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Microsoft · Cloud · Expert

Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert exam guide

Exam AZ-305

AZ-305 earns the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert credential when held together with the Azure Administrator Associate. It proves you can design identity, governance, data, business continuity and infrastructure solutions that meet business requirements, which is the senior benchmark for Azure architecture roles.

QuestionsSee official page
Time limit100 minutes
Passing score700 (1-1000 scale)
Exam fee$165 USD
Valid for1 years
DeliveryPearson VUE test center or online proctored

Format: Multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, case studies and other interactive item types. Fee note: US price; varies by country. Student and Microsoft Learn offer discounts are common..

Who it's for

Experienced Azure administrators and engineers who advise on and design end-to-end Azure solutions and want an expert-level credential.

What the exam covers

Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions27%
Design data storage solutions22%
Design business continuity solutions17%
Design infrastructure solutions32%

Eligibility & prerequisites

Required: To earn the certification you must hold Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) in addition to passing AZ-305. You can sit AZ-305 first, but the expert credential is only awarded once both are held.

Recommended: Advanced experience with Azure administration, networking, security, data and business continuity, plus experience designing solutions against business requirements.

Keeping it active

Associate and expert certifications are valid for 1 year. Renew for free by passing an unproctored online renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn, available in the 180 days before expiry; unlimited attempts with a 24-hour wait after a failed try.

Skills & careers

Skills it validates

  • Designing landing zones, management groups and governance
  • Designing identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID
  • Selecting relational, non-relational and analytics data stores
  • Designing backup, DR and high availability with defined RTO/RPO
  • Designing compute, networking, application architecture and migrations
  • Applying the Azure Well-Architected Framework to trade-offs

Job roles

Azure Solutions ArchitectCloud ArchitectEnterprise ArchitectSenior Cloud EngineerCloud Consultant

Where it fits in your path

Planning a degree too? See how this cert earns college credit in the College Credit Navigator.

Build my study plan

  1. Week 1: Review the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework landing zone guidance.
  2. Week 2: Identity, governance and monitoring design: management group hierarchies, Policy, Entra ID, Log Analytics architecture.
  3. Week 3: Data storage design: decision trees for Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Storage tiers and analytics services.
  4. Week 4: Business continuity: SLA composition, Backup, Site Recovery, zone and region redundancy.
  5. Week 5: Infrastructure design: compute selection, networking topologies, app architecture, migrations with Azure Migrate.
  6. Week 6: Practice assessment and case-study practice; sit the exam.

Make it yours: pick your exam date and weekly hours. We'll split your time by domain weight and give you a printable plan.

Exam-day tips

  • Infrastructure design is the biggest domain at roughly a third of the exam; know compute decision trees (VM, App Service, Functions, AKS, Container Apps).
  • Most questions ask for the solution that meets requirements at the lowest cost or least administrative effort; read for those qualifiers.
  • Be able to compute composite SLAs for chained services.
  • Case studies cannot use Microsoft Learn lookup, so memorize decision tables rather than relying on docs.
  • Know which services support zone redundancy vs geo-redundancy and how that affects RTO/RPO.

Key terms for this exam

All 76 terms Study with thinQcards™

Commonly confused on this exam

Frequently asked questions

Do I need AZ-104 before AZ-305?

You need the Azure Administrator Associate certification to be awarded the Solutions Architect Expert credential. You can take AZ-305 first, but the expert title is only granted once both are held.

How much does AZ-305 cost?

$165 in the US; prices vary by country.

How hard is AZ-305?

It is design-focused and broad; experienced Azure engineers usually need 4-8 weeks. Pure memorization works poorly because questions weigh trade-offs.

How do I renew Azure Solutions Architect Expert?

Pass the free online renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn before your annual expiry date.

AZ-305 vs AWS Solutions Architect Professional?

Both are senior design credentials for their clouds. Choose based on the platform your employer uses; the design principles transfer well between them.

Official page: learn.microsoft.com. Reviewed November 2026. Vendors change fees and objectives, so confirm with the vendor before you book. Spot something out of date? Tell us.