Azure AZ-305 study plan

Compare Azure compute options (VMs, VMSS, App Service, Container Apps, AKS, Functions) and select the right one for four given workload profiles

Differentiate availability sets, availability zones, and regional deployments, and justify a placement choice for a stated SLA

Sketch a three-tier application architecture that names the compute, storage, and network components and the reason for each

Identify which requirements (latency, cost, compliance, scale) drive compute selection trade-offs

Design an Azure networking topology (hub-and-spoke vs. Virtual WAN) that satisfies stated connectivity and isolation requirements

Choose between VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, and both together for given bandwidth, latency, and redundancy needs

Select load-balancing and traffic-distribution services (Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Front Door, Traffic Manager) for four scenarios

Determine when to use private endpoints, service endpoints, and Azure Firewall or NVA inspection

Map authentication scenarios to Entra ID capabilities: managed identities, service principals, app registrations, and workload identity federation

Distinguish authentication from authorization and choose between Azure RBAC, Entra roles, and custom roles for given job functions

Design a hybrid identity approach using Entra Connect, cloud sync, and password protection or MFA, including Conditional Access policy intent

Configure and reason about B2B collaboration versus B2C/external tenants for a given partner-access scenario

Design a management-group and subscription hierarchy that enforces policy at the right scope and reflects a given org structure

Select Azure Policy effects and initiatives that enforce tagging, allowed regions, and SKU restrictions without breaking existing workloads

Choose between resource locks, RBAC, and policy for specific governance controls

Design a monitoring solution using Log Analytics workspaces, Azure Monitor alerts, and Application Insights, including data-retention and cost considerations

Select storage account types, redundancy options (LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS, RA-GRS), and access tiers for given durability and cost constraints

Choose among Blob, Files, Disks, Queue, and Table storage for five workload descriptions

Compare Azure SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance, and SQL on VMs by compatibility, migration effort, and feature needs

Select a NoSQL or distributed data option (Cosmos DB APIs, consistency levels, partition key strategy) for given latency and consistency requirements

Design a data integration and analytics pipeline specifying Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks, or Event Hubs components and their boundaries

Plan a data protection approach using encryption at rest, customer-managed keys, and Microsoft Purview classification

Design a backup strategy for VMs, file shares, databases, and Kubernetes that meets stated RPO and retention requirements

Compare Azure Backup, site recovery, and native geo-replication for region-failure protection of data services

Design a multi-region business continuity architecture using paired regions, Azure Site Recovery, and automated failover sequencing

Choose between active-active and active-passive for three workloads and justify the cost difference

Set and validate RTO/RPO targets for each application tier in an architecture

Design a disaster recovery testing cadence including test failover and game-day validation steps

Audit personal weak areas by reviewing missed questions from earlier weeks and grouping them by domain

Complete two full-length timed practice exams and record per-domain score breakdowns

Re-derive the decision trade-offs for at least ten services you got wrong, without notes

Build a one-page cheat sheet of service-selection rules that you can mentally reproduce on exam day