Is practice Labs Enough for the AZ-305 Exam?

AZ-305 is a design and architecture exam, not an implementation exam. That means the mindset required is completely different from exams like AZ-104.

The questions are scenario-based and focus on architectural decisions, trade-offs, governance models, resiliency strategy, identity design, networking topology, and cost optimization. It tests whether you can design solutions aligned with business and technical requirements — not just deploy services.

Learning Path quizzes are useful for validating knowledge, but they do not simulate the depth of real exam scenarios. To pass confidently, you need to study by architecture domains and train your design thinking.

Here is a structured 30-day preparation plan.

Week 1 – Identity, Governance, and Landing Zones

Focus on Microsoft Entra ID architecture, RBAC strategy (not just assigning roles), Privileged Identity Management, Conditional Access design, and hybrid identity patterns.

Study Management Groups, subscription hierarchy, Azure Policy design, governance models, and cost control strategy.

Review the Cloud Adoption Framework landing zone architecture. Understand hub-and-spoke segmentation, policy inheritance, and environment isolation.

Practice scenario thinking. For example:
How would you design subscription structure and governance for separate Production and Development environments?

End the week with practice questions focused only on identity and governance.

Goal: Think like a governance architect.

Week 2 – Infrastructure, Networking, and High Availability

Study compute design decisions: availability sets versus availability zones versus regional deployment.

Understand when to choose IaaS, PaaS, or containers.

Deep dive into networking architecture: hub-spoke topology, VNet peering, private endpoints, DNS resolution, and hybrid connectivity.

Compare VPN versus ExpressRoute design considerations.

Understand load balancing options: Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and Front Door.

Practice scenario-based design. For example:
Design a multi-region architecture for a globally distributed application.

Goal: Master technical trade-offs.

Week 3 – Data, Storage, and Business Continuity

Understand storage selection: Blob Storage, Data Lake, Azure Files, Managed Disks.

Study redundancy models such as LRS, ZRS, and GRS, and know when each is appropriate.

Review database platform selection: Azure SQL, Managed Instance, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL.

Design backup and disaster recovery strategy using Azure Backup and Site Recovery.

Practice designing solutions based on RTO and RPO requirements.

Example scenario:
A financial system requires minimal downtime and near-zero data loss. Design the architecture.

Goal: Make architecture decisions based on business continuity requirements.

Week 4 – Migration, Optimization, and Exam Readiness

Study Azure Migrate and understand rehost, refactor, rearchitect, and rebuild decisions.

Review performance optimization, autoscaling strategies, and cost efficiency.

Revisit security architecture integration: Defender for Cloud, Zero Trust principles, private endpoints, and Key Vault.

Take full-length practice exams and carefully analyze why each answer is correct or incorrect.

Review the Azure Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework documentation. These align strongly with the exam mindset.

Final advice:

Always identify the real requirement in the question.
Choose the best architectural solution, not just a functional one.
Look for compliance constraints, cost limits, and resiliency expectations hidden in the scenario.

If you rely only on quizzes, you may recognize concepts.
If you train architectural thinking, you will pass with confidence.

If you’d like, I can also share the most common pitfalls candidates face in AZ-305 or provide a short scenario-based practice challenge.