ExpertAZ-305
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Validate advanced expertise designing cloud and hybrid solutions on Azure — identity, governance, compute, storage, and networking at enterprise scale.
Study Hours
60h
Prep Time
~6 months
Avg. Pass Rate
71%
Topics Covered
Identity & Governance
Compute Architecture
Storage Design
Network Design
Migration
Skills measured
Official study guideMicrosoft's own objectives, in the order the exam presents them. Each area links to its section on Microsoft Learn. Checked 2026-10-26.
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions25–30%
This area on Microsoft LearnDesign solutions for logging and monitoring
- Recommend a logging solution
- Recommend a solution for routing logs
- Recommend a monitoring solution
Design authentication and authorization solutions
- Recommend an authentication solution
- Recommend an identity management solution
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to Azure resources
- Recommend a solution for authorizing access to on-premises resources
- Recommend a solution to manage secrets, certificates, and keys
Design governance
- Recommend a structure for management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, and a strategy for resource tagging
- Recommend a solution for managing compliance
- Recommend a solution for identity governance
Design data storage solutions20–25%
This area on Microsoft LearnDesign data storage solutions for relational data
- Recommend a solution for storing relational data
- Recommend a database service tier and compute tier
- Recommend a solution for database scalability
- Recommend a solution for data protection
Design data storage solutions for semi-structured and unstructured data
- Recommend a solution for storing semi-structured data
- Recommend a solution for storing unstructured data
- Recommend a data storage solution to balance features, performance, and costs
- Recommend a data solution for protection and durability
Design data integration
- Recommend a solution for data integration
- Recommend a solution for data analysis
Design business continuity solutions15–20%
This area on Microsoft LearnDesign solutions for backup and disaster recovery
- Recommend a recovery solution for Azure and hybrid workloads that meets recovery objectives
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for compute
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for databases
- Recommend a backup and recovery solution for unstructured data
Design for high availability
- Recommend a high availability solution for compute
- Recommend a high availability solution for relational data
- Recommend a high availability solution for semi-structured and unstructured data
Design infrastructure solutions30–35%
This area on Microsoft LearnDesign compute solutions
- Specify components of a compute solution based on workload requirements
- Recommend a virtual machine-based solution
- Recommend a container-based solution
- Recommend a serverless-based solution
- Recommend a compute solution for batch processing
Design an application architecture
- Recommend a messaging architecture
- Recommend an event-driven architecture
- Recommend a solution for API integration
- Recommend a caching solution for applications
- Recommend an application configuration management solution
- Recommend an automated deployment solution for applications
Design migrations
- Evaluate a migration solution that leverages the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
- Evaluate on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
- Recommend a solution for migrating workloads to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS)
- Recommend a solution for migrating databases
- Recommend a solution for migrating unstructured data
Design network solutions
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to the internet
- Recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to on-premises networks
- Recommend a solution to optimize network performance
- Recommend a solution to optimize network security
- Recommend a load-balancing and routing solution