 year, and after that must be retained for 7 years for compliance purposes. The company wants to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to cheaper tiers. Which Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy should they implement?
Medium35A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a new application with a key-value and document data model. They require single-digit millisecond latency at any scale, multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution, and a serverless capacity option to handle unpredictable traffic. Which Azure data service should they use?
Easy36A media company stores large video files that are accessed once a month for audits. When needed, they must be available for download immediately (within seconds). The company wants to minimize storage costs. Which Azure Blob Storage access tier should they use?
Medium37A startup is building a new mobile app backend. They need a fully managed relational database service with built-in high availability, automatic backups, and built-in intelligence to optimize performance. They want to minimize administrative overhead for tasks like patching and scaling. Which Azure service should they use?
Easy38A global e-commerce company uses Azure Cosmos DB to store its product catalog. The catalog is read-heavy, with users worldwide expecting consistent reads with a 99th percentile latency under 10 ms. Writes to the catalog are performed by a central admin team in one region. The company needs to minimize write latency and cost while ensuring that users always see the same data within a single session. Which Cosmos DB configuration should the company choose?
Hard39A company stores log data in Azure Blob Storage. Logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. They want to minimize storage costs. Which storage tier and lifecycle management rule should they use?
EasyOther domains
All AZ-305 exam domains
Frequently asked questions
- What does the Design data storage solutions domain cover on the AZ-305 exam?
- Design data storage solutions questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 39 Design data storage solutions questions in the AZ-305 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Design data storage solutions questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.