AZ-305
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
Issued by Microsoft
Visit official certification page
4
Domains
10+
Skills
6
Prep Links
3
Practice Quizzes
Cost
Varies by country/region (US list ~$165; confirm at Pearson VUE)
Duration
120 minutes exam / 140 minutes seat time
Questions
Not disclosed by Microsoft
Pass
700 / 1000 (scaled)
Delivery
Pearson VUE - test center OR OnVUE online proctored
Validity
1 year (free renewal via online assessment on Microsoft Learn)
Quick Facts
Cost
Varies by country/region (US list ~$165; confirm at Pearson VUE)
Duration
120 minutes exam / 140 minutes seat time
Questions
Not disclosed by Microsoft
Passing score
700 / 1000 (scaled)
Languages
English, Japanese, Simplified/Traditional Chinese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (BR), Italian
Delivery
Pearson VUE - test center OR OnVUE online proctored
Validity
1 year (free renewal via online assessment on Microsoft Learn)
Retake wait
24 hr after 1st fail, then 14 days; max 5 attempts / 12 months
Skills You'll Learn
Design Azure infrastructure solutions aligned to the Azure Well-Architected and Cloud Adoption Frameworks.
Architect identity, governance, monitoring using Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Policy, Azure Monitor.
Design storage solutions for relational, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
Plan business continuity with Azure Backup, Site Recovery, Availability Zones, multi-Region replication.
Choose the right compute pattern - VMs, AKS, App Service, Functions - for each workload.
Design application architectures with Service Bus, Event Grid, API Management, Redis Cache.
Plan migrations to Azure using Azure Migrate, DMS, AzCopy.
Architect Azure networks with VNets, App Gateway, Front Door, ExpressRoute, Private Link.
Operate with least-privilege access, governance, cost management, Key Vault secrets.
Earn the Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential paired with AZ-104.
Exam Logistics
- Question types: case studies, drag-and-drop, hot-area, multiple choice; labs possible.
- 5 minutes of break time built into the exam clock.
- Microsoft strongly recommends registering with a personal MSA account.
- Renewal: free, unproctored, open-book online assessment on Microsoft Learn during a 6-month window before expiration.
Prerequisites & Recommended Experience
- Certification prerequisite: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) required for the Expert cert.
- Recommended: advanced experience in IT operations - networking, virtualization, identity, security, BC, DR, data platforms, governance.
- Hands-on experience in Azure administration, development, DevOps.
Skills Measured with Weights (English - last updated April 17, 2026)
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions
25-30%
- Solutions for logging and monitoring.
- Authentication and authorization (Entra ID, RBAC, Conditional Access, PIM, managed identities, Key Vault).
- Governance (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, tagging, Azure Policy, identity governance).
Design data storage solutions
20-25%
- Relational data (SQL Database, SQL MI, PostgreSQL/MySQL flexible servers).
- Semi-structured and unstructured data (Cosmos DB, Blob Storage, Data Lake Gen2).
- Data integration and analysis (Data Factory, Synapse, Stream Analytics).
Design business continuity solutions
15-20%
- Backup and DR (Azure Backup, Site Recovery; compute, database, unstructured data).
- High availability (Availability Zones/Sets, scale sets; SQL and storage replication).
Design infrastructure solutions
30-35%
- Compute solutions (VMs, AKS, App Service, Functions, Batch).
- Application architecture (Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs; API Management; Redis Cache).
- Migrations (Azure Migrate; IaaS and PaaS; DMS; Data Box/AzCopy).
- Network solutions (VNet, Firewall, App Gateway, Front Door, ExpressRoute, VPN, Private Link).
Official Prep Resources
Test what you've learned
Take a free GoLearnQuiz practice test. Sign in to save your score.
Additional Helpful Details
- Pricing varies by country - confirm at Pearson VUE during registration.
- Renewal applies to Associate/Expert/Specialty; Fundamentals do not expire.
- Microsoft does not publish question count for AZ-305.