Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) Online Training & Certification Prep
Design resilient, secure, and cost-optimised Azure architectures. This AZ-305 course teaches the design patterns, trade-offs, and Well-Architected Framework pillars that define expert-level cloud architecture — built for candidates who already hold AZ-104.
Course Overview
The Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) certification validates the ability to design cloud and hybrid solutions that meet business requirements for reliability, security, performance, and cost. It is the highest Azure infrastructure credential Microsoft offers and requires a current AZ-104 certification as a prerequisite.
Where AZ-104 trains you to operate Azure, AZ-305 trains you to design it. The exam tests your ability to reason through architectural trade-offs — choosing between competing services, evaluating redundancy models, and documenting design decisions against real-world constraints. This course develops that reasoning explicitly, not just coverage of individual services.
The curriculum follows the four AZ-305 exam domains. Identity, governance, and monitoring begins with designing authentication and authorisation solutions using Microsoft Entra ID, including hybrid identity with Azure AD Connect, Entra External ID for B2C, and Privileged Identity Management for standing access reduction. Governance design covers management group hierarchies, policy-as-code patterns, and the Azure Landing Zone architecture used in enterprise cloud adoption.
Data storage solutions covers the full spectrum of Azure data services. You will learn when to choose relational (Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server) versus NoSQL (Cosmos DB — partition key selection, consistency levels, multi-region write) versus unstructured storage (ADLS Gen2 for analytics). Data integration and migration patterns using Azure Data Factory and Azure Database Migration Service are included.
The infrastructure solutions domain addresses compute architecture — selecting among VM-based, container-based (AKS, Azure Container Apps), and serverless (Azure Functions, Logic Apps) patterns. Networking architecture forms the core of this domain: hub-and-spoke topology, Azure Virtual WAN, Private Endpoint and Private DNS integration, Azure Front Door, and Traffic Manager for multi-region routing. High availability and disaster recovery design, including RTO/RPO target alignment to Azure SLAs, is covered in depth.
Application architecture closes the course with API Management, event-driven design using Event Grid and Service Bus, caching strategies with Azure Cache for Redis, and the Azure Well-Architected Framework as an evaluation lens for the designs you produce throughout. Each domain includes Live Labs in real Azure environments that implement full reference architectures, not isolated feature exercises. Content is delivered by Certified Partner instructors with enterprise architecture backgrounds, and the course is backed by the Boost eLearning Pass Guarantee.
What You'll Learn
- Design Microsoft Entra ID hybrid identity solutions using Azure AD Connect, pass-through authentication, and federation
- Architect governance solutions using management groups, Azure Policy initiative stacks, and Azure Landing Zone patterns
- Select appropriate logging and monitoring architectures using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Microsoft Sentinel
- Design Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance solutions with high availability groups and geo-replication
- Architect Cosmos DB solutions: select partition keys, choose consistency levels, and design multi-region write topologies
- Evaluate compute options — VMs, AKS, Azure Container Apps, Azure Functions — and justify the selection for given workload characteristics
- Design hub-and-spoke and Azure Virtual WAN network topologies for enterprise connectivity
- Implement Private Endpoint and Private DNS Zone integration for PaaS services
- Design multi-region active-active and active-passive architectures using Azure Front Door, Traffic Manager, and Azure Site Recovery
- Architect event-driven and message-based integrations using Event Grid, Service Bus, and Event Hubs
- Apply the Azure Well-Architected Framework pillars — reliability, security, cost optimisation, operational excellence, performance efficiency — to evaluate and improve designs
- Design data integration and migration solutions using Azure Data Factory and Azure Database Migration Service
Who This Course Is For
- Azure Administrators (AZ-104 certified) advancing toward an architecture role
- Senior infrastructure engineers and cloud architects designing enterprise Azure environments
- Solution architects working across hybrid and multi-cloud deployments
- Pre-sales architects who need to design and justify Azure solutions for clients
- IT leads responsible for cloud strategy and landing zone design
Course Outline
- Designing Microsoft Entra ID tenants for enterprise use
- Hybrid identity: Azure AD Connect sync vs. cloud-only
- Pass-through authentication vs. password hash sync vs. federation
- Entra External ID (B2B and B2C) design patterns
- Privileged Identity Management (PIM) u2014 JIT access design
- Conditional Access policy design for Zero Trust
- Workload identity u2014 managed identities and service principals
- Management group and subscription design for scale
- Azure Policy initiative stacks and policy-as-code (Bicep/ARM)
- Azure Landing Zone architecture u2014 platform vs. application landing zones
- Tagging and cost allocation strategy design
- Azure Blueprints and Deployment Stacks overview
- Designing for regulatory compliance: ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA on Azure
- Designing a centralised Log Analytics workspace architecture
- Azure Monitor workbooks, dashboards, and alert design
- Application Insights integration for application performance monitoring
- Microsoft Sentinel workspace design for SIEM/SOAR
- Designing for operational excellence: runbooks and Azure Automation
- Azure SQL Database vs. SQL Managed Instance u2014 feature parity and design criteria
- Business Critical vs. General Purpose service tiers
- High availability: zone-redundant configuration and auto-failover groups
- Active geo-replication and read scale-out design
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server u2014 HA and read replicas
- Data encryption at rest and in transit, Always Encrypted, Dynamic Data Masking
- Azure Database Migration Service u2014 migration assessment and cutover planning
- Azure Cosmos DB u2014 API selection (NoSQL, Mongo, Cassandra, Gremlin, Table)
- Partition key design principles and hot partition avoidance
- Consistency levels u2014 trade-offs between strong, bounded staleness, and eventual
- Multi-region write and conflict resolution policies
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 u2014 hierarchical namespace and RBAC
- Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks overview for architect decision-making
- Azure Data Factory u2014 pipeline design, integration runtimes, and linked services
- Compute selection framework: VMs vs. containers vs. serverless
- VM availability sets, zones, and scale sets u2014 design for SLA
- Azure Kubernetes Service u2014 cluster architecture, node pools, and autoscaler design
- Azure Container Apps u2014 scale rules and Dapr integration overview
- Azure Functions u2014 hosting plans (Consumption vs. Premium vs. Dedicated)
- Azure Logic Apps u2014 Standard vs. Consumption tier design
- App Service Environment (ASE) for network-isolated workloads
- Azure Batch for large-scale parallel compute workloads
- Hub-and-spoke topology design u2014 shared services hub pattern
- Azure Virtual WAN u2014 Standard tier, routing intent, and branch connectivity
- ExpressRoute circuits u2014 peering types, redundancy, and Global Reach
- Private Endpoint and Private DNS Zone integration for PaaS services
- Azure Firewall vs. NVA placement in hub-and-spoke
- Application Gateway with WAF v2 u2014 zone redundancy and autoscale
- Azure Front Door u2014 global load balancing, WAF policies, and origin groups
- Traffic Manager u2014 routing methods and endpoint monitoring
- Designing multi-region active-active with Front Door and Cosmos DB multi-write
- Azure API Management u2014 tiers, policies, and developer portal design
- Event-driven architecture: Event Grid vs. Service Bus vs. Event Hubs u2014 when to use each
- Azure Cache for Redis u2014 cache patterns (cache-aside, session, pub-sub) and tier selection
- Azure Service Bus u2014 queues vs. topics, premium tier for VNet integration
- Azure Event Hubs u2014 partition strategy and capture to ADLS
- Microservices communication patterns on Azure
- Reliability pillar u2014 target SLAs, failure mode analysis, chaos engineering basics
- Security pillar u2014 threat modelling on Azure, segmentation patterns
- Cost Optimisation pillar u2014 Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, right-sizing
- Operational Excellence pillar u2014 IaC, deployment pipelines, rollback design
- Performance Efficiency pillar u2014 scaling patterns and caching strategy
- AZ-305 case study format u2014 structured approach to design questions
- Timed mock exam with architectural scenario review
About the Certification Exam
- Exam code
- AZ-305
- Length
- 100u2013120 minutes
- Questions
- 40u201360 questions (multiple choice, multi-select, case studies with multiple sub-questions)
- Passing score
- 700/1000
- Exam cost
- ~$165 USD
- Where
- Pearson VUE / online proctored
The certification exam fee is paid separately to the testing provider and is not included in the course price unless stated otherwise.
Live Labs Included
Hands-on practice on real environments
This course includes Live Labs — direct access to real hardware and cloud environments so you build the skills the exam actually tests.
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Pass Guarantee Included
Complete this course and if you don't pass the certification exam on your first attempt, we'll refund your course fee or give you a free retake — your choice.
