AWS Solution Architect Questions for Interview Preparation

If you’re looking to land a job as an AWS solution architect, knowing the commonly asked interview questions is a must.

Cloud computing has been around since the early 2000s but has seen a sudden growth over the last few years. It is a fundamental requirement for most organizations looking for more flexibility, lower costs, greater efficiencies, and improved disaster recovery. In this rapidly expanding market, numerous names rose to prominence. One company that has been leading the cloud market arena for the past 11 years is Amazon Web Services (AWS).

An AWS solution architect is responsible for managing this cloud architecture.  AWS-certified solutions architects are one of the 15 top-paying IT certifications. Naturally, the AWS solution architect position is one of the most sought-after IT jobs.

This article will provide you with the most frequently asked AWS Solution Architect interview questions.

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AWS solution architect interviews consist of technical and coding rounds. In this article, we will go through the top AWS solution architect interview questions asked at FAANG interviews.

These are the topics we will cover:

• What Do AWS Solution Architects Do?
• Topics to Prepare for Your AWS Solution Architect Interview
• Top AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions
• How to Prepare for AWS Solution Architect Interviews?
• FAQs on AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions

What Do AWS Solution Architects Do?

Solution architects are at the cusp of domains like information systems, business, applications, technology, and security. The role of a senior AWS solution architect is to evaluate the business needs of an organization, determine how to support those needs, and develop solutions using these domains and leveraging hardware, software, and system infrastructure. Enterprises are now becoming increasingly particular about aligning their business goals and IT strategies.

Recommend Reading: AWS Solutions Architect Roles and Responsibilities

Topics to Prepare for Your AWS Solution Architect Interview

The questions asked in AWS solution architect interviews are generally based on the following topics:

• Networking & Computing
• Designing Resilient Architectures
• Storage & Databases
• System Migration
• Application Services
• High Availability & Scalability
• Logging & Security

AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions and Answers

We have compiled some of the most commonly asked AWS interview questions and answers for solution architect interviews. These are also AWS associate solution architect interview questions and are also asked at AWS solution architect interviews for experienced candidates. Make sure you practice these questions to increase your chances of nailing your interview!

AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions and Answers

Here are some interview questions AWS solution architects are asked at the top tech interviews:

Q1. What is Amazon EC2?

EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud, and it is responsible for providing scalable computing capacity by eliminating the need for investing in hardware architecture. This way, applications are developed and deployed faster.

Amazon E2 can be used to launch multiple servers as well as configure security and networking and manage storage. You have the option of scaling it up or down, depending on the requirements. This way, there is a lesser need to forecast traffic. The virtual computing environments provided by EC2 are called instances.

Q2. List some security best practices for Amazon EC2.

Some of the Amazon EC2 security best practices are:

• Use Identity and Access Management (IAM) to regulate access to AWS resources.
• Restrict access to resources by only allowing trusted hosts to access ports
• Open only those permissions that you require.
• For instances launched from the AMI, disable password-based logins.

Q3. What is Identity and Access Management?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a specialized web service to secure access to AWS resources. IAM is useful in managing users, access key credentials, and access permissions to AWS resources and applications.

Q4. Describe Amazon S3.

Simple Storage Service, or S3, is a storage service platform provided by Amazon. S3 can store objects and retrieve data from anywhere and in any amount. It is versatile, unlimited, cost-effective, durable, and available on-demand. It manages data in a way that is cost-optimized and has access control.

Q5. Can EC2 instances and S3 be used together?

The condition for using Amazon S3 is that it can run with root devices when backed by local instance storage. This way, Amazon provides developers with access to highly scalable, fast, reliable, and inexpensive storage infrastructure. This infrastructure is the same as the one Amazon uses to run its websites.

Q6. Let us talk about Amazon Route 53.

Amazon Route 53 is a Domain Name System (DNS) provided by Amazon, ranking high on scalability and availability. The name Route 53 comes from the location of the address of DNS requests - TCP or UDP port 53.

Q7. Where would you use Amazon Virtual Private Cloud?

One can use an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, or VPC, to connect cloud resources and the data center. Once the data center is connected to the VPC where all instances are stored, each instance gets a private IP address that is accessible from the data center. This is a great way of accessing public cloud services, much like those on private networks.

Q8. What is CloudTrail?

CloudTrail is responsible for capturing requests sent to Amazon 53 API from an AWS account. It also captures requests from IAM users. The process of doing this is by saving log files to an Amazon S3 bucket.

Q9. When will you go for Provisioned IOPS over Standard Rds Storage?

Provisioned IOPS is preferred in the case of batch-oriented workloads. Known for delivering high IO rates, it is expensive but automated. Processing workloads in batches do not ask for manual intervention.

Q10. Let’s talk about AWS’s Disaster Recovery.

Cloud computing helps businesses recover critical IT systems faster and without having to invest in a second infrastructure. AWS is flexible and supports a variety of disaster recovery architectures. With AWS, businesses can recover their IT infrastructure and data rapidly as it has data centers all over the world.

More Sample Interview Questions for AWS Solution Architects

1. Draw a comparison between the cloud services AWS and Azure.
2. How will you secure your data before transporting it to the Cloud?
3. What is S3 used for in cloud computing?
4. How will you decide the best availability zone?
5. Will you use encryption in S3?
6. Differentiate between AWS CloudFormation and AWS OpsWorks.
7. In what situation will you use a Classic Load Balancer?
8. In what situation will you use an Application Load Balancer?
9. Differentiate between SQL and NoSQL Database in AWS.
10. How will you adjust the automatic scaling solutions if your user demands fluctuate?
11. How will you change the private IP addresses of an EC2 as it runs or is stopped in a VPC?
12. Which AWS service will you recommend to a client seeking business intelligence?
13. How are instances and AMIs related?
14. What storage options does AWS offer?
15. Mention the ways to speed up Snowball data transfer.
16. What do you understand about geo-restriction in CloudFront?
17. Explain the significance of serverless applications.
18. Can you launch instances in Amazon VPC?
19. What is the purpose of subnets?
20. What will happen if AWS Direct Connect does not perform its functions?
21. In what situation will you prefer Provisional IOPS over Standard RDS storage?
22. What is Connection Draining in AWS?
23. At what point will costs be incurred with an Elastic IP address (EIP)?
24. Can you run all instances on one Elastic IP address?
25. How is a buffer used in AWS?
26. Explain the concept of a Spot instance.
27. Is it possible to use reserved instances for multi-AZ deployments in AWS?
28. What do you understand about single-tenant hardware?

Recommend Reading: 50+ Amazon Solution Architect Interview Questions

FAQs on AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions

Q1. What is the salary of an AWS solution architect?
The average salary of an L4 AWS solution architect is approximately $118,154 per year.

Q2. Are AWS solution architect jobs in demand?
With a 40% market share, AWS is the world’s leading provider of cloud computing services, ahead of Microsoft and Google. This is good news for software engineers and developers hoping to explore the career path of an AWS Solutions Architect as there is not only a high demand for Solutions Architects all over the world but is also compensated handsomely.

Q3. Where do I start my AWS solution architect interview preparation?

To start your AWS solution architect interview preparation, visit the Amazon Jobs page and go through the job requirements listed under Amazon solution architect job openings. See what you already have and what you need to work on. Next, learn about Amazon’s goals and values.

Recommended Reading: How to Prepare for the Amazon Onsite Interview in 2 Months

Q4. What are the top skills an AWS Solution Architect should have?
A. The key skill areas an AWS Solution Architect should possess are Coding or Programming or Scripting Languages such as Python, Java, or C#, Networking, Data Storage, Information Retrieval, Disaster Recovery, Distributed Computing, Cloud-specific patterns and technologies, Large-Scale System Design, System Security, AWS Service Selection, Operating Systems such as Solaris, Linux, Windows, Unix, or Ubuntu.

Q5. What are the top AWS Solution Architect interview questions?

Some of the most commonly asked AWS solution architect questions are: What is Amazon EC2? Describe Amazon S3. What is Identity and Access Management? What is Amazon Route 53? Where would you use Amazon Virtual Private Cloud? What is CloudTrail? What are the advantages of AWS’s Disaster Recovery?

How to Prepare for Your Next AWS Solution Architect Interview

Experts say that you should practice mock interviews and prepare for commonly asked AWS solution architect interview questions before going for the actual interview. It will boost your confidence and prepare you for all kinds of possible scenarios one can face in the actual interview.

At Interview Kickstart, you can practice mock interviews with experts and hiring managers from FAANG companies. Their feedback and suggestions will go a long way in honing your interviewing skills.

Register for IK’s FREE webinar today to learn how you can leverage our best-in-class interview preparation courses and mock interviews with experts. Interview Kickstart has helped over 9,000 engineers land coveted offers from FAANG and tier-1 companies. Our instructors know exactly what it takes to crack AWS solution architect interviews.

Want to learn more? Sign up for our FREE webinar on How to Nail Your Next Tech Interview.

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