AZ-305
AZ-305, "Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions," is the design exam that — paired with the AZ-104 administrator certification — earns you the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential. It is one of Microsoft's hardest role-based exams: scenario-heavy case studies push you to defend identity, storage, continuity, and infrastructure design decisions under time pressure. A failed attempt costs you the $165 fee, a mandatory retake wait, and the architect-level role or raise that was riding on the badge. This page breaks down exactly what AZ-305 tests, how it's delivered, and how to get it done right the first time.
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No upfront fee — you settle only after your verified passing result. We advertise guaranteed results — 100% pass guaranteed or money back.
How AZ-305 is built — at a glance
~100m
Roughly 100 minutes of testing time, plus a few minutes for the agreement, intro screens, and a survey. Time management matters because the case studies eat into your clock.
40–60
A typical AZ-305 form runs roughly 40 to 60 items — the exact count varies per sitting. Expect multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, and "hot area" diagram questions.
700
Scored on a 1–1000 scale; you need 700 to pass. That is a scaled score weighted by difficulty, not a flat 70% of questions correct.
AZ-305 opens with one or more case studies: a detailed fictional company with existing infrastructure, technical requirements, and business goals, followed by a set of design questions you cannot revisit once you leave the case. You must read the brief, hold several constraints in your head, and choose the architecture that satisfies all of them — not just one that "works."
Unlike AZ-104, AZ-305 rarely asks you to click through a portal task. It asks which service, tier, redundancy option, or identity model is the best fit given cost, compliance, availability, and scale constraints. The exam aligns to the Azure Well-Architected Framework, so trade-off reasoning beats memorizing feature lists.
Four design domains — bars show each domain's official weight on the April 2026 exam
Design Microsoft Entra ID and authentication, role-based access control, governance with management groups, policy and Blueprints, and a monitoring and logging strategy with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.
Design relational and non-relational data stores — Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Blob and Data Lake — and choose tiers, redundancy, consistency models, partitioning, and backup strategies for cost and scale.
Design for high availability and disaster recovery: backup, Azure Site Recovery, RTO/RPO targets, geo-redundancy, and resilient multi-region architectures that meet uptime requirements.
The heaviest domain: design compute (VMs, AKS, App Service, serverless), application architecture, networking, migrations, and integration so the overall solution is performant, secure, and cost-optimized.
Weights reflect Microsoft's official AZ-305 skills outline as updated on 17 April 2026 and shift slightly over time. Infrastructure design carries the most weight, but the exam rewards balance — a thin answer on governance or continuity in a case study can sink an otherwise strong design.
Two ways to sit AZ-305 — and what to expect on test day
You sit the exam in a quiet, monitored room at a Pearson VUE test center. Staff verify your government-issued photo ID, store your belongings, and watch the room while you work through the case studies on a provided workstation. The standard fee is $165 USD, varying slightly by country.
You take the exam from a private room at home or work using Pearson VUE's OnVUE software, monitored by a remote proctor. You run a system check in advance, then complete an ID check and a webcam scan of your workspace at check-in. No scratch paper is allowed — an on-screen whiteboard is provided instead.
A valid, unexpired government photo ID with a name that matches your Pearson VUE and Microsoft Learn profile. The proctor captures photos of you and your ID before the exam unlocks.
A clear desk, no second monitor, no phone or notes within reach, and a 360° webcam scan of the room. No one else may enter, and you cannot leave your seat during the session.
Stay on-camera and in frame the whole time. There are no scheduled breaks on a ~100-minute exam. Talking aloud, looking off-screen, or losing connection can flag or pause the session.
AZ-305 is built for working Azure architects
AZ-104 is required for the Expert credential
Difficulty: AZ-305 is widely rated one of Microsoft's tougher role-based exams. The content is not exotic, but the case-study format forces you to weigh cost, security, availability, and scale at once and pick the single best design. Most candidates need real Azure project experience plus 60–120 hours of targeted prep — exactly the pressure point our help is designed to remove.
AZ-305 is a high-stakes, case-study-heavy design exam standing between you and an architect-level title. Exam Assist pairs you with a vetted Azure specialist and works on a pay-after-you-pass model — so the risk sits with us, not you. No upfront fee, guaranteed results: Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end, and you settle only after the verified result.
Tell us your delivery method (OnVUE or test center), test date, whether you already hold AZ-104, and your target timeline. Takes a couple of minutes over WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord.
We review your timeline and goal and tell you plainly whether it's realistic — before any money is discussed. If it isn't a fit, we say so.
Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end. You're matched with an Azure specialist who maps the work around the four design domains, the case-study format, and the OnVUE environment — discreetly and confidentially.
You only pay once your passing result is confirmed on your official Microsoft transcript. No verified result, nothing owed.
See the full pay-after-you-pass Azure service, pricing model, and how matching works.
Straight answers about AZ-305
Service, guides, and sibling Azure exams
Pair with a vetted Azure specialist on a results-first arrangement. No upfront fee — settle only after a verified passing result.
Explore the service GuideSee where AZ-305 fits in the Azure ladder — from AZ-900 fundamentals through AZ-104 to the expert architect track.
Read the guide BookStart the intake for AZ-305 assistance — share your details and get an honest feasibility answer before you commit.
Start booking AZ-104The required prerequisite for the Expert credential — implement, manage, and monitor Azure environments.
View exam AZ-204Microsoft's associate exam for building and maintaining cloud applications and services on Azure.
View exam AZ-500Associate certification for implementing security controls, managing identity, and protecting Azure workloads.
View examGet expert AZ-305 help with no upfront fee — you settle only after your verified passing result. Honest feasibility answer first, results-first arrangement always.