AZ-900 Describe Azure architecture and services Practice Question
Which Azure service provides application-level, request-based routing with session persistence for web workloads?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Azure Load Balancer (Layer 4) with Azure Application Gateway (Layer 7), assuming all load balancers provide application-level routing and session persistence, but only Layer 7 services like Application Gateway can inspect HTTP headers and manage cookie-based affinity.
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 Application Gateway
Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancer that provides application-level, request-based routing based on URL path, host headers, or other HTTP attributes. It also supports session persistence (also known as sticky sessions) using cookies, which ensures that all requests from a client during a session are directed to the same backend server. This makes it the correct choice for web workloads requiring request-level routing and session affinity.
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 Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Load Balancer provides layer 4 (TCP/UDP) load balancing without session persistence or URL-based routing.
- ✓
Azure Application Gateway
Why this is correct
Application Gateway provides layer 7 load balancing with URL routing, session affinity, SSL termination, and WAF.
- ✗
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager provides DNS-based global routing; Application Gateway provides within-region layer 7 load balancing.
- ✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Front Door provides global layer 7 load balancing; Application Gateway operates regionally.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-900 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-900 exam.