I'm thrilled to share another proud milestone in my cloud journey - I just passed the AZ‑305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions exam and officially earned the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification!
Exam Experience
The exam was tough but fair, covering designing solutions across compute, networking, storage, security, governance, and identity. Like other Microsoft technical exams, the scoring is on a 1-1,000 scale, and you need at least 700 to pass. This is a scaled score, so it doesn't mean exactly 70% of the answers, it depends on the difficulty of the questions.
Key Exam Tips
Azure Services to Master
From my preparation, here are the core Azure services and their focus areas you should know well:
| Service | Keywords | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Data Factory | ETL, pipelines, integration runtime | Move/transform data across on‑prem and cloud |
| Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 | Big data, ACL, hierarchical namespace | Analytics & scalable big data storage |
| Azure Bastion | Secure RDP/SSH, no public IP | Browser-based secure VM access |
| Azure Policy | Governance, compliance | Enforce rules, tags, standards |
| Azure Key Vault | Secrets, keys, certificates | Centralized secure secrets management |
| Azure Managed Identity | Identity for services, no secrets | Authenticate apps without credentials |
| Azure Front Door | Global load balancing, WAF, SSL offload | High availability & global web apps |
| Azure Traffic Manager | DNS-based load balancing | Route users by priority/performance |
| Azure Site Recovery | Disaster recovery, replication | Replicate VMs and apps for DR |
| Azure Backup | Long-term data protection | Backup VMs, SQL, Blobs, Files |
| Azure Cosmos DB | NoSQL, multi-region writes | Global scale, low latency DB |
| Azure API Management | API gateway, throttling, OAuth2 | Secure and manage APIs |
| Azure Files + File Sync | SMB shares, hybrid sync | Modern replacement for file servers |
| Azure Application Gateway + WAF | L7 load balancer, OWASP protection | Secure web traffic at app layer |
| Azure Monitor + Log Analytics | Telemetry, metrics, queries | Monitor apps and infra with alerts |
Tip: Don't just memorize names, understand when to choose File Shares vs. Blob Storage, Front Door vs. Traffic Manager, or Managed Identity vs. Service Principal. The exam loves those scenario-based distinctions.
My Learning Path
Local Training in Hong Kong
I enrolled in the Azure Solutions Architect Expert course at Systematic Computer Education Centre.
A special thanks to Teacher Larry Chan, his 20+ years of Microsoft teaching experience, clear Cantonese + English delivery, and practical exam‑focused notes made a huge difference. The mock questions, free replays were excellent for hands-on learning.
Mock Exams on YouTube
I also practiced with Jaspal's Weekend Exam Cram (EP1) on YouTube: AZ‑305 | 2025 — Ace the exam with Practice Questions & Expert Tips.
Big thanks to Jaspal for “tasting” the real exam style questions. His step‑by‑step reasoning gave me confidence in tackling tricky design scenarios.
Reflections
This exam is less about clicking through Azure Portal and more about design thinking, making the right architectural trade‑offs for business, security, cost, and scalability.
Passing the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification not only validates advanced Azure expertise but also strengthens my confidence in designing end‑to‑end cloud solutions for enterprises.
Gratitude
- Thank you, Larry at Systematic Computer Education Centre, for your guidance and exam‑oriented training.
- Thank you, Jaspal, for your mock exam videos and community support.
- And thanks to my friends, colleagues, and family who encouraged me throughout this journey.
What's Next?
With both Azure Administrator Associate and Solutions Architect Expert under my belt, I’m looking forward to applying these skills in real projects and perhaps mentoring others on their cloud journey.
Here's to more milestones in 2025!
Congrats! One limitation is AZ‑305 prep can underplay production realities like IaC, landing zones, policy‑as‑code, and FinOps. How will you address that—build an Enterprise‑Scale landing zone with Terraform/Bicep and run DR/HA and cost‑governance drills on real workloads?