AZ104-Q: Application Gateway vs Load Balancer
Q: You must route HTTP traffic based on the URL path (e.g.,
/api/*to one backend pool and/images/*to another) and apply a web application firewall (WAF). Which service should you use?
- A) Azure Load Balancer
- B) Application Gateway ✓
- C) Traffic Manager
- D) Azure Firewall
Answer: B — Application Gateway. Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer: it inspects HTTP/HTTPS and supports path-based routing to different backend pools, plus WAF and TLS termination. Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and cannot route by URL path. Traffic Manager is DNS-based global routing across endpoints. Azure Firewall is a stateful network security service, not an application load balancer.
Why it helps
The classic distinction: Load Balancer = L4, Application Gateway = L7 (HTTP/WAF/path routing). When the question mentions URL paths or WAF, the answer is Application Gateway.