Hello everyone! I’ll keep this simple. I currently have both Azure Fundamentals and the Azure Administrator Associate certifications, but now I want to get the AZ-305 under my belt as well.

Why?

I want to know and prove to myself that that I can BE an architect in the cloud realm.

Personally, I struggle with exam testing. But I am going to blog my destination to achieving this mundane goal for the new upcoming year. I hope to attain not only the AZ-305 but also the Azure Security Engineer Associate certification as well. I want to be a craftsman when it comes to Azure.

If you’d like to follow me as I go and also join me as I prepare for this then by all means I will try to share all of the resources and actions I take that help me. PLEASE also share what you do in the comments. Maybe, if this gets enough following, I’ll create another YouTube channel to do study sessions or something like that.

How?

How much experience do I have? In the pure world of Azure, I have a solid 3 years of experience from managing Azure AD (Entra AD now I guess) permissions, user account management, SSO, to developing tools using infrastructure that Azure provides, to even working directly on the Azure team at Microsoft, which was kind of hellish, but I learned a TON there. Besides that, I also have another 2 years of experience with supporting small to medium sized businesses with support and administrative roles.

What?

What I plan to do in regard to studying is the following, but I may reorganize myself in the future and I’ll write about those changes as well.

I will be referencing Microsoft’s learning site: AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Architect Design Prerequisites – Training | Microsoft Learn which contains the following 6 modules which the test covers.

Azure Core Infrastructure: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/describe-core-architectural-components-of-azure/

Azure Compute and Networking: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/describe-azure-compute-networking-services/

Azure Storage: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/describe-azure-storage-services/

Azure Identity: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/describe-azure-identity-access-security/

Azure Cloud Adoption Framework: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/microsoft-cloud-adoption-framework-for-azure/

Azure Well Architected Framework: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/azure-well-architected-introduction/

What I will also be referencing is the study guide they recommend. Study guide for Exam AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions | Microsoft Learn

And of course, taking a look at the videos that John Saville posts like this one!

Something else I also use to see where I am at is by using online tests from sites like

https://www.testpreptraining.com/designing-microsoft-azure-infrastructure-solutions-az-305

and … there’s another one, but I forgot the link and I’ll post it later on if I find it.

So, I’ll do a quick assessment to see where my strengths are and where my weaknesses are at too. After the assessments, I will try to do a DEEP dive per module studied in the span of 2 weeks. I think 2 weeks is enough to cover 1 module since I am very busy with my life. But if everything goes to plan, that should be 2 weeks x 6 modules = 12 weeks of doing a deep dive. Then an additional week to practice test taking elements especially since its open book now, so practicing how I can find answers to areas of Azure I am not good at during the test. And finally, also additional week to just do any final review before taking the exam. I know it’s overkill but it’s how I do things; you can do you own 🙂

When?

I will be starting on Dec 18th, 2023. My schedule is the following:

Dec 18 – Jan 1 || Covering Module 1 – Azure Core Infrastructure

Jan 1 – Jan 15th || Covering Module 2 – Azure Compute and Networking

Jan 15th – 29th || Covering Module 3 – Azure Storage

Jan 29th – Feb 12th || Covering Module 4 – Azure Identity

Feb 12th – 26th || Covering Module 5 – Azure Cloud Adoption Framework

Feb 26th – March 11th || Covering Module 6 – Azure Well Architected Framework

March 11th – March 15th || Practicing Test Taking Elements

March 18th – March 22nd || FINAL REVIEW

If I can be disciplined enough to do this, I should be able to get this certificate by Q1 of 2024. And then, we can worry about how to get the Azure Security Engineer Associate certificate afterwards.