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Microsoft AZ-305 Cheat Sheet: Azure Architect

May 1, 2026

Review Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) identity, governance, storage, business continuity, infrastructure, resilience, cost, and design-tradeoff traps before using the AZ-305 practice page.

On this page

AZ-305 is a design and trade-off exam. Use this cheat sheet to review architect-level decisions across identity, governance, storage, resilience, infrastructure, and operations before trying the AZ-305 sample questions.

Use this with practice. Review the architecture checklist, then open the AZ-305 page for sample questions, current-exam notes, and related Azure practice paths.

Open AZ-305 practice page Review AZ-104 first

Exam snapshot

FieldDetail
IssuerMicrosoft
Official exam nameDesigning Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
Exam codeAZ-305
Route focusAzure architecture design
Status in IT MasterySample questions with Notify me form

Domain map

DomainWeightWhat to knowCommon trap
Identity, governance, and monitoring25-30%Entra, RBAC, policy, management groups, logging, monitoring, and complianceDesigning resources before defining governance and access boundaries
Data storage20-25%Relational, NoSQL, object, file, cache, replication, backup, and access patternsChoosing storage by product familiarity instead of workload shape
Business continuity15-20%Availability zones, region strategy, backup, disaster recovery, RTO, and RPOUsing high availability when the scenario asks for disaster recovery
Infrastructure30-35%Networking, compute, integration, migration, security, scalability, and operationsOverbuilding custom infrastructure when managed services satisfy constraints

Must-know distinctions

DistinctionHow to decide
High availability vs disaster recoveryHA keeps services running through local failure; DR restores service after larger failure.
RTO vs RPORTO is how long recovery may take; RPO is how much data loss is acceptable.
Availability zone vs region pairZones handle datacenter-level resilience; region pairs support broader regional recovery planning.
RBAC vs policyRBAC controls who can act; policy controls what configurations are allowed.
Management group vs subscriptionManagement groups organize governance across subscriptions; subscriptions hold billable resources.
Scale up vs scale outScale up uses larger resources; scale out adds instances.
Managed service vs self-managed VMManaged services reduce operational burden; VMs provide more control at higher maintenance cost.

High-yield checklist

  • Read nonfunctional requirements before choosing services.
  • Identify the dominant constraint: security, compliance, cost, resilience, latency, operations, or migration risk.
  • Design identity, RBAC, policy, and monitoring as part of the architecture, not after it.
  • Match data storage to query pattern, consistency, scale, availability, and governance.
  • Use RTO and RPO to choose backup and disaster recovery designs.
  • Prefer managed services when they meet requirements and reduce operational burden.
  • Keep network topology, private access, DNS, and security boundaries coherent.
  • Use cost controls and right-sizing when the scenario includes budget pressure.
  • Explain why the chosen design is simpler, safer, or more resilient than alternatives.
  • Refresh AZ-104 concepts if resource behavior is causing architect-level misses.

Common traps

  • Choosing the most advanced service instead of the simplest service that satisfies constraints.
  • Confusing regional redundancy with zone redundancy.
  • Ignoring governance because the question sounds like infrastructure design.
  • Designing backup without checking RTO and RPO.
  • Selecting a storage service before reading access and consistency requirements.
  • Treating cost, monitoring, and operations as optional architecture details.

Practice strategy

Use the AZ-305 page to tag misses by design domain and by constraint. If you repeatedly miss because of resource behavior, review AZ-104 first. If you miss because of trade-offs, practice explaining why one valid-looking option better satisfies the scenario.

Revised on Monday, May 25, 2026