Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

The AZ-305 certification validates advanced skills in designing cloud and hybrid solutions on Microsoft Azure. It covers designing identity, governance, and monitoring solutions, data storage solutions, business continuity solutions, and infrastructure solutions. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to make architectural decisions across compute, networking, security, and data based on business requirements.

This expert-level certification is designed for experienced cloud architects and senior engineers who advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable Azure solutions. Passing AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) is required to earn the Solutions Architect Expert certification.

The exam consists of 40–60 questions to be completed in approximately 100 minutes (120 minutes if labs are included). Question types include multiple-choice, multiple-select, drag-and-drop, hot area, and case study formats. Questions focus on architecture design decisions, requiring you to evaluate trade-offs between cost, performance, security, and operational excellence. Case studies present complex multi-service architectures.

This expert exam focuses on design and architecture decisions, not implementation. Candidates with strong hands-on skills but limited experience in solution design and trade-off analysis often struggle.

Delivered via Pearson VUE online or at testing centers. Available in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and more. The certification is valid for 1 year with a free renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn.