Today Cloud computing is fastly emerging the standard among companies that want more flexibility, lower costs, greater efficiencies, and better disaster recovery—to name a few of the benefits.
For the 7th straight year, Gartner placed Amazon Web Services in the “Leaders” quadrant. Also, the report of Forbes stated, AWS Certified Solutions Architect is the 15 Top Paying IT Certifications in the market. Certainly, the AWS Solution Architect position is one of the most sought after amongst IT jobs.
Furthermore, according to GlassDoor.com, the national average salary for an AWS Solutions Architect is $121,189 in the United States.
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That’s why we have designed a list of top AWS Architect Interview questions and answers 2020 in a way that will most probably get asked during your AWS job interview.
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Whether you are a beginner or an experienced candidate, review our list of top AWS Solution Architect interview questions and answers. This article will help you to get inspired and prepared, so you will succeed in your interview.
AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions and Answers
1. What Is Amazon EC2?
Elastic Compute Cloud in short EC2 and this provides scalable computing capacity. Using Amazon EC2, you can reduce the need to spend in hardware, leading to faster development and deployment of applications.
You can use Amazon EC2 to start as many or as few virtual servers as needed, configure security and networking, and manage storage.
Therefore, it can scale up or down to manage changes in requirements, decreasing the need to forecast traffic. EC2 gives virtual computing environments called “instances.”
2. What Are Some of the Security Best Practices for Amazon EC2?
Some of the Security best practices for Amazon EC2 include,
Using Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to AWS resources
Restricting access by only allowing trusted hosts or networks to access ports on an instance
Only opening up those permissions you require, and disabling password-based logins for instances launched from your AMI.
3. What Is Amazon S3?
Simple Storage Service in short S3 and Amazon S3 is the most supported storage platform available.
S3 is an object storage that can store and recover any number of data from anywhere. Despite that versatility, it is practically endless as well as cost-effective because it is storage available on demand.
In addition to these benefits, it offers exceptional levels of durability and availability.
Hence, Amazon S3 helps to manage data for cost optimization, access control, and compliance.
4. Can S3 bucket Be Used with EC2 Instances, and If Yes, How?
Yes, it is possible. If Amazon S3 be used for instances with root devices supported by local instance storage.
This is why developers have access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its global network of websites.
To achieve systems in the Amazon EC2 environment, developers load Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) into Amazon S3 and then move them between Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2.
Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 are two of the best-known web services that make up AWS.
5. What is Identity Access Management (IAM) and How is it Used?
Identity Access Management (IAM) is a web service for securely managing access to AWS services.
Using IAM, you can manage users, security credentials such as access keys, and permissions that control which AWS resources users and applications can access.
6. What is Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and Why it is Used?
Virtual Private cloud in short VPC and is the best way of connecting to your cloud resources from your own data center.
Once you connect your datacenter to the VPC in which your instances are present, each instance is allocated a private IP address that can be accessed from your data center.
This is why you can reach your public cloud resources as if they were on your private network.
7. What Is Amazon Route 53?
Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS).
The name refers to TCP or UDP port 53, where DNS (Domain Name System ) server requests are addressed.
8. What Is Cloudtrail and How Do Cloudtrail and Route 53 Work Together?
CloudTrail is a service that catches every information about each request sent to the Amazon Route 53 API by an AWS account, including requests that are even sent by IAM users.
CloudTrail saves log files of these requests to an Amazon S3 bucket. CloudTrail captures information about all requests.
You can use information in the CloudTrail log files to conclude which requests were sent to Amazon Route 53 such as the IP address that the request was sent from, who sent the request, when it was sent, and more.
9. When Would You Prefer Provisioned IOPS over Standard Rds Storage?
You would use Provisioned IOPS when you have a batch-oriented workload.
Provisioned IOPS delivers high IO rates, but it is also costly. However, batch processing workloads do not need manual intervention.
Related: Lockdown is a Great Time to Start a career in Cloud Computing (5 Preparation tips from Home)
10. How Do Amazon Rds, Dynamodb and Redshift Differ from Each Other?
Amazon RDS is a database management service for relational databases. It automatically handles patching, upgrading, and data backups. It’s a database management service for structured data only.
On the other flip side, DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service for dealing with unstructured data.
Redshift is a data warehouse product used in data analysis.
11. What Are the Benefits of AWS’s Disaster Recovery?
Businesses use cloud computing in part to allow faster disaster recovery of critical IT systems without the cost of a second physical site.
The AWS cloud helps many popular disaster recovery architectures varying from small customer workload data center failures to environments that allow rapid failover at scale.
With data centers all over the world, AWS provides a set of cloud-based disaster recovery services that facilitate the rapid recovery of your IT infrastructure and data.
12. What is auto-scaling in AWS?
Auto-scaling is a feature of AWS which enables you to configure and automatically provision and spin-up new instances without the need for your intervention.
13. What are the different types of cloud services?
Software as a Service (SaaS), Data as a Service (DaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
14. What is SimpleDB?
It is a structured Data Store that helps indexing and data queries to both EC2 and S3.
15. What do you know about AMI?
AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is a snapshot of the root filesystem. Generally, it is considered the template for virtual machines. While starting an instance, it is possible to select pre-baked AMI’s that AMI commonly have in them.
16. What is the type of architecture, where half of the workload is on the public load while at the same time half of it is on the local storage?
Hybrid cloud architecture.
17. Can I vertically scale an Amazon instance? How do you do it?
Yes, you can. Spinup a new larger instance than the one you are running, then rest that instance to separate the root ebs volume from this server and discard.
After that, stop the live instance and separate its root volume. Note the unique device ID and attach that root volume to the new server, and start again. This way you will have scaled vertically.
18. How can you send a request to Amazon S3?
You can send a request to Amazon S3 by using the REST API or the AWS SDK wrapper libraries. These elements wrap the underlying Amazon S3 REST API.
19. How many buckets can be created in AWS by default?
By default, 100 buckets can be created.
20. Should encryption be used for S3?
No, Encryption should be held for sensitive data as S3 is a proprietary technology.
Related: 5 Considerations Before Getting into Cloud computing career!
21. What are the different AMI design options?
Fully Baked AMI, JeOS (just enough operating system) AMI, and Hybrid AMI.
22. What is Geo Restriction in CloudFront?
Geo restriction, also known as geoblocking, is used to block users in specific geographic locations from entering content that you’re distributing through a CloudFront web distribution.
23. Explain what T2 instances?
T2 instances are intended to provide moderate baseline performance and the ability to burst to higher performance as required by workload.
24. What is AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is a compute service that allows you to run code in the AWS Cloud without provisioning or managing servers
25. What is a Serverless application in AWS?
The AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM) continues AWS CloudFormation to produce a simplified way of defining the Amazon API Gateway APIs, AWS Lambda functions, and Amazon DynamoDB tables needed by your serverless application.
26. What is the use of Amazon ElastiCache?
Amazon ElastiCache is a web service that makes it easy to use, operate, and scale an in-memory data store or cache in the cloud.
27. Explain how the buffer is used in Amazon web services?
The buffer is used to make the system more strong to control traffic or load by synchronizing various components.
28. Differentiate between stopping and terminating an instance
When an instance is stopped, the instance does a normal shutdown and then transitions to a stopped state.
When an instance is terminated, the instance does a normal shutdown, then the attached Amazon EBS volumes are removed unless the volume’s delete on termination attribute is set to false.
29. Is it possible to change the private IP addresses of an EC2 while it is running/stopped in a VPC?
No, it is not possible to change the primary private IP address. Secondary private addresses can be unassigned, assigned or transferred between interfaces or instances at any point.
30. Give one instance where you would prefer Provisioned IOPS over Standard RDS storage?
When you have batch-oriented workloads.
31. What is AWS?
It is the acronym for Amazon Web Service. It is a large, evolving cloud-computing platform of Amazon.
It is also known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Related: What are the Skills Required for Cloud Computing Job in the Present IT Industry?
32. What is the boot time for an instance store backed instance?
The boot time for an Amazon Instance Store -Backed AMI is less than 5 minutes.
33. Will you use encryption for S3?
Yes, I will, as it is a proprietary technology. It’s always a good idea to think encryption for sensitive data on S3.
34. Explain the advantages of AWS’s Disaster Recovery (DR) solution.
- AWS offers a cost-effective backup, storage, and DR solution, helping the companies to reduce their capital expenses
- Fast setup time and greater productivity gains
- AWS helps companies to scale up even during seasonal fluctuations
- It seamlessly replicates on-premises data to the cloud
- Ensures fast retrieval of files
35. What is DynamoDB?
DynamoDB is a fully managed proprietary NoSQL database service, which supports key-value and document data structures. It can be used when a fast and flexible NoSQL database with a flexible data model and reliable performance is needed.
36. What is Redshift?
Redshift is a petabyte size data warehouse service by Amazon. It is easy, scalable, and cost-effective. It can be fully configured to examine your whole data with the existing business intelligence tools.
37. Which data centers are deployed for cloud computing?
There are two data centers in cloud computing, one is Containerized Data centers, and another is Low-Density Data Centers.
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38. Which AWS services will you use to collect and process e-commerce data for near real-time analysis?
- Amazon DynamoDB
- Amazon ElastiCache
- Amazon Elastic MapReduce
- Amazon Redshift
39. What is SQS?
Simple Queue Service in short SQS is a distributed message queuing service that serves as a mediator for two controllers. It is a pay-per-use web service.
40. What are the popular DevOps tools?
The popular DevOps tools are –
- Chef, Puppet, Ansible, and SaltStack – Deployment and Configuration Management Tools
- Docker – Containerization Tool
- Git – Version Control System Tool
- Jenkins – Continuous Integration Tool
- Nagios – Continuous Monitoring Tool
- Selenium – Continuous Testing Tool
41. What is Hybrid cloud architecture?
It is a type of architecture where the workload is split into two halves among which one is on public load and the other is on the local storage.
Furthermore, it is a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, and public cloud services between two platforms.
42. What Is Configuration Management?
Configuration management is used to manage the configuration of systems and the services that they give entirely through code.
This is a repetitive and anaa consistent process that is performed through
- Intuitive command-line interface
- A lightweight and easily readable domain-specific language (DSL)
- Comprehensive REST-based API
43. What are the features of the Amazon cloud search?
Amazon cloud search features:
- AutoComplete advice
- Boolean Searches
- Entire text search
- Faceting term boosting
- Highlighting
- Prefix Searches
- Range searches
44. At what value the instance’s tenancy attribute is to be set for running it on single-tenant hardware?
It should be set to the Dedicate Instance for running smoothly on single-tenant hardware. Other values are not acceptable for this operation.
45. When there is a need to acquire costs with an EIP?
EIP in short for Elastic Internet Protocol address. Costs are taken with an EIP when the same is associated and allocated with a stopped instance.
In case, if there is only one Elastic IP with the instance you are running, you will not be charged for it. But, in case the IP is attached to a stopped instance or doesn’t attach to any instance, you are supposed to pay for it.
46. What is the difference between an On-demand instance and a Spot Instance?
Both Spot and on-demand instances are pricing models.
Spot instance is related to bidding and the price of bidding is called the Spot price. Without upfront payment, Spot instances can be used.
On the other hand, this is not possible with On-demand instances. It needs to be purchased first and the price is more costly than the spot instance.
47. Name the Instances types for which the Multi AZ-deployments are available
Irrespective of the types and use, the Multi-AZ deployments are simply available for all the instances
48. When Instances are launched in the cluster placement group, what are the network performance parameters that can be expected?
It depends mostly on the type of Instance and the specification of network performance.
In case if they are started in the placement group, you can expect the following parameters
- 20 Gbps in case of full-duplex or when in multi-flow
- Up to 10 Gbps in case of a single-flow
- Outside the group, the traffic is limited to 5 Gbps.
49. Which Instance can be used for deploying a 4-node cluster of Hadoop in Amazon Web Services?
It is possible to use i2.large or c4.8x large Instance for this. But, c.4bx requires a better configuration on the PC.
At some point, you can simply start the EMR for the automatic configuration of the server for you. Data can be put into S3 and EMR can pick it from there. It will load your data in S3 again after processing it.
50. Tell us various parameters that you should consider while selecting the Availability Zone?
For this, various parameters should be kept in mind. Some of them are performance, pricing, latency, as well as response time.
51. What do you know about the private and the public address?
Well, the private address is directly correlated with the Instance and is sent back to EC2 only in case it is terminated or stopped.
On the other side, the public address is correlated similarly with the Instance until it is terminated or stopped.
Moreover, it is possible to replace the public address with Elastic IP. This is achieved when a user needs it to stay with Instance as per the need.
52. Is it possible to run the multiple websites on the EC2 server with one Elastic IP address?
No, it’s not possible. We need more than one elastic IP in such a case.
53. Name the practices available when it comes to securing the Amazon EC2?
This can be done through several practices.
A review of the protocols in the security group is to be observed regularly and it is to be ensured that the principle of least is applicable over there.
The next practice is using access management and AWS identity for managing and securing access. Access is to be limited to hosts and networks that are trusted.
In addition to this, only those permissions are opened which are needed and not any other. It would also be good to disable password-based logins for the instances.
54. What are the states available in Processor State Control?
It contains two states and they are:
- P-state- It has different levels ranging from P0 to P15. P0 represents the highest frequency whereas P15 represents the lowest frequency.
- C-State- Its levels are starting from C0 to C6 where C6 is the strongest state for the processor.
It is possible to customize these two states in a few EC2 instances which allow users to customize processors as per demand.
55. Name the approach that restricts the access of third-party software in Storage Service to S3 bucket named “Company Backup”?
There is a policy named custom IAM(Identity and Access Management) user policy that limits the S3 API in the bucket
56. Name the method that you will use for moving the data to a very long distance?
Amazon Transfer Acceleration is the best option. There are other options like Snowball but the same doesn’t help data transfer over a very long distance such as among continents.
Amazon Transfer Acceleration is a good option because it simply throttles the data with the support of network channels that are optimized and assures very fast data transfer speed.
57. What will happen if you launch the instances in Amazon VPC?
This is a common approach that is considered when it comes to launching EC2 instances.
Each instance will be having a default IP address if the instances are launched in Amazon VPC.
This approach is also considered when you need to connect cloud resources with the data centers.
58. Is it possible to establish a connection between the Amazon cloud and a corporate data center? How?
Yes, it’s possible. For this, first, a Virtual Private Network is to be established between the virtual private cloud(VPC) and the company’s network.
After this, the connection can simply be created and data can be accessed reliably.
59. Why is it not possible to change or modify the private IP address of an EC2 instance when it is running?
This is because the private IP remains with the instance permanently or through the life cycle.
Thus it can’t be changed or modified. But, it is only possible to change the secondary private address.
60. Why are subnets required to be created?
They are needed to use the network with a huge number of hosts in a reliable manner.
Of course, it’s a difficult task to control them all. However, by dividing the network into smaller subnets, it can be done simpler and the chances of getting errors or data loss can be reduced up to an extraordinary extent.
61. What happens if the AWS Direct Connect fails to perform its function?
It is recommended to backup the Direct Connect if in case of any power failure you will lose everything.
Therefore allowing BFD i.e. Bi-directional Forwarding Detection can avoid the issues.
In case no backup is found, VPC traffic would be lost and you are supposed to start everything from the initial point again.
62. What will happen if the content is absent in CloudFront and a request is made?
Here the CloudFront sends the content from the primary server directly to the cache memory of the edge location.
As it’s a content delivery system, it tries to short the latency and that is why it will happen.
In case, the operation is performed for the second time, the data will directly be served from the cache location.
63. Is it possible to use direct connect for transferring the objects from the data centers?
Yes, it is possible. CloudFront simply supports custom origins and thus this task can be achieved.
But, you need to pay for it based on the data transfer rates.
64. When there is a need to consider Provisional IOPS than Standard RDS storage in AWS?
In case you have hosts that are batch-oriented, there is a need for the same. The reason is provisional IOPs are known to provide faster IO rates.
But, they are a bit expensive when compared to other options. Hosts with batch processing don’t need manual intervention from the users. It is because of this reason provisional IOPs are preferred.
65. Is it possible to run multiple DB for Amazon RDS free of cost?
Yes, it’s possible. But, there is a severe upper limit of 750 hours of usage post which everything will be billed as per RDS prices.
In case you exceed the limit, you will be charged only for the extra hours beyond 750.
66. What is the significance of Connection Draining?
There are certain stages when the traffic needs to be re-verified for bugs, unwanted files that raise security concerns.
Connection draining helps in re-routing the traffic that comes from the Instances and which is in a queue to be updated.
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67. I have a few private servers and I distributed some of the workloads on the public cloud too. Which type of architecture is this?
When you use both services like private and public clouds together then it’s the hybrid cloud. It is easier to understand a hybrid architecture when private or public clouds are hosted on the same network virtually.
68. Can we use reserved instances for multi-AZ deployments in AWS?
Reserved Instances are the pricing models available for all Amazon EC2 Instances.
69. How to decide on the best availability zone?
To decide the best availability zone, you must first compare the prices for different regions. But the price is not the single factor to make the final decision; you also need to consider the performance.
Let us look at the latency as well. It’s the time taken by a server to respond to your requests. Based on these factors, it is easier to decide on the best availability zone from different regions.
70. What happens to my backups and DB Snapshots if I delete my DB Instance?
When you delete a DB instance, you have the option of creating a final DB snapshot, if you do that you can restore your database from that snapshot.
RDS retains this user-created DB snapshot along with all other manually created DB snapshots after the instance is deleted, also automated backups are deleted and only manually created DB Snapshots are retained.
Tips for Answering the AWS Solution Architect Job interview
When you’re being interviewed, please avoid “Yes/No” type answers as the answer needs to be creative. Preferably, use a descriptive answer that shows that you are familiar with the concept and explains your behavior clearly in that situation. That you are the best solution as an AWS architect.
Sometimes, interviewers give you a scenario to check your behavior against the situation. Be prepared and get AWS solution architect certification today to be hired by the Best Companies.
Related: Cracking Tips for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Questions at First attempt!
So, what are you waiting for to be prepared?
The above-discussed are the most important AWS Solution Architect interview questions and answers. It will assist you with your just-in-time preparation for that job interview in AWS solution Architect. If we have missed any other important AWS interview questions, let me know in the comments.
Furthermore, if you’re interested in additional training or a certification program that offers extensive hands-on experience, Enroll in Zuan Education online AWS Solutions Architect Certification Training Course.
This AWS certification training will give you an in-depth understanding of AWS architectural principles and services. You will learn how to design, plan, and scale AWS cloud implementations. The training includes practice assignments and three live projects designed to give you hands-on experience with the AWS management console.
In the meanwhile, the spread of Coronavirus is increasing drastically, so remember to wash your hands frequently with soaps and sanitizers, cover your face while going out and maintain social distance among others.
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