Azure Solutions Architect Expert Sample Questions to Prepare for AZ-305 Exam

Master your preparation for the AZ-305 certification with these updated Azure Solutions Architect Expert Sample Questions. Designed to align with the real exam structure, these questions help you assess knowledge across networking, identity, security, business continuity, and data solutions. Explore realistic scenarios with Azure solution architect dumps, targeted exercises, and expert renewal exam questions. Whether you're taking the initial AZ-305 exam or renewing your certification, these practice sets ensure you build the confidence and accuracy needed to pass. Prepare effectively and validate your skills as a Microsoft-certified cloud professional.

Azure Solutions Architect Expert Sample Questions List :

1. A solution uses Azure Cosmos DB (SQL API). Query performance on a large container has degraded. Analysis shows a frequently run query uses `ORDER BY` on a property without an index. What is the most efficient way to improve this query's performance?

1. Rewrite the query to avoid using `ORDER BY`

2. Change the partition key to the property used in `ORDER BY`

3. Increase the RU/s provisioned for the container

4. Add a Composite Index including the property used in `ORDER BY`

2. You are designing authentication for a legacy on-premises application migrating to Azure VMs. The app uses Windows Integrated Authentication (Kerberos/NTLM) against an on-prem AD. Users will access it over the internet. What solution provides seamless SSO without modifying the application?

1. Implement Azure AD Domain Services (AAD DS)

2. Deploy Azure AD Application Proxy connectors on-premises

3. Use Azure AD Connect to sync users and implement OAuth in the app

4. Configure a Site-to-Site VPN and join VMs to on-prem AD

3. A mission-critical application uses an Azure SQL Managed Instance. You require an RPO of < 5 seconds and an RTO of < 1 minute during a regional outage, with minimal data loss. What high availability/disaster recovery solution should you implement?

1. Geo-Restore from backups

2. Active Geo-Replication with manual failover

3. Auto-Failover Groups with synchronous replication

4. Auto-Failover Groups with asynchronous replication

4. A global application uses Azure Front Door for acceleration and WAF. Backends are in multiple regions. You need to ensure users are only directed to backends in regions compliant with their data residency laws. What feature should you configure?

1. Front Door Health Probes

2. Front Door Geo-filtering policies

3. Front Door Routing Rules with Path-based routing

4. Front Door Session Affinity

5. A company uses Azure AD. You need to implement access control for an internal web app where permissions are defined by complex business rules (e.g., "User must be in Department X AND located in Region Y, OR have Job Title Z"). What is the most maintainable authorization approach?

1. Assign users directly to Azure AD App Roles

2. Implement role checks within the application code

3. Use Azure AD Dynamic Groups based on user attributes

4. Use Azure AD groups and manage membership manually

6. An IoT solution ingests millions of device telemetry events per minute. Data must be stored for 7 days for real-time dashboards, then moved to cold storage for 5 years for compliance. What is the most cost-effective storage architecture?

1. Azure IoT Hub -> Azure Table Storage -> Azure Disk Storage Snapshots

2. Azure Event Hubs -> Azure Data Explorer -> Azure Blob Archive

3. Azure Event Hubs -> Azure SQL Database -> Azure Blob Archive

4. Azure Service Bus -> Azure Cosmos DB -> Azure File Storage

7. A globally distributed application uses Azure Cosmos DB (Core SQL API) with strong consistency. Users report high latency for writes in a region geographically distant from the write region. What configuration change can reduce write latency without impacting strong consistency?

1. Add a read region closer to the users experiencing write latency

2. Move the write region closer to the users experiencing write latency

3. Enable Multi-region Writes

4. Change the default consistency level to Bounded Staleness

8. You need to simulate regional outages for an Azure application to validate resilience and failover procedures, without causing actual downtime for users. What Azure service should you use?

1. Azure Resource Health

2. Azure Chaos Studio

3. Azure Site Recovery Test Failover

4. Azure Monitor Availability Tests

9. An application uses Azure Cache for Redis. During peak load, the application experiences timeouts connecting to the cache. Metrics show high server load on the Redis instance. What is the most effective way to resolve this without application code changes?

1. Add more instances of Azure Cache for Redis and update connection strings

2. Configure Azure Traffic Manager in front of the Redis endpoint

3. Enable Redis clustering on the existing instance

4. Increase the size (SKU) of the existing Redis instance (e.g., from C2 to C3)

10. A company uses Azure Policy heavily for governance. You need to identify which policies are non-compliant across all subscriptions within a Management Group hierarchy and estimate remediation effort. What Azure service provides the best overview?

1. Azure Resource Graph Explorer queries

2. Azure Policy Compliance Dashboard (in Azure Portal or via API)

3. Azure Cost Management + Billing

4. Azure Advisor Recommendations

11. You need to deploy a highly available, zone-redundant API gateway that can apply custom logic (like JWT validation, request transformation) and integrate with an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) backend. What Azure service should you use?

1. NGINX Ingress Controller on AKS

2. Azure Front Door (Premium Tier)

3. Azure API Management (Premium Tier)

4. Azure Application Gateway (v2 WAF SKU)

12. You are designing network connectivity for an Azure VMware Solution (AVS) private cloud. Connectivity must be private, low-latency, and resilient without relying on public internet or VPN. What Azure networking service should you use?

1. Azure Virtual WAN with ExpressRoute

2. Azure Front Door

3. Site-to-Site VPN Gateway

4. VNet Peering

13. You are designing a highly available order processing system. Orders are ingested via an Azure Function triggered by messages in a queue. Processing each order requires 2-5 seconds and must be exactly once. The system must scale massively during unpredictable spikes. Which compute option should you recommend?

1. Azure Container Instances (ACI)

2. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with KEDA autoscaling

3. Azure App Service Plan (Isolated v3) with auto-scaling

4. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

14. An application uses Azure Files SMB shares. Users report slow performance when accessing files from Azure VMs in the same region. The share is using the Standard tier. What is the most likely cost-effective solution to improve performance?

1. Migrate to Azure Files Premium tier

2. Configure a VPN Gateway

3. Enable Azure Files large file shares

4. Increase the size of the Azure VMs

15. You are designing a solution for a stateful microservice requiring low-latency disk access (< 1ms), high IOPS (> 50k), and high throughput (> 1 GB/s) per instance. The service runs on Linux. Which Azure storage and compute combination is optimal?

1. Azure App Service (Premium v3) with Azure Files Premium

2. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Azure Standard SSD Disks

3. Azure Container Instances (ACI) with Azure Blob Storage

4. Azure Virtual Machines (Dsv5-series) with Azure Ultra Disks

16. You manage cost governance. A development team has VMs running 24/7 that should only run Monday-Friday, 8 AM-6 PM. What is the most reliable way to ensure they are automatically deallocated outside these hours?

1. Instruct developers to manually shut down VMs daily

2. Set Azure Policy to enforce VM shutdown tags

3. Implement Azure Automation schedules with Start/Stop VM during off-hours solution

4. Use Azure Advisor cost recommendations

17. A solution stores sensitive customer data in Azure Blob Storage. Regulatory requirements mandate that this data must be encrypted at rest using keys never processed by Microsoft services. What encryption method must you use?

1. Storage Service Encryption (SSE) with Microsoft Managed Keys

2. Customer-Provided Keys (CPK) provided on each API call

3. Service-Managed Keys (Platform-Managed Keys)

4. Customer-Managed Keys (CMK) stored in Azure Key Vault

18. You need to securely connect an on-premises network to hundreds of Azure VNets across multiple regions and Azure tenants, using private connectivity. What Azure service provides the most scalable and manageable solution?

1. Use Azure Virtual WAN with an ExpressRoute circuit and Virtual Hub connections

2. Configure VNet Peering between all VNets and the on-prem network

3. Implement Azure Private Link for each service

4. Deploy multiple Site-to-Site VPN Gateways

19. A company has a hub-spoke network topology in Azure. All internet-bound traffic from spokes must egress through a centralized Azure Firewall in the hub for inspection. What routing mechanism ensures this path is followed?

1. Configure User-Defined Routes (UDRs) on the GatewaySubnet

2. Enable BGP propagation on the Azure VPN Gateway in the hub

3. Configure default routes (0.0.0.0/0) in each spoke VNet's route table pointing to the Azure Firewall's private IP

4. Use Azure Virtual Network Manager security admin rules

20. You need to provide developers with self-service access to deploy approved ARM templates for specific environments (dev/test), while preventing modification of network security groups (NSGs) and Azure Firewall rules. What should you implement?

1. Azure Managed Identities with RBAC

2. Azure Lighthouse with custom roles

3. Azure Blueprints with resource locks

4. Azure DevOps Pipelines with manual approval gates

21. An application uses Azure SQL Database. A critical query performance has degraded over months. You suspect plan regression due to parameter sniffing. What feature can help automatically stabilize performance without code changes?

1. Increase the Database DTU/s or vCores

2. Create a covering index for the query

3. Rewrite the query using query hints

4. Enable Automatic Tuning - Force Plan

22. An application requires processing large video files (100s of GB each). Processing is parallelizable but CPU-intensive and can take hours. Compute costs must be minimized. What is the optimal Azure compute service?

1. Azure Functions (Consumption Plan)

2. Azure Virtual Machines (Reserved Instances)

3. Azure App Service

4. Azure Batch

23. A company needs to deploy identical environments (VNet, VMs, NSG, LB) to 20 different Azure regions for low-latency access. Deployment must be consistent and repeatable. What is the most efficient infrastructure-as-code (IaC) approach?

1. Create a Bicep module defining the environment and deploy it 20 times with different locations

2. Create a single ARM template using the `location` parameter and loop deployments

3. Create separate ARM templates for each region and deploy individually

4. Use the Azure Portal to deploy once and clone the resource group 19 times

24. An Azure Storage account holds critical diagnostics logs. Regulations require that these logs cannot be modified or deleted for 5 years after creation. How should you configure the storage?

1. Enable Immutable Blob Storage with a time-based retention policy

2. Set a Delete Lock on the Storage Account resource

3. Enable Soft Delete for Blobs

4. Configure Azure Backup for the Storage Account

25. An application writes millions of small telemetry blobs (< 4KB) per hour to Azure Blob Storage. Storage costs are higher than expected. What change can reduce costs most effectively?

1. Change the Blob Storage access tier from Hot to Cool

2. Enable Block Blob Tiering with an automation rule

3. Enable Hierarchical Namespace (Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2)

4. Move the blobs to Azure Archive Storage immediately

FAQs

1. What is the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification?

It’s a globally recognized credential that validates advanced expertise in designing cloud and hybrid solutions on Microsoft Azure.

2. Who should take the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification?

Cloud professionals with experience in IT operations, networking, security, and Azure administration aiming to become Azure Solution Architects.

3. Is Azure Solutions Architect Expert worth it in 2025?

Yes, it's one of the most respected Azure certifications and is in high demand among employers worldwide.

4. What are the prerequisites for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification?

You should have advanced knowledge of Azure services, and it’s recommended to pass AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) before attempting the AZ-305 exam.

5. What is the Azure AZ-305 exam?

AZ-305 is the current exam required to earn the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification, focused on solution design across Azure workloads.

6. How hard is the Azure Solutions Architect Expert exam?

It’s moderately difficult and tests real-world solution design scenarios across compute, storage, security, and networking.

7. What topics are covered in the AZ-305 exam?

Design governance, data storage, compute solutions, security, business continuity, and infrastructure solutions.

8. What is the format and duration of the AZ-305 exam?

It includes 40–60 multiple-choice and scenario-based questions, and you’ll have 150 minutes to complete the exam.

9. What score is needed to pass the AZ-305 exam?

You need a score of 700 out of 1000 to pass.

10. How do I register for the AZ-305 exam?

You can register directly through the Microsoft Certification portal or Pearson VUE.

11. Can I take the AZ-305 exam online from home?

Yes, Microsoft offers online proctored exams via Pearson VUE that you can take remotely.

12. How much does the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification cost?

The AZ-305 exam costs $165 USD, but pricing may vary by country.

13. How long is the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification valid?

It’s valid for 1 year and can be renewed online for free by taking a Microsoft-provided assessment.

14. What is the best way to prepare for the AZ-305 exam?

Use practice tests, review the Microsoft Learn modules, and study with updated materials from CertiMaan and Microsoft’s official site.

15. Where can I find AZ-305 dumps or mock exams?

CertiMaan offers reliable dumps and mock exams aligned with the latest AZ-305 exam objectives.

16. How long does it take to prepare for AZ-305?

On average, 4–6 weeks of focused preparation is sufficient for experienced Azure professionals.

17. What’s the difference between AZ-305 and AZ-104?

AZ-104 is for Azure Administrators, while AZ-305 focuses on designing cloud solutions, which is ideal for architects.

18. What jobs can I get with Azure Solutions Architect certification?

Roles include Azure Solutions Architect, Cloud Consultant, Infrastructure Architect, and Cloud Lead.

19. What is the average salary of Azure Solutions Architects?

Salaries typically range between $120,000 to $160,000 annually, depending on location and experience.

20. Which companies prefer Azure-certified Solutions Architects?

Major employers include Microsoft, Accenture, Infosys, TCS, Capgemini, and Fortune 500 enterprises adopting Azure.