Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Monitor Logs, Application Insights, and Azure Monitor Alerts. Application Insights is the core service for monitoring web application performance, as it collects telemetry like request rates, response times, and failure rates to detect and diagnose issues in real time. Azure Monitor Logs stores and queries this telemetry data for deep analysis, while Azure Monitor Alerts proactively notifies you when performance thresholds are breached. On the AZ-305 exam, this triad tests your ability to distinguish between monitoring, logging, and alerting components—a common trap is confusing Azure Monitor Metrics with Logs, but remember that Logs handles detailed queryable data whereas Metrics focuses on numerical time-series. For a memory tip, think of the three as "See, Store, Shout": Application Insights sees the performance, Azure Monitor Logs stores the data, and Alerts shouts when something goes wrong.
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design identity, governance, and monitoring 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.
Which THREE Azure services can be used to monitor the performance of a web application? (Choose three.)
Azure Policy
Why wrong: Azure Policy is for compliance, not performance.
Application Insights
Application Insights provides application performance monitoring.
Azure Monitor Metrics
Metrics collects performance data like CPU and memory.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Why wrong: Defender for Cloud focuses on security, not performance.
Azure Monitor Logs
Logs collect application and system diagnostic data.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Application Insights
Application Insights is an Azure service specifically designed for monitoring the performance and usage of live web applications. It collects telemetry data such as request rates, response times, failure rates, and dependency tracking, enabling developers to detect and diagnose performance issues in real time.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Azure Policy
Why it's wrong here
Azure Policy is for compliance, not performance.
Application Insights
Why this is correct
Application Insights provides application performance monitoring.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Azure Monitor Metrics
Why this is correct
Metrics collects performance data like CPU and memory.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Why it's wrong here
Defender for Cloud focuses on security, not performance.
Azure Monitor Logs
Why this is correct
Logs collect application and system diagnostic data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse governance tools like Azure Policy or security tools like Defender for Cloud with performance monitoring, but the exam specifically tests the distinction between monitoring (Application Insights, Metrics, Logs) and management/security services.
Detailed technical explanation
Application Insights uses distributed tracing via the W3C Trace-Context standard to correlate telemetry across services, and it supports automatic instrumentation for popular frameworks like ASP.NET Core and Node.js. Azure Monitor Metrics stores numerical time-series data with a 30-day retention by default, while Azure Monitor Logs (based on Log Analytics) allows complex Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries for deep analysis of application traces and logs. In a real-world scenario, combining these three services enables a DevOps team to set up proactive alerts on response time thresholds and drill into specific failed requests using log queries.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — This question tests Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Application Insights — Application Insights is an Azure service specifically designed for monitoring the performance and usage of live web applications. It collects telemetry data such as request rates, response times, failure rates, and dependency tracking, enabling developers to detect and diagnose performance issues in real time.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 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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