AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Question
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design data storage 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 organization is migrating on-premises SQL Server databases to Azure. The databases are mission-critical and require the highest level of availability with automatic failover to a secondary region. Which Azure SQL deployment option should you recommend?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication
Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication provides the highest level of availability with automatic failover to a secondary region by continuously replicating transactions from the primary to a readable secondary database in a different Azure region. This supports an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 hour (or lower with forced failover), making it ideal for mission-critical workloads requiring cross-region disaster recovery.
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 SQL Database with active geo-replication
Why this is correct
Active geo-replication enables automatic failover to a secondary region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Why it's wrong here
Not a SQL Server migration target.
✗
SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines with Always On availability groups
Why it's wrong here
Requires manual setup and management.
✗
Azure SQL Managed Instance with failover groups
Why it's wrong here
Failover groups provide automated failover but are not as seamless as active geo-replication.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure SQL Managed Instance failover groups (which only support same-region automatic failover) with active geo-replication (which supports cross-region automatic failover), leading them to select Option D incorrectly.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Active geo-replication uses asynchronous replication at the transaction log level, ensuring that committed transactions are replicated to the secondary within seconds (RPO of 5 seconds). During a failover, the secondary database becomes the new primary with a forced failover that typically completes within 1 hour (RTO), and the original primary is automatically disabled. In real-world scenarios, this is critical for compliance requirements like SLA guarantees of 99.995% uptime with geo-redundancy, and it supports readable secondaries for read-scale workloads without impacting primary performance.
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.
TExam Day Tips
→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.
Design data storage solutions — This question tests Design data storage solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication — Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication provides the highest level of availability with automatic failover to a secondary region by continuously replicating transactions from the primary to a readable secondary database in a different Azure region. This supports an RPO of 5 seconds and an RTO of 1 hour (or lower with forced failover), making it ideal for mission-critical workloads requiring cross-region disaster recovery.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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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