Designed and taught by instructors from FAANG+ and Tier-1 tech companies to help you land in-demand and high-paying Cloud Solutions Architect roles at top tech companies.
AWS Solutions Architect!
Get interview-ready with lessons from FAANG+ engineers
Master core Cloud Solution interview concepts
Sharpen your coding and behavioral interview skills
Students who chose to uplevel with IK got placed at
Tarunpreet Ubhi
Sr. Cloud Solution Architect
Abhishek Garai
Sr. Cloud Security Engineer
Vinayak Prabhu
System Development Engineer
Pratik Agarwal
Software Development Engineer ll
Kishore Periassamy
Software Development Engineer
Suat Mercan
Senior Software Engineer
Kelsi Lakey
Software Engineer
Shrey Shrivastava
Software Development Engineer ll
13,500+
Tech professionals trained
$1.267M
Highest offer received by an IK alum
53%
Average salary hike received by alums
Best suited for
Solutions Architects/Technical Consultants with cloud experience
Cloud Admin/Support/DevOps Engineers
Business Analysts and Technical Program Managers with exposure to cloud technologies
Why choose this course?
Program designed by FAANG+ leads
Covering system design, interview-relevant topics, and career coaching
Individualized teaching and 1:1 help
Technical coaching, homework assistance, solutions discussion, and individual session
Mock interviews with Silicon Valley engineers
Live interview practice in real-life simulated environments with FAANG and top-tier interviewers
Personalized feedback
Constructive, structured, and actionable insights for improved interview performance
Career skills development
Resume building, LinkedIn profile optimization, personal branding, and live behavioral workshops
50% Money-Back Guarantee*
If you do well in our course but still don't land a domain-relevant job within the post-program support period, we'll refund 50% of the tuition you paid for the course.*
Our highly experienced instructors are active hiring managers and employees at FAANG+ companies and know exactly what it takes to ace tech and managerial interviews.
Liam Schneider
Delivery Practice Manager
20+ years experience
FAANG Company
Learn more
Jeff Wisman
Principal Solutions Architect
15+ years experience
FAANG Company
Learn more
Omkar Deshpande
Head of Curriculum
15+ years experience
Learn more
Nick Camilleri
Head of Career Skills Devp. and Coaching
10+ years experience
Learn more
Quazie Kwaselow
Senior Software Engineer
15+ years experience
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Jessica Griffin
Senior Technical Resourcer
9+ years experience
Learn more
A typical week at Interview Kickstart
This is how we make your interview prep structured and organized. Our learners spend 10-12 hours each week on this course.
Thu
Get Foundational content
Get high-quality videos and course material for the upcoming week's live class
Covers fundamentals, interview-relevant topics, and case studies
Assignment review session
1-hour long group discussion on the assignment problem simulating Solutions Architect interviews
Detailed feedback for every learner's solution
Sun
Attend online live sessions
Attend 4-hour sessions led by experienced Cloud Solutions Architects from Tier-1 companies that cover interview-relevant topics
Each class covers a wide variety of interview questions and design strategies
Live feedback from Instructors
Mon-Wed
Practice problems & case studies
Apply the concepts taught in live sessions to solve assignment questions
In class, discuss case studies' solutions and practice answering frameworks
Live doubt-solving sessions with FAANG+ instructors
Every day
1:1 access to instructors
Personalized coaching from FAANG+ Instructors
Individualized and detailed attention to your questions
UpLevel will be your all-in-one learning platform to get you FAANG-ready, with interview questions, timed tests, videos, mock interviews suite, and more.
Mock interviews suite
On-demand timed tests
In-browser online judge
10,000 interview questions
100,000 hours of video explanations
Class schedules & activity alerts
Real-time progress update
11 programming languages
Get upto 15 mock interviews withhiring managers
What makes our mock Interviews the best:
Hiring managers from Tier-1 companies like Google & Apple
Interview with the best. No one will prepare you better!
Domain-specific Interviews
Practice for your target domain - AWS Cloud Solutions Architecture
Detailed personalized feedback
Identify and work on your improvement areas
Transparent, non-anonymous interviews
Get the most realistic experience possible
More about mock interviews
Career impact
Our engineers land high-paying and rewarding offers from the biggest tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix.
Tarunpreet Ubhi
Sr.Cloud Solution Architect
Placed at:
This program is a life-saver and has changed my thinking about problem solving! After going through the program and attending Omkar's lectures, I've learned so many approaches that I am able to automatically identify which strategy I can use for any problem to solve it. This has given me so much confidence in solving problems. Now with this program, I am able to solve any medium-hard problems just by knowing the patterns.
Srividya Krishnamoorthy
Senior Data Engineer
Placed at:
Interview Kickstart provides a nice, structured way of interview preparation for experienced professionals. I would like to thank each and every mentor from IK for their time and effort. I got multiple FAANG offers from TOP companies that includes Amazon and Facebook. I have joined Facebook as a Senior Data Engineer.
Mike kane
Lead Data Engineer
Placed at:
I really like the courses. For many working professionals, going through examples and different perspectives are the most valuable. I started interviewing for FB in May, then took IK to study for this specific company. IK was great because its structure helped me really understand each problem in my interview.
Akshay Lodha
Data Engineering & Analytics
Placed at:
The experience with IK was phenomenal, it was totally worth it. After so many years I was interviewing and IK helped me a lot in orienting myself and to get into the rhythm. Had a transition from Goldman Sachs to Facebook. IK mentors guided me and told me not to worry about the preparation part and to focus on upskilling myself. That really made a huge difference.
Anju Mercian
Data Engineering Consultant
Placed at:
The program has been really fantastic. It has given me insights of what I need to study and how to approach problems. The patterns that are taught in IK is something that I really enjoy and have not been taught in my many years of experience in the industry and studying for interviews. The approach is really fantastic. The learning experience was also great. The big support system is also what I really admire about IK.
How to enroll for the Cloud Solutions Architect Interview Course?
Learn more about Interview Kickstart and the AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Interview Course by joining the free webinar hosted by Ryan Valles, co-founder of Interview Kickstart.
A Free Guide to Kickstart Your Cloud Solutions Architect Career at FAANG+
From the interview process and career path to interview questions and salary details — learn everything you need to know about Cloud Solutions Architect careers at top tech companies.
Cloud Solution Architect Interview Process Outline
Companies evaluate your understanding of designing and managing various Cloud platform features and aspects during Cloud Solutions Architect interviews.
Cloud solution Architect interviews typically occurs over three stages, including an initial screening, 1-2 technical screening, and an on-site/virtual interview.
1
The Initial Screening
This is a phone interview round that lasts for 40-60 minutes. Recruiters get in touch with you to understand your experience and skills. You can expect questions about your professional experience, expectations from the role and behavioral questions. Recruiters also brief you about the requirements and responsibilities entailing the role to give you an idea of what to expect.
2
Technical Phone Screening
The Technical phone Screening, tests your technical knowledge of Cloud systems and core features and components of the Cloud infrastructure. Generally they are handled by a peer (someone who is currently in the same role which you are interviewing for) and sometimes by the hiring manager.
3
The On-site/virtual Interview
The on-site/virtual interview is a series of technical interview rounds along with behavioral/leadership interviews. Each round lasts about 45-60 minutes with questions pertaining to the Cloud Architecture, building and designing Cloud applications, Cloud security, and more.
You can expect around 4 to 6 interviewers to be scheduled, including the hiring manager, peers, and a bar raiser, more emphasis will be on the behavioral questions.
Behavioral questions include questions about your previous projects, workplace ethics, leadership, and some open-ended interview questions.
Cloud Solutions Architect Interview Questions on Technical Experience and System Design
These are some sample cloud solutions architect interview questions:
Explain the difference between object storage, file storage, and block storage. Can you give examples of each?
What are some considerations for designing a database for high availability?
What are some methods of identifying network latency?
Can you tell me the difference between a scripting language and compiled language?
Can you walk me through some performance issues you’ve encountered in the past when scaling and tuning large web-scale applications?
What are the advantages of using a serverless design approach?
Your customer has users across the globe, and they are complaining about performance issues. How would you handle this?
Your company has recently been deploying their newest applications in containers, running on Kubernetes. What tools or methods would you use to monitor this environment?
Tell me about something you worked on that helped save your company money.
Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.
Solving these cloud solution architect interview questions will help you understand the type of questions you may expect at your interview.
Cloud Solutions Architect Career
Cloud Solution Architects typically deal with elements pertaining to the Cloud Computing. Companies that uses Cloud Services for their business operations employ Solution Architects to manage a wide array of functions associated with the role.
We'll look at the Cloud Solutions Architect job description to get a sense of what the role entails.
1
Roles and Responsibilities of Cloud Solution Architects
Cloud Solution Architects have a wide range of responsibilities in building, designing, and managing applications and systems in the Cloud.
Adjusting the Cloud environment to satisfy business requirements
Integrating third-party applications into the Cloud infrastructure
Moving archaic systems to the Cloud
Managing Cloud security
Performing data recovery and data backup in the Cloud
2
Cloud Solutions Architect Career Roadmap
For a Cloud Solutions Architect in a tier-1 company, the career progression is as follows:
L4 - Solutions Architect I
L5 - Solutions Architect II
L6 - Solutions Architect III (Senior Solutions Architect)
L7 - Principal Solutions Architect
L8 - Senior Principal Solutions Architect
L9 - Distinguished Solutions Architect
Cloud Solutions Architect Salary and Levels at FAANG+ Companies
Cloud Solutions Architects are paid lucrative salaries at big companies. The higher the band level by one’s experience, the higher the compensation. Cloud Solution Architects also enjoy a range of wellness and insurance benefits along with stock options and cash bonuses as part of their salary.
The average software Cloud Solutions Architect’s salary in the US is around $162k per annum.
Facebook Cloud Solutions Architect Salary
The Cloud Solutions Architect’s salary at Facebook is $219,000 per year (on average for IC4).
Along with the cash component in the Cloud Solutions Architect salary, stock options of up to $37,000 and a bonus of up to $18,000 are also included.
Cloud Solutions Architect at Facebook
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
IC4
$219K
$212K
$37K
$18K
Amazon Cloud Solutions Architect Salary
Amazon Cloud Solutions Architect salaries range between this $141,000 and $411,000 depending on the seniority of the position.
Salaries of Cloud Solutions Architect also include stock options of up to $189,000 (on average for L7) and bonuses of up to $60,000.
Cloud Solutions Architect at Amazon
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
L4
$141K
$107K
$22K
$16K
L5
$212K
$152K
$42K
$21K
L6
$273K
$164K
$84K
$33K
L7
$411K
$176K
$189K
$60K
Apple Cloud Solutions Architect Salary
The Cloud Solutions Architect salary at Apple is $290,000 per year (on average for ICT5).
The salary includes an average of $90,000 in stock options and an average cash bonus of $20,000.
Cloud Solutions Architect at Apple
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
ICT5
$290K
$180K
$90K
$20K
Microsoft Cloud Solutions Architect Salary
Cloud solution Architect salaries at Microsoft can range from $160,000 to $383,000.
Salaries include stock options from $13,000 to $124,000 depending on the seniority of the position.