AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Question
Which TWO of the following Azure storage services support hosting static websites?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Azure Blob Storage (which supports static websites when part of a general-purpose v2 account) with Azure Files or Azure NetApp Files, assuming any storage service can serve web content, but only the blob service with the static website feature enabled provides the necessary HTTP endpoint and routing logic.
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 Storage Account (general-purpose v2)
Azure Storage Account (general-purpose v2) supports hosting static websites by enabling the 'Static website' feature, which configures a container named '$web' to serve static content (HTML, CSS, JS) directly via a public endpoint. This feature is built into the storage account's blob service and provides automatic routing for index and error documents, making it a cost-effective solution for static site hosting.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Storage Account (general-purpose v2)
Why this is correct
A general-purpose v2 storage account is the management object that exposes the static website feature. When you enable the 'Static website' property, Azure provisions a dedicated web endpoint and a hidden `$web` blob container that serves your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files with HTTP GET requests, supporting custom domains and CDN integration.
- ✗
Azure Cosmos DB
Why it's wrong here
Cosmos DB is a multi-model NoSQL service built for globally distributed document, key-value, column-family, and graph workloads. It exposes SQL/MongoDB/Cassandra-compatible APIs and stores data in partitions, but it has no concept of static files, no web server endpoint, and cannot serve HTML/JS/CSS to browsers as a hosted website.
- ✗
Azure NetApp Files
Why it's wrong here
Azure NetApp Files is an enterprise-grade file service backed by NetApp ONTAP, providing high-performance NFS and SMB shares for HPC, SAP, and VDI workloads. It operates at the file-system protocol layer over the network and has no HTTP-based content serving, no `$web` container, and no static website hosting capability.
- ✓
Azure Blob Storage
Why this is correct
Azure Blob Storage is the actual object storage service where static website hosting is implemented. When enabled on a general-purpose v2 account, Blob Storage creates a `$web` container and serves the contents via a dedicated static website endpoint, allowing index document and 404 error document customization, though SAS tokens are not supported on that public web endpoint.
- ✗
Azure Files
Why it's wrong here
Azure Files provides managed SMB and NFS file shares for lift-and-shift migrations, shared application data, and Azure File Sync scenarios. It presents a standard file share path (e.g., UNC or mount point) and has no HTTP/S static content engine, so it cannot translate a directory of HTML files into a browsable, publicly accessible website.
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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.