AWS Interview Questions for Solution Architect: All you Need to Know

With this question, the interviewer wants to know if you have sufficient knowledge of Amazon Machine Image (AMI). It is a template with software configurations such as operating systems, application servers, and applications. This can create many virtual servers in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).   

You can also give this example: " I can help you understand the concept of AMI by giving examples of how it can be configured with other operating systems. Configured with Ubuntu allows users to smoothly deploy and run web servers in the Cloud without manually installing and configuring the software." 

This question determines if you thoroughly understand stopping and terminating an EC2 instance. Stopping an EC2 instance halts it and retains the associated data on the attached EBS volume, allowing it to be restarted later. However, ending an instance permanently deletes it and any attached non-persistent storage, preventing further use. 

You can answer this question like: "For example, if I temporarily halt a project and stop the instance to avoid charging for further computing resources, then I am stopping an EC2 instance. If the same project is finished and I no longer need to use the data, I can terminate the instance to prevent it from causing unnecessary costs. 

When the interviewer asks you this question, they are interested in knowing if you know the actual purpose of Amazon S3. It is a scalable, fast, web-based cloud storage service used to host and archive data and program applications online. It's a great option, providing an object storage service with industry-level scalability, data availability, security, and performance. 

For example, you can say, " A company can use S3 to store the static content of their website (such as images or videos) to ensure quick access and to relieve the servers of the rest of the load." 

If you answer this question correctly, the interviewer will understand that your concepts are clear on Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and EBS. Amazon S3 is a simple and scalable object storage that can be used for archiving data, data backup, and data analytics. It is available from anywhere on the internet. On the other hand, Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) contains block-level storage volumes for persistent data storage only to be used with EC2 instances. 

For example, you can also say, "While S3 provides scalable, secure, and accessible object storage for files and backup instances, EBS gives low-latency block storage, which is suitable for fast-accessing data, such as databases." 

You can answer this question by saying, "Amazon EC2 supplies resizable computing capacity, which allows users to manage virtual machine options. It may well suit those who require pixel-perfect precision along with infrastructure. However, Amazon Elastic Beanstalk automates the production deployment and management and simplifies infrastructure complexity." 

With this question, the interviewer aims to understand your understanding of Amazon CloudFront. Its fundamental aim is to transmit content to users with very low latency and high transfer rates, achieved thanks to caching content at edge network sites across the globe. 

You can answer this question with an example: "Suppose that now a business is running its website in a data centre located in the US." Users would experience slow and consistent time lags if CloudFront were not used due to their location. Nevertheless, CloudFront can still distribute copies of a website's central content to edge locations in those areas, like Asia, Europe, and South America. 

With this question, you can help your interviewer understand your Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) expertise. The Simple Email Service (SES) by Cloud is one of the AWS Cloud services offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its role at its infancy is to enable developers to send transactional, marketing, and notification emails rapidly and securely to provide the service on a massive scale. 

For example, you can answer that question by providing a concrete situation. " For instance, let's see the e-commerce platform's email messages to its customers - order confirmations, shipping notifications, and promotional emails. 

The interviewer asked about your plan to give selective access to AWS services through IAM. AWS's Identity and Access Management (IAM) function establishes, administers, and eliminates users, groups, and roles. It also allows the possibility of providing permissions for specific resources to enable or deny access. It is implemented with the Management Console, CLI, or REST API. 

You can give this example while answering this question: "I can provide the profile creation of IAM users for all the employees of your organisation, permissions enforcement for certain AWS resources, and strict multi-factor validation to increase the security level." 

This question tests whether or not you are familiar with the three types of Cloud services. If you do not know these things, we are always there to help. Cloud services are typically categorised into three main types: Cloud computing; we primarily utilise such components as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). 

You should clarify to the interviewer that you understand these types better than their generalities. You could also use this: "IaaS creates virtualised computing resources online using virtual machines and storage facilities, which users could use to launch and manage the applications. PaaS gives a platform to developers with the ability to create, deploy, and manage apps that work seamlessly without having to be concerned by the infrastructure. SaaS provides cloud-based applications that can be rented as a subscription, and no software installation or maintenance is required on the end user's computers." 

To become a proficient AWS Solutions Architect, you must master the entire AWS to understand what is happening in the background when writing its code. This includes this sample query, which asks about Virtual Private Cloud, a special kind of network available in AWS that helps you get a subnet with some particular range of IP addresses. It dynamically assigns an IP address and subnet mask from the global pool and constructs routing tables, network gateways, and security settings. 

Also, you can lead the interviewer by saying, "Within VPC, A-lam can be made, and EC2 instances can be launched in these subnets, security groups and network access control lists can be configured, which in turn controls the traffic flow and access to resources through them." 

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When the interviewer asks you this question, they aim to gauge your knowledge of the present status of Processor State Control, which is part of AWS's instance-type options.  

You can also use this to answer this question: "It allows users to manage CPU performance to optimise for efficiency or compute capacity. It's crucial for cost management and performance optimisation in cloud environments." 

This question helps the interviewer understand if you have the correct working process of Amazon EBS. Amazon EBS provides persistent block storage volumes for use with EC2 instances.  

You can also use this answer as an example: " It allows you to create storage volumes and attach them to EC2 instances. Data persists independently of the life of an example and can be encrypted, replicated across multiple servers for durability, and scaled up or down." 

As a professional AWS Solution Architect Associate, you must understand the importance of Amazon ECS. This interview question helps the interviewer understand if you know that it is a highly scalable, high-performance container management service.

You can also answer by using this example: "It supports Docker containers and allows you to run applications on a managed cluster of Amazon EC2 instances. It simplifies containerised applications' deployment, management, and scaling, making it essential for modern application development and deployment." 

With this question, the interviewer will understand if you know how to automate EC2 instance scaling. You can say, "To automate EC2 instance scaling, I would utilise AWS Auto Scaling to dynamically adjust the number of instances based on predefined policies, schedules, and health checks. This ensures optimal performance and cost management by automatically adding or removing instances in response to demand." 

You must know about Amazon EFS. With this question, the interviewer aims to see if you understand how Amazon EFS provides scalable, elastic, cloud-native file storage for AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. 

You can use this answer for this question: "It's designed to provide a simple, serverless, set-and-forget elastic file system that can be shared across thousands of EC2 instances. It supports a broad spectrum of use cases, such as content management, application development, and data analytics." 

As a Solution Architect Associate, you should have a working knowledge of Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration. This question will clarify for your interviewer if you know that Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration enables faster, more secure transfers of files over long distances between the client and an S3 bucket.  

For example, you can use this answer: "It uses Amazon CloudFront’s globally distributed edge locations to accelerate uploads to S3, significantly improving the speed of uploading large files." 

Let the interviewer know you are clear on the difference between the different approaches on Amazon CloudFront. It is a content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency and high transfer speeds.  

You can also tell the interviewer, "Unlike S3 Transfer Acceleration, specifically for accelerating S3 uploads, CloudFront delivers content from AWS to end-users, optimising for speed and efficiency by caching content in edge locations closer to the user." 

This question lets the interviewer understand your justification for the costs incurred with an elastic IP (EIP). Costs are incurred with an EIP when it is allocated to an account and not associated with a running instance.  

You can also mention to the interviewer, "The primary justification is the flexibility and control it offers over a static IP address for dynamic Cloud Computing, allowing for the management of the addressing of instances without changing DNS records." 

When you are asked this question in an interview, tell the interviewer that "It is a single EC2 server that can host multiple websites using a single Elastic IP address by configuring virtual hosts within the web server software (such as Apache or Nginx) to serve different websites based on the request's domain name." 

With this question, your interviewer wants to know if you know how to secure an Amazon S3 bucket. You can tell them that "To secure an Amazon S3 bucket, I will use built-in tools like bucket policies, Access Control Lists (ACLs), and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to manage access. I will also enable encryption, versioning, and logging, which can further enhance security." 

 Let the interviewer know that you know the functions and utilisation of placement groups in EC2. Placement groups in EC2 control the placement of instances to meet the needs of high-performance applications.  

You can use this answer as an example of how to answer this question, "There are three types: Cluster (for low-latency, high-throughput), Spread (for isolated instances to reduce failures), and Partition (for spreading instances across logical partitions, reducing the impact of hardware failures). Placement groups are critical for optimising application performance and resilience." 

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This question helps the interviewer understand if you are knowledgeable enough to deploy a four-node Hadoop cluster in AWS. You can use this answer for this question: "For deploying a four-node Hadoop cluster in AWS, instance types like m5.xlarge or c5.xlarge are recommended due to their balance of compute, memory, and network resources, which are conducive for distributed processing tasks that Hadoop requires." 

With this question, the interviewer will analyse if you know how to subnet within AWS. This sample answer will help you answer the following question: "Subnetting within AWS allows for segmenting the AWS VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) into multiple smaller networks. This enhances network management, security, and efficiency by controlling access and distributing resources across different sections of your cloud environment." 

This question will help the interviewer understand whether you can achieve fault tolerance in an AWS architecture. You can show the interviewer that you are equipped with this knowledge by answering, "Fault tolerance in AWS can be achieved by using multiple Availability Zones, auto-scaling, and Amazon Route 53 for DNS failover strategies. These ensure that if one component fails, others can seamlessly take over to maintain service availability." 

There are several benefits of using EC2 instances within an Auto Scaling Group. With this question, the interviewer aims to understand whether you know these benefits. 

You can comprehensively answer this question: "Using EC2 instances within an Auto Scaling group provides benefits like automatic scaling to meet demand, improved fault tolerance, and cost management by dynamically adjusting capacity to maintain performance and minimize expenses." 

As an AWS Solution Architect, you should know how to integrate on-premise data centres and AWS in a hybrid Cloud group. This question helps the interviewer understand this ability. 

You can frame this answer as follows: "Secure integration between on-premises data centres and AWS in a hybrid setup can be achieved using AWS Direct Connect for a dedicated network connection, AWS VPN for encrypted connections, and consistent identity and access management policies." 

If you are a professional AWS Solutions Architect, you must know there must be a consistent Amazon S3 model. The interviewer also needs to verify if you are aware of the same, which they can do with the help of this question. 

You can tell them about your knowledge by answering the question: "Amazon S3 offers strong read-after-write consistency, meaning the data can be read as soon as it is done. This applies to both new objects and overwritten or deleted objects, ensuring immediate data visibility." 

The interviewer will learn how you strategise to ensure high availability and disaster recovery in AWS. You can let them know about how you strategise with the help of this sample answer: 

"Strategies for high availability and disaster recovery in AWS include using multi-AZ database deployments, cross-region replication for S3, Elastic Load Balancing across multiple instances and regions, and regular backups to S3 or Glacier." 

A professional AWS Solution Architect is responsible for optimising project costs. If you possess such qualities, the interviewer can ask you this question. 

You can answer their question: "AWS costs can be optimised by selecting the suitable instance types, using Reserved Instances for long-term workloads, auto-scaling to adjust resources based on demand, and monitoring usage with AWS CloudWatch and Trusted Advisor." 

This question determines whether you know that AWS supports deploying hybrid applications. You can answer the interviewer: "The AWS supports the deployment through services like AWS Lambda for serverless computing, AWS Storage Gateway for on-premises integration, and AWS Direct Connect for a dedicated network connection between AWS and on-premises resources." 

Several strategies are involved in archiving data, taking backups, and migrating data within AWS. As a professional AWS Solution Architect, you will be asked about these strategies. 

You can answer this question by using this sample answer, " AWS's data archiving, backups, and disaster recovery can be managed through services like Amazon S3 for durable storage, AWS Backup for automated backup solutions, Amazon Glacier for low-cost archiving, and AWS Database Migration Service for seamless data migration." 

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