Here are some common AWS Route 53 interview questions and answers:

1. What is Amazon Route 53?

Answer: Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS) web
service that provides a reliable way to route end-user requests to Internet applications. It is used
to manage domain names, route traffic to resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and other
AWS services, and monitor the health of your applications.

2. What are the main functions of Amazon Route 53?

Answer: Amazon Route 53 has three main functions:

1. Domain Registration: Allows you to register new domain names or transfer existing
ones to Route 53.
2. DNS Routing: Resolves domain names to IP addresses (A records, CNAME, etc.) and
provides routing policies (simple routing, weighted, latency-based, etc.).
3. Health Checking and Monitoring: Monitors the health of your resources (such as EC2
instances) and routes traffic based on the health of the resources.

3. What is a DNS Record?

Answer: A DNS record is an entry in a DNS database that maps a domain name to an IP address
or other resources like mail servers or subdomains. Some common types of DNS records are:

 A (Address) Record: Maps a domain to an IPv4 address.

 AAAA (IPv6 Address) Record: Maps a domain to an IPv6 address.
 CNAME (Canonical Name) Record: Alias for a domain name.
 MX (Mail Exchange) Record: Specifies mail servers for a domain.
 TXT Record: Holds arbitrary text data, often used for verification and security purposes.
 NS (Name Server) Record: Specifies authoritative name servers for the domain.

4. What are the different routing policies available in Amazon Route 53?

Answer: Route 53 offers several routing policies to manage traffic flow:

 Simple Routing: Routes traffic to a single resource, typically used when you only have
one resource for a domain.
 Weighted Routing: Routes traffic to multiple resources based on weights that you
assign. This is useful for load balancing.
  Latency-based Routing: Routes traffic to the region with the lowest latency.
 Failover Routing: Routes traffic to a primary resource unless it becomes unhealthy, then
it routes traffic to a secondary (failover) resource.
 Geolocation Routing: Routes traffic based on the geographical location of the user.
 Geoproximity Routing: Routes traffic based on both the location of the user and the
resources, with the ability to bias traffic toward certain resources.
 Multivalue Answer Routing: Routes traffic to multiple resources and returns multiple
values in response to DNS queries.

5. What is a hosted zone in Route 53?

Answer: A hosted zone in Route 53 is a container for records that are associated with a specific
domain. When you create a domain in Route 53, a hosted zone is automatically created to store
all the DNS records for that domain. There are two types of hosted zones:

 Public Hosted Zone: Used for domains that are publicly accessible on the Internet.
 Private Hosted Zone: Used for domains that are only accessible within a VPC (Virtual
Private Cloud).

6. What is the difference between a public and a private hosted zone in Route 53?

Answer:

 Public Hosted Zone: This zone is used for domains that are intended to be accessible
over the internet. For example, when you register a domain like example.com and want
users to be able to access it, you will create a public hosted zone.
 Private Hosted Zone: This zone is used for domains that should be accessible only
within an AWS VPC. It allows you to create DNS records for internal resources, such as
databases or internal web servers, which are not exposed to the public internet.

7. What is health checking in Route 53 and how does it work?

Answer: Health checks in Route 53 monitor the health of your resources (like web servers,
databases, etc.). If a resource becomes unhealthy, Route 53 can automatically route traffic to a
healthy resource. You can configure Route 53 health checks to:

 Monitor an endpoint by sending HTTP, HTTPS, or TCP requests.

 Check the health of a web application, and Route 53 can failover to another resource
based on the status of health checks.
 Perform DNS failover, where Route 53 routes traffic away from unhealthy resources.
8. What is the TTL (Time to Live) in DNS records?

Answer: TTL (Time to Live) is the amount of time (in seconds) that a DNS record is cached by
DNS resolvers and web browsers before they query the authoritative DNS server again for an
updated record. Lower TTL values result in more frequent DNS lookups, while higher TTL
values reduce the load on DNS servers but can lead to slower propagation of changes.

9. What is Route 53 alias record?

Answer: An alias record in Route 53 is similar to a CNAME record but is specifically designed
for use with AWS resources. Alias records can be used to map domain names to AWS resources
such as an Amazon CloudFront distribution, Elastic Load Balancer (ELB), or an S3 bucket
configured for static website hosting. The key advantage of alias records is that they do not count
towards your domain’s DNS query limit, unlike CNAME records.

10. What is Route 53’s integration with CloudWatch?

Answer: Amazon Route 53 integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring and reporting.
CloudWatch allows you to monitor the health and performance of DNS queries for your
resources. For example, you can:

 Monitor Route 53 health checks.

 Set up alarms for when a health check fails.
 Create dashboards to visualize DNS traffic patterns.
 Use CloudWatch Logs for troubleshooting DNS resolution issues.

11. Can Route 53 be used for load balancing?

Answer: Yes, Route 53 can be used for basic load balancing by using Weighted Routing or
Latency-based Routing. You can distribute traffic across multiple resources based on weights
or route traffic to the resource with the lowest latency. However, for more sophisticated load
balancing features, AWS recommends using Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), which can
automatically distribute incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2
instances.
12. How does Route 53 support DNS failover?

Answer: Route 53 supports DNS failover by using Failover Routing. With this routing policy,
you can configure two or more resources (like two EC2 instances or load balancers), where one
is designated as primary and the other as secondary (failover). If Route 53 detects that the
primary resource is unhealthy (via health checks), it will automatically route traffic to the
secondary resource.

13. What is the purpose of geolocation routing in Route 53?

Answer: Geolocation routing allows you to route traffic based on the geographical location of
the user making the DNS query. For example, you can route users in the U.S. to one set of
resources and users in Europe to another set of resources, ensuring that users experience faster
performance by being directed to the nearest data center.

14. What is the maximum number of records you can create in a hosted zone in
Route 53?

Answer: Route 53 supports up to 10,000 records per hosted zone by default. If you need more,
you can contact AWS Support to request a limit increase.

15. How do you transfer a domain to Route 53?

Answer: To transfer a domain to Route 53:

1. Unlock the domain with your current registrar.

2. Obtain the authorization code (EPP code) from your current registrar.
3. Go to the Route 53 console, navigate to the Domain Registration section, and request
the domain transfer by entering the authorization code.
4. Verify the transfer via the email sent to the domain registrant’s email address.
5. After the transfer is complete, you can manage the domain using Route 53.

These questions and answers cover the core concepts of AWS Route 53 and its functionality.
They are a great starting point for preparing for an interview focusing on Route 53.