AWS Interview Questions and Answers for 2023

jaro education
12, July 2023
4:00 pm

Cloud computing has transformed the IT industry, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) has emerged as a leader in this domain. A massive increase in the need for cloud specialists has resulted from the fact that most firms now use or plan to employ cloud computing for many operations. You need to participate in and ace some AWS interviews to launch your AWS career. Here are a few AWS interview questions and responses to assist you in the interview process to achieve that.

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What is AWS?

AWS is a comprehensive cloud computing platform that Amazon offers. It provides a wide range of cloud services, including computing power, storage, database management, analytics, machine learning, and more. AWS enables businesses to scale their infrastructure quickly and access a vast array of services on-demand without needing upfront hardware investments.

Preparing for an AWS Interview

Before diving into the interview questions, it’s essential to prepare thoroughly. The ways by which you can get ready for your AWS interview are as follows:

- Start the preparation by researching the company you are interviewing with. Understand their core business, services, and any recent news or updates. This knowledge will help you tailor your answers and demonstrate your interest in the company.
- Familiarise yourself with the specific role you are interviewing for. Review the job description, responsibilities, and required skills. This will help you align your answers with the expectations of the position.
- AWS offers vast services, and it’s crucial to understand the core services relevant to your role. Get an idea of the services like EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), S3 (Simple Storage Service), RDS (Relational Database Service), Lambda, and others. Review their features, use cases, and any recent updates or enhancements.

With solid AWS services knowledge, you’ll be better equipped to answer technical questions and showcase your expertise during the interview.

Common AWS Interview Questions

Q1. What is EC2?

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service provided by AWS that allows users to rent virtual servers, known as instances, on the cloud. EC2 provides scalable computing capacity and enables users to configure and manage their instances based on their specific requirements. It offers various instance types optimised for workloads, such as general-purpose, memory-intensive, or GPU-based computing.

Q2. What is S3?

S3 is an object storage service offered by AWS. It provides highly scalable and durable storage for various data types, including documents, images, videos, and backups. S3 offers features like versioning, lifecycle management, and fine-grained access controls, making it suitable for efficiently storing and retrieving large amounts of data.

Q3. What is RDS?

RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed database service provided by AWS. It simplifies the administration and scaling of relational databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server. RDS handles routine database tasks like backups, software patching, and automatic scaling, allowing developers to focus on making applications instead of managing the underlying infrastructure.

Q4. Define Amazon CloudWatch

An IT expert would benefit significantly from Amazon CloudWatch’s monitoring service because it offers insights. The tool offers total visibility into AWS resources and on-premises and AWS-hosted applications. It also monitors the state of applications, which will aid in applying appropriate corrective measures and enhancing application performance.

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Q5. Describe Amazon VPC

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) allows you to manage your virtual private cloud. You may construct your VPC with the help of this service, from resource placement and networking to security. You can add Amazon EC2 instances and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) instances based on your requirements. You can also specify how other cloud VPCs, regions, and availability zones will communicate with one another.

Q6. How should you handle a sudden spike in traffic on your application?

Handling sudden traffic spikes requires a scalable and responsive architecture. AWS provides services like Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancer, which can automatically scale the number of instances and distribute traffic to handle increased demand. You can configure Auto Scaling to monitor the application’s performance metrics, like CPU utilisation or network traffic, and automatically add or remove instances based on predefined thresholds.

Q7. What are the different types of virtualisation in AWS?

There are three significant types of virtualisation in AWS: Hardware Virtual Machine (HVM), Paravirtualization (PV), and Paravirtualization or HVM (PV on HVM).

Q8. Define Elastic Transcoder

The Elastic Transcoder, an AWS Service utility that allows for media transcoding in the cloud and precisely enables us to carry out the necessary tasks, makes it simple to accomplish this. It is affordable, practical, and highly flexible for companies and developers.

Q.9 What resources are accessible to build a centralised logging solution?

The essential tools you can utilise are Amazon CloudWatch Logs, Amazon S3, and Amazon Elastic Search to display the data. The data can be transferred from Amazon S3 to Amazon ElasticSearch via Amazon Kinesis Firehose.

Q.10 What are the types of cloud services, and which AWS products are built based on them?

The three types of cloud services are computing, storage, and networking. AWS offers many products and services that fall into these categories. Some of the AWS products that are built based on each of these cloud service types are:

Computing

- Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk
- AWS Lambda

- Auto Scaling
- Amazon Lightsail

Storage

- Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
- Amazon Glacier
- Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
- Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

Networking

- Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
- Amazon CloudFront
- Amazon Route 53

Q.11 Explain DDoS attack

Distributed denial of service attack is a deliberate attempt to stop a network, service, or website from being accessible by flooding it with unauthorised traffic from numerous sources. The attacker aims to exhaust the target’s resources, like bandwidth, processing power, or memory, making it inaccessible to legitimate users.

Q12. How can we control DDoS attacks?

To control DDoS attacks and ensure the availability of your AWS services, AWS provides several services like

AWS Shield

AWS Shield provides automatic protection against common and larger-scale DDoS attacks, safeguarding your applications running on AWS.

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)

It allows you to create customisable rules to filter and block malicious traffic, providing an additional layer of security.

Amazon Route 53

It provides built-in traffic management features and the ability to distribute traffic across multiple resources, making it difficult for attackers to overwhelm a single target.

Amazon CloudFront

It offers distributed points of presence (PoPs) worldwide, which can absorb and mitigate attack traffic, reducing the impact on your origin infrastructure.

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

It can help minimise the impact of DDoS attacks by spreading the traffic across multiple targets, making it harder for attackers to overwhelm a single resource.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

By configuring appropriate network security measures, you can help mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks on your resources.

Q13. Highlight the difference between terminating and stopping an EC2 instance.

You might believe that stopping and terminating are interchangeable, but there lies a distinction. An EC2 instance that is stopped undergoes a typical shutdown and enters a stopped state. Although the EBS volumes attached to the instance are removed and permanently lost when you terminate it, it is still moved to a halted state.

Q14. What does AWS Key-Pairs stand for?

The Amazon EC2 instances are connected using the virtual machines’ Key-Pairs, and password-protected login credentials. The Key-Pairs, which enable us to connect to the instances, comprise Private and Public keys.

Q15. What distinguishes an IAM role from an IAM user?

The following two points distinguish the IAM role from the IAM user:

- An IAM user has permanent credentials and is used to interact directly with the AWS services. In contrast, an IAM role is an IAM entity that defines a set of capabilities for making AWS service requests.
- While the IAM user has complete access to all AWS IAM features, trusted entities, such as IAM users, apps, or an AWS service, assume roles in the IAM role.

Q16. Define Amazon DynamoDB

A fully managed, server-free No SQL database service is Amazon DynamoDB. Many crucial features, like built-in security, in-memory cache, constant backups, exporting data tools, and automatic multi-region copying, are provided in this service. Simply, you may use this service to run high-speed applications at any measure.

Q17. What do Amazon EC2 availability zones and regions mean?

The locations that are isolated are called availability zones. As a result, EC2 instances located in other zones wouldn’t be impacted by a failure in a specific zone. There may be one or more availability zones when it comes to regions. This configuration also lowers expenses and delays.

Q18. What are the benefits of auto-scaling?

Amazon EC2 auto-scaling foresees the needs of EC2 instances with the use of automation features. The Machine Learning algorithms regularly recognise fluctuations in demand patterns. Proactively adding or removing EC2 instances from the cloud infrastructure aids in improving application efficiency and lowering costs.

How can one stay updated with the latest AWS services and features?

Staying updated with AWS services and features is crucial in such a dynamic and evolving ecosystem. Follow AWS blogs and whitepapers, and attend webinars and conferences to stay informed about new services, enhancements, and best practices. Actively participate in online communities like the AWS Developer Forums and Slack channels, where professionals share their experiences and insights. By engaging in discussions and exploring real-world use cases, one can gain valuable knowledge and stay abreast of the latest trends in AWS.

Tips for Answering AWS Interview Questions

When answering AWS interview questions, keep the following tips in mind

1. Be concise and specific

Provide clear and to-the-point answers without unnecessary elaboration.

2. Provide real-world examples

Support your answers with examples from previous projects or experiences whenever possible.

3. Demonstrate problem-solving skills

Showcase your ability to analyse and solve complex problems using AWS services and solutions.

4. Show enthusiasm and passion

Let your genuine interest in AWS shine through your answers.

5. Be confident and ask for clarification

If you are unsure about a question, seek clarification from the interviewer before answering.

Conclusion

Preparing for an AWS interview requires technical knowledge, practical experience, and effective communication skills. By understanding the core concepts of AWS, reviewing common interview questions, and following the tips provided, you can confidently tackle your upcoming AWS interview and demonstrate your proficiency in cloud computing. Remember to be concise, provide real-world examples, and showcase your problem-solving skills. Stay updated with the latest AWS services and features to demonstrate your enthusiasm and passion for the field.

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