Top 10 AWS

Interview Question
1. COMMON QUESTIONS

2. ROLE BASED TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

3. TECHNICAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

4. BOOK A CALL

Interview
Question
[EDITION 01]
Section 1: Common Questions that interviewer will
always ask:.
Q 1. Tell us about yourself.

Pretty common, but you want to be prepared for this to differentiate yourself from the
crowd.

Most people start rambling about all their experiences, their schooling, and the
certifications they have.

That doesn’t help the company at all.

They’re not actually hiring for that.

They’re hiring because they have a problem, and they need to find someone who can
help them solve it

So, when companies ask me about myself, for example, You give a brief short (few lines
like “Connect your experience to the job: Tailor your response to align with the job
description and the company's needs. Emphasize how your skills and experience make
you an ideal candidate for the AWS Cloud position you're interviewing for. For example,
"I noticed that this role requires expertise in [mention a specific skill or area], which
I've honed over the years. I'm excited about the opportunity to contribute to [Company
Name] by leveraging my AWS Cloud experience."”)

and then flip the question on them and answer something like this, “You know, I have a
lot of experience that I could talk about, but I don’t want to bore you with that. Could
you let me know the specific problem you’re hiring for, and I can tell you about my
experience in that area?”

Boom!

Now you are addressing their specific problem and identifying how my skill set will add
value to their company.
Q 2. Technical / Project Related Questions: Use bard / ChatGPT to
identify interview questions based on Job description?

Q 3. Any question that you would like to ask; make sure you stand
out by asking?

“Based on everything that we discussed today about my background and my experience,

is there any reason why you wouldn't offer me this job?”

Yes, it feels uncomfortable.

But the reason why you want to ask this question is it gives you the opportunity to
overcome any objections they may have.

You have to remember that you're selling your services and a good salesperson is good at
handling objections.

They might say, “Hey, you know what? We’re not sure you have the right experience that
we’re looking for right now.”

This gives you a chance to offer a rebuttal and clear up any misconceptions they may
have about you.

As uncomfortable as this question may be, it saves you heartache in the long run.

This question will clarify exactly what their needs are and why you might not be the right
fit… instead of feeling like you killed an interview and finding out you still didn’t get the
job.

Follow Up

Finally, you must send an email to the person that interviewed you to thank them for their
time.
 Remember, they're giving you something that they can never get back: their time.
And it’s only right to thank them for spending their valuable time with you.

Section 2: Role Based Technical Questions

Here are technical questions based on the above Job Description.

Q1: Could you provide an example of a situation where you had to identify and
mitigate risks, security issues, or bottlenecks in an AWS architecture? [Cloud
Architect] [Cloud Architect]

Q2: What monitoring tools and practices do you prefer to use when ensuring
system health and optimizing efficiency on AWS? [Cloud Admin / Architect /
Network Engineer]

Q3: What CI/CD tools have you worked on, and how have they contributed to the
automation of infrastructure deployment and management?? [DevOps Engineer]

Q4: Can you explain the difference between AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS
Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)? When would you choose one over the other for
a specific application or workload?? [Cloud Architect]

Q5: Describe your approach to optimizing cost in AWS. How do you ensure that
resources are used efficiently while maintaining system performance and
reliability? [Cloud Architect / Admin]

Q6: Have you worked with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
extensively? How do you ensure proper security and access control for resources in
your AWS environment? [Cloud Architect]

Q7: Describe a situation where you needed to scale an application dynamically

based on traffic spikes. What AWS services and strategies did you use to handle
sudden increases in load? [Cloud Architect]
Q8: AWS provides a range of database services, including RDS, Aurora,
DynamoDB, and Redshift. How do you choose the right database service for a
specific application's requirements? Tell a little bit more about your experience?
[Cloud Architect / Admin]

Q9: How do you handle secrets and sensitive configuration data in your AWS
applications? What AWS services or tools do you use for secure secret
management? [Cloud Architect / Admin]

Q10: Describe a situation where you needed to implement a zero-downtime

deployment or update of an application on AWS. What techniques and AWS services did you
use to achieve this? [Cloud Architect / Admin]

Section 3: Technical Questions & Their Answers

- Cloud Architect

Q 1: Could you provide an example of a situation where you had to identify

and mitigate risks, security issues, or bottlenecks in an AWS architecture?

Ans: In a previous role, I encountered a situation where I had to identify and mitigate risks in an
AWS architecture. Our organization was migrating critical applications to AWS cloud
infrastructure. During the migration process, I observed a potential security issue. The issue was
related to overly permissive IAM (Identity and Access Management) permissions, which could
have allowed unauthorized access to sensitive data.

o To mitigate this risk, I conducted a thorough review of the IAM policies and roles,
identifying unnecessary permissions and tightening security policies. I also
implemented AWS CloudTrail for monitoring and logging to track access and
changes. By doing this, we ensured that only authorized personnel had access to
resources and that any suspicious activities would be logged and alerted in real-time.
 o Additionally, I identified performance bottlenecks in our AWS architecture during
peak usage periods. To address this, I optimized the auto-scaling configurations,
implemented caching mechanisms, and fine-tuned database queries. This resulted in
improved system performance and cost savings.

o By proactively addressing security concerns and optimizing the AWS architecture, we

not only enhanced the overall system's reliability but also reduced the risk of
unauthorized access, demonstrating our commitment to security and efficiency in our
AWS infrastructure.

Note: For this question refer to the M10: security services & M11: HA, DR and also share your
experience on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them (setup of express
route is usually once a time activity in the project).

Q 2: Have you worked with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
extensively? How do you ensure proper security and access control for
resources in your AWS environment??

Ans: Yes, I have worked with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) extensively. I
have experience in creating and managing IAM users, groups, and roles. I am also familiar with
the different types of permissions that can be assigned to IAM entities.

I ensure proper security and access control for resources in my AWS environment by following
the following principles:

Least privilege: I only grant users the permissions they need to do their job. This helps to reduce
the risk of unauthorized access to resources.

• Role-based access control: I use IAM roles to assign permissions to groups of users or
applications. This makes it easier to manage permissions and helps to prevent accidental
or malicious access.

• Multi-factor authentication: I require users to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to

access their accounts. This adds an extra layer of security to prevent unauthorized access.

• Continuous monitoring: I continuously monitor my AWS environment for unauthorized

access or activity. This helps me to quickly identify and respond to security threats.
 • IAM Policy Best Practices: Highlight that you follow best practices for creating IAM
policies, including using policy conditions and using managed policies whenever
possible.

Note: For this question refer to the M2: Identity & Access Management and also share your
experience on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them.

Q 3: Describe a situation where you needed to scale an application

dynamically based on traffic spikes. What AWS services and strategies did
you use to handle sudden increases in load?

Ans: In a situation where I needed to scale an application dynamically based on traffic spikes, I
employed several AWS services and strategies to ensure the application could handle sudden
increases in load effectively. Here's how I approached it:

• Auto Scaling: I utilized AWS Auto Scaling to automatically adjust the number of
instances in my application based on traffic. This ensured that the application could
seamlessly handle increased loads without manual intervention.

• Elastic Load Balancer (ELB): ELB distributed incoming traffic across multiple EC2
instances, enhancing the application's availability and fault tolerance. It also helped in
scaling horizontally.

• Amazon CloudFront: To improve content delivery and reduce latency, I integrated

Amazon CloudFront as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to cache and serve frequently
accessed content from edge locations.

• Amazon RDS Read Replicas: For database scalability, I implemented read replicas of
Amazon RDS to offload read traffic from the primary database, allowing it to focus on
write operations.

• Monitoring and Alarming: I set up AWS CloudWatch for monitoring the application's
performance and configured alarms to notify me when certain thresholds were reached,
enabling proactive scaling.

• Distributed Caching: To reduce the load on the database, I used Amazon ElastiCache
 for caching frequently accessed data, improving response times.

• Database Sharding: In cases of extremely high traffic, I implemented database sharding

to horizontally partition the data and distribute the load across multiple database
instances.

• Load Testing: Before traffic spikes, I performed load testing to identify potential
bottlenecks and ensure that the infrastructure and scaling policies were adequately
configured.

• Disaster Recovery: I had a disaster recovery plan in place, leveraging AWS services like
Amazon S3 for data backup and AWS Route 53 for DNS failover to maintain application
availability.

By implementing these AWS services and strategies, I ensured that the application could
efficiently handle traffic spikes, maintaining optimal performance and user experience.

Note: For this question refer to the M4: AWS Elastic Compute Cloud, M7: AWS Database
Services, M11: HA & DR and also share your experience on what you have learned from hands-
on labs mentioned in them

Q 4: Can you explain the difference between AWS Elastic Beanstalk and
AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)? When would you choose one over the
other for a specific application or workload?

Answer: Sure, I can explain the difference between AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Elastic
Kubernetes Service (EKS).

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a fully managed platform that provides a quick and easy way to deploy
and manage web applications and services. It takes care of all the infrastructure management, so
you can focus on your code. Elastic Beanstalk supports a variety of application frameworks and
languages, including Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, and Docker.

AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a managed Kubernetes service that allows you to run
containerized applications on AWS. Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system
that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. EKS
provides a high-level abstraction for Kubernetes, making it easier to manage and operate
Kubernetes clusters.
Here are the factors to consider when choosing between Elastic Beanstalk and EKS:

• Your level of expertise with containerization and Kubernetes. If you are new to
containerization and Kubernetes, Elastic Beanstalk is a good option because it provides
a high-level abstraction that makes it easy to get started. EKS is a good option if you
have more experience with containerization and Kubernetes and want more control
over your infrastructure.

• The complexity of your application. If your application is simple, Elastic Beanstalk can
be a good option. If your application is complex, EKS may be a better choice because it
gives you more control over the infrastructure.

• Your budget. Elastic Beanstalk is generally less expensive than EKS because it is a
managed service. However, the cost difference may not be significant for small or
medium-sized applications.

Ultimately, the best choice for you will depend on your specific needs and requirements.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, you may also want to consider the following when
choosing between Elastic Beanstalk and EKS:

• Your team's expertise. If your team has experience with Elastic Beanstalk, it may be
easier to get started with that platform. If your team is new to containerization, EKS
may be a better choice because it gives you more flexibility in how you manage your
infrastructure.

• Your future plans. If you plan to scale your application or deploy it to multiple regions,
EKS may be a better choice because it gives you more flexibility.

Note: For this question refer to the M9: Automation & Configuration Management & M13: AWS
Container Services and also share your experience on what you have learned from hands-on
labs mentioned in them

Cloud Admin / Cloud Architect

Q 1: What monitoring tools and practices do you prefer to use when ensuring
system health and optimizing efficiency on AWS?

Answer: When ensuring system health and optimizing efficiency on AWS, I prefer to employ a
combination of monitoring tools and best practices to ensure the smooth operation of cloud
infrastructure. Here are some key elements of my approach.

• CloudWatch: I rely on Amazon CloudWatch for real-time monitoring of AWS

resources. It helps me track performance metrics, set alarms, and gain insights into
system behavior.

• AWS Trusted Advisor: I use Trusted Advisor to analyze AWS environments and
provide recommendations for cost optimization, security, and performance
improvements.

• AWS CodeDeploy: CodeDeploy is a service that automates the deployment of code to

your AWS resources. This can be used to ensure that your applications are always up-to-
date and running smoothly.

• Security Best Practices: I follow AWS security best practices to protect our systems and
data, including setting up IAM roles and implementing encryption.

• Log Management: I use tools like AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs for
centralized logging and auditing, which aids in troubleshooting and maintaining security.

• Performance Testing: I regularly perform load and stress testing to simulate real-world
scenarios, ensuring our systems can handle peak workloads efficiently.

By implementing these tools and practices, I aim to maintain the health and efficiency of our
systems on AWS, ensuring they deliver high availability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness

In addition to these tools, I also follow these best practices for monitoring and optimizing my
AWS systems:

Prioritize monitoring: Not all metrics are created equal. It is important to prioritize your
monitoring efforts so that you are focusing on the metrics that are most important to your system
health.
• Automate monitoring: Automating your monitoring can help you save time and effort.
You can use CloudWatch Events to automate the creation of alarms and dashboards.
 • Use dashboards: Dashboards are a great way to visualize your metrics and to get a quick
overview of your system health. CloudWatch provides a number of pre-built dashboards,
or you can create your own.

• Set alerts: Alerts can help you to quickly identify and respond to problems. CloudWatch
can be used to create alerts based on metrics, logs, and events.

Note: For this question refer to the M5: AWS Networking Services, M12: AWS DevOps (CICD
Tools) and also share your experience on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned
in them

Q 2: Describe your approach to optimizing cost in AWS. How do you ensure

that resources are used efficiently while maintaining system performance and
reliability?

Answer: Sure, here is how I would answer that question:

• I would start by understanding the organization's business goals and requirements. This
will help me to identify the most important areas to focus on for cost optimization.

• I would then use AWS Cost Explorer to get a detailed view of the organization's AWS
costs. This tool can be used to identify underutilized resources, spot trends, and make
informed decisions about where to optimize costs.

• I would use AWS Trusted Advisor to get recommendations for improving cost
optimization. This tool can identify areas where the organization can save money without
impacting performance or reliability.

• I would work with the organization's team to implement the cost optimization
recommendations. This may involve changes to the architecture, configuration, or usage
of AWS resources.

• I would monitor the results of the cost optimization initiatives to ensure that they are
effective. I would also continue to review the organization's AWS costs on a regular basis
to identify new opportunities for optimization.
Here are some specific steps that I would take to ensure that resources are used efficiently while
maintaining system performance and reliability:

• Rightsize EC2 instances. This means using the smallest instance type that can meet the
workload requirements. I would use AWS Compute Optimizer to get recommendations
for the right instance type for each workload.
• Use spot instances. Spot instances are unused EC2 instances that are available at a
discounted price. I would use spot instances for workloads that can be interrupted, such
as batch processing or testing.

• Use reserved instances. Reserved instances are EC2 instances that are reserved for a one-
or three-year term. They offer a significant discount over on-demand pricing. I would use
reserved instances for workloads that are predictable and require a consistent level of
performance.

• Use EBS snapshots. EBS snapshots are point-in-time copies of EBS volumes. I would
use EBS snapshots to backup data and to restore data in the event of a disaster.

• Use CloudWatch. CloudWatch is a monitoring service that can be used to track AWS
resource usage and performance. I would use CloudWatch to monitor resource utilization
and to identify potential problems before they impact performance or reliability.

I believe that these are just a few of the ways to optimize cost in AWS. By following these steps,
I can help organizations to save money without impacting performance or reliability.

Note: For this question refer to the M4: AWS EC2, AWS Security Services, M11: HA, DR and
also share your experience on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them

Q3. AWS provides a range of database services, including RDS, Aurora,

DynamoDB, and Redshift. How do you choose the right database service for a
specific application's requirements? Tell a little bit more about your
experience.

Answer: To choose the right AWS database service for a specific application, you should
consider the following factors:
 • Data Model: Identify the data model your application requires, whether it's relational
(like RDS or Aurora) or NoSQL (like DynamoDB).

• Scalability: Determine the scalability needs of your application. DynamoDB is highly

scalable, while RDS and Aurora offer scalability with specific configurations.

• Performance Requirements: Assess the performance requirements in terms of

read/write operations, latency, and throughput. Redshift is optimized for analytical
workloads, while DynamoDB excels at low-latency, high-throughput operations.

• Data Volume: Consider the volume of data your application will handle. Some services
have limits on storage and data size.

• Cost: Evaluate the cost implications of each service, including data storage, read/write
operations, and data transfer costs.

• Data Consistency: Determine the level of data consistency your application needs. RDS
and Aurora provide strong consistency, while DynamoDB offers eventual consistency.

• Security and Compliance: Ensure that the chosen service complies with security and
compliance requirements, such as encryption, access control, and auditability.

• Integration: Check if the database service integrates well with other AWS services and
tools your application uses.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery: Consider the backup and disaster recovery capabilities
of the database service.

• Use Case: Finally, align the service with your specific use case, whether it's a
transactional database, data warehousing, real-time analytics, or something else.

By carefully analyzing these factors and referencing AWS documentation, you can make an
informed decision on which AWS database service best suits your application's requirements

Note: For this question refer to the M7: AWS Database Services and also share your experience
on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them
Q4. How do you handle secrets and sensitive configuration data in your AWS
applications? What AWS services or tools do you use for secure secret
management

Answer: Handling secrets and sensitive configuration data in AWS applications is crucial for
security. Here's how you can answer:

• Basic Practices: Start by mentioning fundamental security practices such as not

hardcoding secrets in your code or configuration files.

• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Highlight the use of IAM to manage
access to AWS services securely. IAM allows you to control who can access your
resources.

• AWS Secrets Manager: Emphasize the use of AWS Secrets Manager for secure storage
and management of secrets. It enables automatic rotation of secrets, enhancing security.

• AWS Key Management Service (KMS): Discuss using AWS KMS for encrypting
sensitive data. KMS provides robust encryption and key management capabilities.

• Parameter Store: Mention AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store for storing
configuration data, which can be secured using IAM policies.

• Audit Trails: Explain the importance of AWS CloudTrail and AWS Config for
monitoring and auditing access and changes to resources.

• Security Best Practices: Stress following AWS security best practices, like regularly
rotating and securing credentials, implementing the principle of least privilege, and
continuous security monitoring.

• Compliance: If applicable, mention compliance standards (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS) and
how you adhere to them for handling sensitive data.

• Training and Awareness: Highlight the importance of training your team to follow
security protocols and being aware of security threats.

• Stay Updated: Mention staying updated with AWS security announcements and patches
 to address vulnerabilities promptly.

Note: For this question refer to the M10: security services and also share your experience on
what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them

Q 5: Describe a situation where you needed to implement a zero-downtime

deployment or update of an application on AWS. What techniques and AWS
services did you use to achieve this?

Ans: I once had to implement a zero-downtime deployment of a new version of an application on AWS.
The application was a web application that was used by thousands of users every day. I used the
following techniques and AWS services to achieve this:

• Blue/green deployment: I used a blue/green deployment strategy. This involves

deploying the new version of the application to a new environment (the green
environment) in parallel with the old version (the blue environment). Once the new
version is deployed and tested, I can then redirect traffic from the blue environment to the
green environment. This ensures that there is no downtime for users.

• Elastic Load Balancing: I used Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic between the
blue and green environments. This ensures that no single environment is overloaded
during the deployment process.

• Auto Scaling: I used Auto Scaling to automatically scale the number of instances in each
environment based on traffic demand. This ensures that the application is always
available, even during peak traffic times.

• Canary release: I used a canary release to test the new version of the application before
deploying it to the production environment. This involves deploying the new version to a
small subset of users and monitoring the results. If there are any problems, I can roll back
the deployment to the old version.

By using these techniques and AWS services, I was able to successfully implement a zero-
downtime deployment of the new version of the application. This ensured that the application
was always available to users and that there was no impact on their experience.

Note: For this question refer to the M4: AWS Elastic Compute Cloud & M9: Automation &
Configuration Management and also share your experience on what you have learned from
hands-on labs mentioned in them

DevOps Engineer

Q 1: What CI/CD tools have you worked on, and how have they contributed
to the automation of infrastructure deployment and management

Ans: I have worked with a variety of CI/CD tools, including Jenkins, CircleCI, and GitLab CI. These
tools have helped me to automate the deployment and management of infrastructure in a number of ways.

• Continuous integration helps to ensure that code changes are integrated into the codebase
smoothly and consistently. This is done by automatically building and testing code
changes before they are merged into the main branch. This helps to catch errors early on
and prevent them from causing problems in production.

• Continuous delivery helps to automate the deployment of code changes to production.

This is done by creating a pipeline that automatically deploys code changes to a staging
environment, where they can be tested, and then to production. This helps to ensure that
code changes are deployed quickly and reliably.

• Continuous deployment takes continuous delivery one step further by automatically

deploying code changes to production as soon as they are merged into the main branch.
This can help to reduce the time it takes to get new features and bug fixes to users.

• In addition to these benefits, CI/CD tools can also help to improve the security of
infrastructure. By automating the deployment process, it is possible to reduce the risk of
human error. Additionally, CI/CD tools can be used to implement security checks at
various stages of the deployment process.

Note: For this question refer to the M12: AWS DevOps (CICD Tools & Pipeline) and also share
your experience on what you have learned from hands-on labs mentioned in them
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