Azure Solutions Architect AZ-305 Exam Preparation: A Practical Guide
The AZ-305 exam (Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions) follows the skills outline effective April 17, 2026. Microsoft’s change log for that date has one line: Audience profile – Minor. The four domains and weights did not move, even though some 2026 roundups talk as if the outline was rewritten. Here’s what the study guide actually says, the design traps that catch people, and a 4-week plan. Pass mark is 700.
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AZ-305 exam domains (April 2026)
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions | 25-30% |
| Design data storage solutions | 20-25% |
| Design business continuity solutions | 15-20% |
| Design infrastructure solutions | 30-35% |
Infrastructure is the heavy domain – about a third of the scored content – covering compute, application architecture, migrations and networking. Continuity is lightest, but RPO/RTO questions still bite if you only memorize product names.
Microsoft does not publish a fixed question count. Most associate and expert exams have 40-60 questions, with about 100 minutes of exam time and 120 minutes of seat time when there are no labs. Your booking confirmation shows the exact time. Price depends on the country where you sit the exam.
What April 17, 2026 actually changed
I read the change log end to end. Unlike some other April 2026 Azure updates, AZ-305 did not swap objectives or shift percentages. The audience profile still points at Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework design work with admins, developers, security and data engineers. Localized versions usually lag English by about eight weeks; if your language isn’t offered, you can request 30 extra minutes. If a course shouts “brand-new 2026 outline” without naming a skill bullet, stick to the current AZ-305 study guide on Microsoft Learn.
Design traps most “worth it” posts skip
- Every stem is a recommendation. Verbs are “recommend” and “evaluate”, not “configure”. AZ-104 portal paths won’t help when two answers are valid services and only one fits the constraints.
- Constraints beat shiny architecture. Case studies bury cost, hybrid identity, existing ExpressRoute or a hard RPO. Violate a constraint and the answer is wrong.
- AZ-104 is required for the Expert badge. You can sit AZ-305, but Azure Solutions Architect Expert needs Azure Administrator Associate too. If AZ-104 lapses, the Expert title goes until you renew. See our AZ-104 exam preparation guide if that cert isn’t active.
- Identity wording is Microsoft Entra. Expect Entra ID and Key Vault under the same identity and governance domain.
A 4-week AZ-305 study plan
- Week 1 – identity, governance, monitoring: management groups, tagging, Azure Policy, Entra auth, Key Vault, Log Analytics routing.
- Week 2 – data: SQL vs Cosmos DB vs Blob/Files, service and compute tiers, scalability and protection, light pass on integration and analysis.
- Week 3 – continuity and infrastructure: backup vs Site Recovery against stated RPO/RTO, HA for compute and data, then VMs vs containers vs serverless, messaging/events, API and caching, CAF-style migrations, hub-spoke and load balancing.
- Week 4 – practice: Microsoft’s free practice assessment, timed sets where you justify each pick against constraints, and a skim of Architecture Center patterns.
The certification lasts 12 months. Renewal is free via an unproctored assessment on Microsoft Learn in the six months before expiry.
Practice
Try our Azure Solutions Architect practice exam. The $1 trial is deducted when you upgrade, and every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee. Or start with the sample exam quiz.
Sources: the official AZ-305 study guide (skills as of April 17, 2026 and change log), the AZ-305 exam page, the Azure Solutions Architect Expert page, and Microsoft’s exam duration guidance. Always check Microsoft Learn before you book.
