AZ-305 Exam Syllabus 2026 — Official Domains & Objectives

The AZ-305, officially called Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, is a Microsoft certification exam that validates your ability to design cloud and hybrid solutions on Azure. Unlike AZ-104 which tests whether you can configure and manage Azure services, AZ-305 tests whether you can make the right architectural decisions for a given business scenario.

The exam covers four core domains: designing identity, governance, and monitoring solutions; designing data storage solutions; designing business continuity solutions; and designing infrastructure solutions. Passing AZ-305 — combined with holding the AZ-104 certification — earns you the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential.

AZ-305 is organised into four exam domains, each with a specific weighting:

• Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25–30%) — Covers Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, Azure Policy, Management Groups, Azure Monitor, and Log Analytics.
• Design data storage solutions (20–25%) — Covers relational and non-relational storage, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Blob Storage, data integration, and storage security.
• Design business continuity solutions (15–20%) — Covers high availability, disaster recovery, Azure Site Recovery, backup strategies, and geo-redundancy.
• Design infrastructure solutions (30–35%) — The most heavily tested domain. Covers compute (VMs, containers, App Service), networking (VNets, ExpressRoute, Load Balancer, Front Door), application architecture (microservices, event-driven design, API Management), and migrations.

Study time should be weighted proportionally. Infrastructure and identity together account for over half the exam.

AZ-305 is primarily composed of scenario-based and case study questions. Unlike factual recall exams, AZ-305 questions present a business or technical scenario and ask you to recommend, evaluate, or justify an architectural decision.

Questions frequently use words like "recommend", "evaluate", "design", and "most appropriate". The correct answer is rarely about what works. It is about what works best given the constraints of cost, availability, security, and operational requirements described in the scenario. You cannot go back and change answers once you leave a case study section, so read each case study carefully before answering.

The AZ-305 exam typically contains 50 to 60 questions per session. The exact count varies because Microsoft adjusts the question set per session. If your exam includes case studies, they can account for 10–20 of the total questions depending on how many case studies are assigned.

The total exam duration is approximately 100 to 120 minutes. This includes time for reviewing instructions, answering questions, and completing any case studies. The actual seat time at the testing centre or proctored session may be slightly longer to account for check-in procedures.

Given the scenario-heavy nature of the questions, time management matters. Case studies in particular can take significantly longer to read and analyse than standalone multiple-choice questions.

The minimum passing score for AZ-305 is 700 out of 1000. Microsoft uses a scaled scoring model, which means a score of 700 does not literally mean you answered 70% of questions correctly. The scaled score accounts for question difficulty weighting across the session. Some questions carry more weight than others, and the scaling ensures fairness across different exam versions.

The AZ-305 exam costs $165 USD per attempt. Pricing varies by region. In India the cost is approximately ₹4,865 INR plus applicable taxes, and in the UK it is approximately £115 GBP. Each retake requires a separate full payment. Microsoft occasionally offers discounted vouchers through learning partners and exam bundles, so it is worth checking for offers before booking.

If you do not pass on your first attempt, you must wait 24 hours before retaking. From the second retake onwards, a 14-day waiting period applies between each attempt. Microsoft allows a maximum of 5 attempts per exam within any rolling 12-month period.

To earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification, you must hold the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) credential. This is a formal prerequisite. Passing AZ-305 alone is not sufficient to receive the expert badge without AZ-104.

You are permitted to sit the AZ-305 exam before completing AZ-104, but the Solutions Architect Expert certification will only be awarded once both requirements are met. Beyond the formal prerequisite, Microsoft recommends candidates have advanced hands-on experience with Azure administration, networking, identity, security, and business continuity design before attempting AZ-305.

Yes, you can sit and pass the AZ-305 exam without holding AZ-104. There is no restriction on attempting the exam. However, passing AZ-305 alone does not award the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. The expert badge requires both AZ-305 and AZ-104 to be completed. If you pass AZ-305 first, the certification will be granted automatically once you subsequently complete AZ-104.

Microsoft recommends at least 1–2 years of hands-on experience with Azure before attempting AZ-305. Crucially, that experience should include architectural decision-making and not just day-to-day administration.

You should be comfortable making trade-off decisions between Azure services based on requirements like scalability, cost, security, and availability. Areas where prior experience matters most include compute design, hybrid networking, identity and access management, storage architecture, and disaster recovery planning. Candidates who have completed AZ-104 and worked in Azure infrastructure or architecture roles typically find the transition manageable.

Most candidates spend 6 to 10 weeks preparing, averaging 1–2 hours of study per day. Candidates who are already working in Azure architecture roles may be ready in 4–6 weeks. Those coming from an AZ-104 background with limited architecture exposure should plan for the longer end of that range.

Because AZ-305 rewards breadth of Azure knowledge across identity, storage, continuity, networking, and compute, rather than deep specialisation in one area, a broad study approach covering all four domains proportionally tends to produce better results than focusing heavily on just one or two.

AZ-305 is considered an advanced-level exam and is significantly harder than AZ-104. The difficulty comes not from memorising services, but from reasoning through complex scenarios where multiple Azure options could technically work, and you must identify which one best satisfies all the stated constraints simultaneously.

Questions test your ability to weigh cost, availability, security, operational overhead, and compliance requirements in a single decision. Candidates with real-world Azure architecture experience find it manageable. Those who have only studied without hands-on exposur