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Azure Solutions Architect: Service-by-Service

A provider-deep tour of Microsoft Azure for solutions and cloud architects. Walks the full service landscape - compute, storage, databases, networking, identity (Entra ID), data and analytics - then layers on infrastructure-as-code (Bicep/ARM/Terraform), containers, operations, security and the Well-Architected Framework, and finishes with the architecture deep-dives and behavioral themes Azure architect loops grade against.

Azure Solutions ArchitectSenior~50h8 sections22 items
Section 1 of 8

The Azure service landscape

Build a working map of the core families: compute (VMs, App Service, Functions, Container Apps, AKS, Batch), storage (Blob, Files, Managed Disks, Archive), databases (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL, Cache for Redis, Synapse), and the glue (Service Bus, Event Grid, Event Hubs, Logic Apps). This category is the spine of the path.

  1. 01MCQAzure questions (80 suggested)Multiple choice category
Section 2 of 8

Networking and content delivery

Anchor the VNet model: subnets, NSGs, Azure Firewall, Private Link, VNet peering, ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Front Door and CDN before the design rounds.

  1. 01MCQNetworking questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02DesignDesign a CDN with Edge Compute (CloudFront / Cloudflare)System Design · Hard
  3. 03DesignDesign a Load Balancer (L4 vs L7, Envoy / HAProxy / ALB)System Design · Hard
Section 3 of 8

Data stores and analytics

Work through relational vs document (Cosmos DB) vs columnar (Synapse) trade-offs, the analytics path (Data Factory, Synapse, Stream Analytics), and caching with Azure Cache for Redis.

  1. 01MCQDatabases questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02DesignDesign an Analytics Pipeline (Kafka / Spark / Warehouse)System Design · Hard
  3. 03DesignDesign a Distributed Cache (Memcached / Redis Cluster)System Design · Hard
Section 4 of 8

Infrastructure as Code and containers

Build fluency in declarative provisioning (Bicep, ARM templates, Terraform) and the container stack (Container Apps, AKS) that runs most modern Azure workloads.

  1. 01MCQTerraform questions (25 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02MCQKubernetes questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
Section 5 of 8

Operations, observability and DevOps

Cover Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics, Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions pipelines, and the deployment-safety patterns architects bake in.

  1. 01MCQDevOps questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02DesignDesign an Observability Platform (Metrics, Logs, Traces)System Design · Hard
Section 6 of 8

Security, governance and the Well-Architected Framework

The pillars architects are graded on: Entra ID and RBAC least privilege, Key Vault, Management Groups and Azure Policy for governance, plus the Azure Well-Architected pillars (reliability, security, cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency).

  1. 01MCQSecurity questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02MCQCloud Architecture questions (25 suggested)Multiple choice category
Section 7 of 8

Architect deep-dives (system design)

Bounded designs that exercise the conversations Azure architects lead - decoupling with Service Bus, consistency across services, throttling, and payment-grade reliability.

  1. 01DesignDesign a Distributed Message Queue (Kafka deep-dive)System Design · Hard
  2. 02DesignDesign Distributed Transactions (2PC, Saga, TCC)System Design · Hard
  3. 03DesignDesign a Rate Limiter (API Throttling)System Design · Medium
  4. 04DesignDesign a Payments / Checkout System (Stripe-style)System Design · Hard
Section 8 of 8

Behavioral: influence and judgment

Architect rounds screen for driving decisions across teams you don't manage and making pragmatic cost/resilience trade-offs. Have a story per theme with concrete business impact.

  1. 01BehavioralLeadership Without AuthorityBehavioral · General
  2. 02BehavioralDealing with AmbiguityBehavioral · General
  3. 03BehavioralFrugality (Amazon Leadership Principle)Behavioral · Amazon LP
  4. 04BehavioralDive Deep (Amazon Leadership Principle)Behavioral · Amazon LP
  5. 05BehavioralLearn and Be Curious (Amazon Leadership Principle)Behavioral · Amazon LP

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