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Home Blog Data Engineering

The Top 21 Airflow Interview

Questions and How to Answer Them
Master your next data engineering interview with our guide to the top 21
Airflow questions and answers, including core concepts, advanced
techniques, and more.
Apr 26, 2024 · 13 min read

Jake Roach
Field Data Engineer at Astronomer

TO P I C S

Data Engineering

Data engineering interviews are hard. Depending on a company’s data ecosystem, there
can be dozens of tools listed in a job description. If Airflow is one of those tools, then you’re
in luck! Below, we’ve assembled an extensive guide to help you through a technical interview
centered around Airflow.

In each section, there will be several questions posed in a way an interviewer might ask.
Each question has an answer that provides both high-level and more technical reasoning. In
addition to this, a number of questions have a “tell me more” snippet. This provides more
complex and minute details meant to both deepen your Airflow skill set and blow your
interviewer away.

Each of these headings below focuses on different “types” of Airflow questions you might
be asked in an interview, such as Airflow basics and core concepts, DAG authoring
fundamentals, advanced topics and techniques, and scenario-based questions. Let’s jump in!

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Airflow Interview Basics and Core Concepts

In a technical interview, interviewers will typically start easy, focusing on the basics of
Airflow’s framework and core concepts before building up to more complex and technical
questions.

When answering these questions, make sure to not only discuss technical details, but also
mention how this might tie into a data engineering and/or enterprise data workflow.

1. What is Apache Airflow? How is it most commonly used?

Answer: Apache Airflow is an open-source data orchestration tool that allows data
practitioners to define data pipelines programmatically with the help of Python. Airflow is

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most commonly used by data engineering teams to integrate their data ecosystem and
extract, transform, and load data.

Tell me more: Airflow is maintained under the Apache software license (hence, the
prepended “Apache”).

A data orchestration tool provides functionality to allow for multiple sources and services to
be integrated into a single pipeline.

What sets Airflow apart as a data orchestration tool is its use of Python to define data
pipelines, which provides a level of extensibility and control that other data orchestration
tools fail to offer. Airflow boasts a number of built-in and provider-supported tools to
integrate any team’s data stack, as well as the ability to design your own.

For more information about getting started with Airflow, check out this DataCamp tutorial:
Getting Started with Apache Airflow. If you want to take an even deeper dive into the world
of data orchestration with Airflow, this Introduction to Airflow course is the best place to
start.

2. What is a DAG?
Answer: A DAG, or a directed-acyclic graph, is a collection of tasks and relationships
between those tasks. A DAG has a clear start and end and does not have any “cycles”
between these tasks. When using Airflow, the term “DAG” is commonly used, and can
typically be thought of as a data pipeline.

Tell me more: This is a tricky question. When an interviewer asks this question, it’s important
to address both the formal “mathy” definition of a DAG and how it’s used in Airflow. When
thinking about DAGs, it helps to take a look at a visual. The first image below is, in fact, a
DAG. It has a clear start and end and no cycles between tasks.

B LO G S category

EN

The second process shown below is NOT a DAG. While there is a clear start task, there is a
Sale ends in
cycle between the extract and validate tasks, which makes it unclear when the load task
1d 20h 54m 58s
may be triggered.

3. What are the three parameters needed to define a DAG?

Answer: To define a DAG, an ID, start date, and schedule interval must be provided.

Tell me more: The ID uniquely identifies the DAG and is typically a short string, such as
"sample_da." The start date is the date and time of the first interval at which a DAG will be
triggered.

This is a timestamp, meaning that an exact year, month, day, hour, and minute are specified.
The schedule interval is how frequently the DAG should be executed. This can be every
week, every day, every hour, or something more custom.

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In the example here, the DAG has been defined using a dag_id of "sample_dag" . The
datetime function from the datetime library is used to set a start_date of January 1, 2024,
at 9:00 AM. This DAG will run daily (at 9:00 AM), as designated by the @daily scheduled
interval. More custom schedule intervals can be set using cron expressions or the timedelta
function from the datetime library.

with DAG(
dag_id="sample_dag",
start_date=datetime(year=2024, month=1, day=1, hour=9, minute=0),
schedule="@daily",
) as dag:
…

POWERED BY

4. What is an Airflow task? Provide three examples of Airflow tasks.

Answer: Airflow tasks are the smallest unit of execution in the Airflow framework. A task
typically encapsulates a single operation in a data pipeline (DAG). Tasks are the building
blocks for DAGs, and tasks within a DAG have relationships between them that determine in
what order they are executed. Three examples of tasks are:

Extracting data from a source system, like an API or flat-file

Transforming data to a desired model or format

Loading data into a data storage tool, such as a database or data warehouse

In an ETL pipeline, the relationships would be:

The “transform” task is downstream of the “extract” task, meaning that the “extract”
logic executes first

The “load” task is downstream of the “transform” task. Similar to above, the “load” task
will run after the “transform” task

Tell me more: Tasks can be very generic or quite custom. Airflow provides two ways to
define these tasks: traditional operators and the TaskFlow API (more on that later).

One of the benefits of open-source is contribution from the wider community, which is made
upof not only individual contributors but also players such as AWS, Databricks, Snowflake,
and a whole lot more.

Chances are, an Airflow operator has already been built for the task you’d like to define. If
not, it’s easy to create your own. A few examples of Airflow operators are the
SFTPToS3Operator , S3ToSnowflakeOperator , and DatabricksRunNowOperator .

5. What are the core components of Airflow’s architecture?

Answer: There are four core components of Airflow’s architecture: the scheduler, executor,
metadata database, and the webserver.

Tell me more: The scheduler checks both the DAG directory every minute and monitors
DAGs and tasks to identify any tasks that can be triggered. An executor is where tasks are
run. Tasks can be executed locally (within the scheduler) or remotely (outside of the
scheduler).

The executor is where the computational “work” that each task requires takes place. The
metadata database contains all information about the DAGs and tasks related to the Airflow
project you are running. This includes information such as historic execution details,
connections, variables, and a host of other information.

The webserver is what allows for the Airflow UI to be rendered and interacted with when
developing, interacting with, and maintaining DAGs.

This is just a quick overview of Airflow’s core architectural components.

Airflow DAGs Interview Questions

You’ve made it clear you know the basics of the Airflow framework and its architecture.
Now, it’s time to test your DAG-authoring knowledge.

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6. What is the PythonOperator ? What are the requirements to use this

operator? What is an example of when you’d want to use the
PythonOperator ?
Answer: The PythonOperator is a function that allows for a Python function to be executed
as an Airflow task. To use this operator, a Python function must be passed to the
python_callable parameter. One example where you’d want to use a Python operator is
when hitting an API to extract data.

Tell me more: The PythonOperator is one of the most powerful operators provided by
Airflow. Not only does it allow for custom code to be executed within a DAG, but the results
can be written to XComs to be used by downstream tasks.

By passing a dictionary to the op_kwargs parameter, keyword arguments can be passed to

the Python callable, allowing for even more customization at run time. In addition to
op_kwargs , there are a number of additional parameters that help to extend the
functionality of the PythonOperator .

Below is a sample call of the PythonOperator . Typically, the Python function passed to
python_callable is defined outside of the file containing the DAG definition. However, it was
included here for verbosity.

def some_callable(name):
print("Hello ", name)

...

some_task = PythonOperator(
task_id="some_task",
python_callable=some_callable,
op_kwargs={"name": "Charles"}
)

POWERED BY

7. If you have three tasks, and you’d like them to execute sequentially,
how would you set the dependencies between each of them? What
syntax would you use?
Answer: There are quite a few ways to do this. One of the most common is to use the >> bit-
shift operator. Another is to use the .set_downstream() method to set a task downstream of
another. The chain function is another useful tool for setting sequential dependencies
between tasks. Here are three examples of doing this:

# task_1, task_2, task_3 instantiated above

# Using bit-shift operators

task_1 >> task_2 >> task_3

# Using .set_downstream()
task_1.set_downstream(task_2)
task_2.set_downstream(task_3)

# Using chain
chain(task_1, task_2, task_3)

POWERED BY

Tell me more: Setting dependencies can be simple, while others may get quite complex! For
sequential execution, it’s common to use the bit-shift operators to make this more verbose.
When using the TaskFlow API, setting dependencies between tasks can look a little different.

If there are two dependent tasks, this can be denoted by passing a function call to another
function, rather than using the techniques mentioned above. You can learn more about
Airflow task dependencies in a separate article.

8. What are Task Groups? How are they used within DAGs?

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Answer: Task groups are used to organize tasks together within a DAG. This makes it easier
to denote similar tasks together in the Airflow UI. It may be useful to use task groups when
extracting, transforming, and loading data that belong to different teams in the same DAG.

Task groups are also commonly used when doing things such as training multiple ML models
or interacting with multiple (but similar) source systems in a single DAG.

When using task groups in Airflow, the resulting graph view may look something like this:

Tell me more: Using traditional Airflow syntax, the TaskGroup function is used to create
task groups. Task groups can be explicitly or dynamically generated nbut must have unique
IDs (similar to DAGs).

However, different task groups in the same DAG can have tasks with the same task_id . The
task will then be uniquely identified by the combination of the task group ID and the task ID.
When leveraging the TaskFlow API, the @task_group decorator can also be used to create
a task group.

9. How can you dynamically generate multiple DAGs without having to

copy and paste the same code? What are some things to keep in mind?
Answer: Dynamically generating DAGs is a handy technique to create multiple DAGs using
a single “chunk” of code. Pulling data from multiple locations is one example of how
dynamically creating DAGs is quite useful. If you need to extract, transform, and load data
from three airports using the same logic, dynamically generating DAGs helps to streamline
this process.

There are a number of ways to do this. One of the easiest is to use a list of metadata that
can be looped over. Then, within the loop, a DAG can be instantiated. It’s important to
remember that each DAG should have a unique DAG ID. The code to do this might look a
little something like this:

airport_codes = ["atl", "lax", "jfk"]

for code in airport_codes:

with DAG(
dag_id=f"{code}_daily_etl"
start_date=datetime(2024, 1, 1, 9, 0),
schedule="@daily"
) as dag:
# Rest of the DAG definition
...

POWERED BY

This code would spawn three DAGs, with DAG IDs atl_daily_etl , lax_daily_etl , and
jfk_daily_etl . Downstream, the tasks could be parameterized by using the same airport
code to ensure each DAG executed as expected.

Tell me more: Dynamically generating DAGs is a technique commonly used in an enterprise

setting. When deciding between programmatically creating task groups in a single DAG, or
dynamically generating DAGs, it’s important to think of the relationships between
operations.

In our example above, if a single airport is causing an exception to be thrown, using task
groups would cause the entire DAG to fail. But, if DAGs are instead dynamically generated,
this single point of failure would not cause the other two DAGs to fail.

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Looping over a Python iterable is not the only way to dynamically generate DAGs - defining
a create_dag function, using variables/connections to spawn DAGs, or leveraging a JSON
configuration file are common options used to achieve the same goal. Third-party tools such
as gusty and dag-factory provide additional configuration-based approaches to
dynamically generate DAGs.

Advanced Airflow Interview Questions

Comprehending and communicating the basics of Airflow and DAG development is often
enough to meet expectations for a junior-level data position. But mastering Airflow means
more than simply writing and executing DAGs.

The questions and answers below will help to show an interviewer a deeper understanding
of Airflow’s more complex functionality, which is typically needed for more senior roles.

10. Given a data_interval_start and data_interval_end, when is

a DAG executed?
Answer: As the name suggests, data_interval_start and data_interval_end are the
temporal boundaries for the DAG run. If a DAG is being backfilled, and the time the DAG is
being executed is greater than the data_interval_end , then the DAG will immediately be
queued to run.

However, for “normal” execution, a DAG will not run until the time it is being executed is
greater the **data_interval_end** .

Tell me more: This is a difficult concept, especially with how DAG runs are labeled. Here’s a
good way to think about it. You want to pull all data for March 17, 2024, from an API.

If the schedule interval is daily, the data_interval_start for this run is 2024-03-17, 00:00:00
UTC, and the data_interval_end is 2024-03-18, 00:00:00 UTC. It wouldn’t make sense to run
this DAG at 2024-03-17, 00:00:00 UTC, as none of the data would be present for March 17.
Instead, the DAG is executed at the data_interval_end of 2024-03-18, 00:00:00 UTC.

11. What is the catchup parameter, and how does it impact the execution
of an Airflow DAG?
Answer: The catchup parameter is defined when a DAG is instantiated. catchup takes
value True or False , defaulting to True when not specified. If True , all DAG runs between
the start date and the time the DAG’s status was first set changed to active will be run.

Say that a DAG’s start date is set to January 1, 2024, with a schedule interval of daily and
catchup=True . If the current date is April 15, 2024, when this DAG is first set to active, the
DAG run with data_interval_start of January 1, 2024, will be executed, followed by the DAG
run for January 2, 2024 (and so on).

This will continue until the DAG is “caught up” when it will then resume normal behavior. This
is known as “backfilling”. Backfilling might happen quite quickly. If your DAG run only takes
a few minutes, a few months of historic DAG runs can be executed in just a few hours.

If False , no historic DAG runs will be executed, and the first run will begin at the end of the
interval during which the DAG status was set to run.

Tell me more: Being able to backfill DAG runs without significant changes to code or manual
effort is one of Airflow’s most powerful features. Let’s say you’re working on an integration to
pull all transactions from an API for the past year.

Once you’ve built your DAG, all you need to do is set your desired start date and
catchup=True , and it’s easy to retrieve this historical data.

If you don’t want to backfill your DAG when first setting it to active, don’t worry! There are a
number of other ways to systematically trigger backfills. This can be done with the Airflow
API and the Airflow (and Astro CLI).

12. What are XComs, and how are they typically used?
Answer: XComs (which stands for cross-communications) are a more nuanced feature of
Airflow that allows for messages to be stored and retrieved between tasks.

XComs are stored in key-value pairs, and can be read and written in a number of ways.
When using the PythonOperator , the .xcom_push() and .xcom_pull() methods can be

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used within the callable to “push” and “pull” data from XComs. XComs are used to store
small amounts of data, such as file names or a boolean flag.

Tell me more: In addition to using the .xcom_push() and .xcom_pull() , there are a number
of other ways to write and read data from XComs. When using the PythonOperator , passing
True to the do_xcom_push parameters writes the value returned by the callable to XComs.

This is not just limited to the PythonOperator ; any operator that returns a value can have
that value written to XComs with the help of the do_xcom_push parameter. Behind the
scenes, the TaskFlow API also uses XComs to share data between tasks (we’ll take a look at
this next).

For more information about XComs, check out this awesome blog by the Airflow legend
himself, Marc Lamberti.

13. Tell me about the TaskFlow API, and how it differs from using
traditional operators.
Answer: The TaskFlow API offers a new way to write DAGs in a more intuitive, “Pythonic”
manner. Rather than using traditional operators, Python functions are decorated with the
@task decorator, and can infer dependencies between tasks without explicitly defining
them.

A task written using the TaskFlow API may look something like this:

import random

...

@task
def get_temperature():
# Pull a temperature, return the value
temperature = random.randint(0, 100)
return temperature
…

POWERED BY

With the TaskFlow API, it’s easy to share data between tasks. Rather than directly using
XComs, the return value of one task (function) can be passed directly into another task as
an argument. Throughout this process, XComs are still used behind the scenes, meaning that
large amounts of data cannot be shared between tasks even when using the TaskFlow API.

Tell me more: The TaskFlow API is part of Airflow’s push to make DAG writing easier, helping
the framework appeal to a wider audience of data scientists and analysts. While the
TaskFlow API doesn’t meet the needs of Data Engineering teams looking to integrate a
cloud data ecosystem, it’s especially useful (and intuitive) for basic ETL tasks.

The TaskFlow API and traditional operators can be used in the same DAG, providing the
integrability of traditional operators with the ease of use the TaskFlow API offers. For more
information about the TaskFlow API, check out the documentation.

14. What is idempotency? Why is this important to keep in mind when

building Airflow DAGs?
Answer: Idempotency is a property of a process/operation that allows for that process to be
performed multiple times without changing the initial result. More simply put, if you run a
DAG once, or if you run it ten times, the results should be identical.

One common workflow where this is not the case is when inserting data into structured
(SQL) databases. If data is inserted without a primary key enforcement and a DAG is run
multiple times, this DAG will cause duplicates in the resulting table. Using patterns such as
delete-insert or “upsert” helps to implement idempotence in data pipelines.

Tell me more: This one isn’t quite Airflow-specific, but it is essential to keep in mind when
designing and building data pipelines. Luckily, Airflow provides several tools to help make
implementing idempotency easy. However, most of this logic will need to be designed,
developed and tested by the practitioner leveraging Airflow to implement their data
pipeline.

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Interview Questions on Managing and Monitoring

Production Airflow Workflows
For more technical roles, an interviewer might reach for questions about managing and
monitoring a production-grade Airflow deployment, similar to one they might run on their
team. These questions are a bit more tricky and require a bit more preparation before an
interview.

15. After writing a DAG, how can you test that DAG? Walk through the
process from start to finish.
Answer: There are a few ways to test a DAG after it’s been written. The most common is by
executing a DAG to ensure that it runs successfully. This can be done by spinning up a local
Airflow environment and using the Airflow UI to trigger the DAG.

Once the DAG has been triggered, it can be monitored to validate its performance (both
success/failure of the DAG and individual tasks, as well as the time and resources it took to
run).

In addition to manually testing the DAG via execution, DAGs can be unit-tested. Airflow
provides tools via the CLI to execute tests, or a standard test runner can be used. These unit
tests can be written against both DAG configuration and execution as well as against other
components of an Airflow project, like callables and plugins.

Tell me more: Testing Airflow DAGs is one of the most important things a Data Engineer will
do. If a DAG hasn’t been tested, it’s not ready to support production workflows.

Testing data pipelines is especially tricky; there are edge and corner cases that aren’t
typically found in other development scenarios. During a more technical interview
(especially for a Lead/Senior Engineer), make sure to communicate the importance of
testing a DAG end-to-end in tandem with writing unit tests and documenting the results of
each.

16. How do you handle DAG failures? What do you do to triage and fix
the issue?
Answer: No one likes DAG failures, but handling them with grace can set you apart as a
Data Engineer. Luckily, Airflow offers a plethora of tools to capture, alert up, and remedy
DAG failures. First, a DAG’s failure is captured in the Airflow UI. The state of the DAG will
change to “failed,” and the grid view will show a red square/rectangle for this run. Then, the
logs for this task can be manually parsed in the UI.

Typically, these logs will provide the exception that caused the failure and provide a Data
Engineer with information to further triage.

Once the issue is identified, the DAG’s underlying code/config can be updated, and the DAG
can be re-run. This can be done by clearing the state of the DAG and setting it to “active.”

If a DAG fails regularly but works when retried, it may be helpful to use Airflow’s retries and
retry_delay functionality. These two parameters can be used to retry a task upon failure a
specified number of times after waiting for a certain period of time. This may be useful in
scenarios like trying to pull a file from an SFTP site that may be late in landing.

Tell me more: For a DAG to fail, a specific task must fail. It’s important to triage this task
rather than the entire DAG. In addition to the functionality built into the UI, there are tons of
other tools to monitor and manage DAG performance.

Callbacks offer Data Engineers basically unlimited customization when handling DAG
successes and failures. With callbacks, a function of a DAG author’s choosing can be
executed when a DAG succeeds or fails using the on_success_callback and
on_failure_callback parameters of an operator. This function can send a message to a tool
like PagerDuty or write the result to a database to be later alerted upon. This helps to
improve visibility and jumpstart the triage process when a failure does occur.

17. To manage credentials for connecting to tools such as databases,

APIs, and SFTP sites, what functionality does Airflow provide?
Answer: One of Airflow’s most handy tools is “connections.” Connections allow for a DAG
author to store and access connection information (such as a host, username, password,
etc.) without having to hardcode these values into code.

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There are a few ways to store connections; the most common is using Airflow’s UI. Once a
connection has been created, it can be accessed directly in code using a “hook.” However,
most traditional operators requiring interaction with a source system have a conn_id (or
very similarly named) field that takes a string and creates a connection to the desired
source.

Airflow connections help to keep sensitive information secure and make storing and
retrieving this information a breeze.

Tell me more: In addition to using the Airflow UI, the CLI can be used to store and retrieve
connections. In an enterprise setting, it’s more common to use a custom “secrets backend”
to manage connection information. Airflow provides a number of support secrets backends
to manage connections. A company using AWS can easily integrate Secrets Manager with
Airflow to store and retrieve connection and sensitive information. If needed, connections
can also be defined in a project’s environment variables.

18. How would you deploy an Airflow project to be run in a production-

grade environment?
Answer: Deploying an Airflow environment to be run in a production-grade environment can
be difficult. Cloud tools such as Azure and AWS provide managed services to deploy and
manage an Airflow deployment. However, these tools require a cloud account and may be
somewhat expensive.

A common alternative is to use Kubernetes to deploy and run a production Airflow

environment. This allows for complete control of the underlying resources but comes with
the additional responsibility of managing that infrastructure.

Looking outside of cloud-native and homegrown Kubernetes deployments, Astronomer is the

most popular managed service provider of Airflow in the space.

They provide a number of open-source tooling (CLI, SDK, loads of documentation) in addition
to their “Astro” PaaS offering to make Airflow development and deployment as smooth as
possible. With Astro, resource allocation, platform access control, and in-place Airflow
upgrades are natively supported, putting the focus back on pipeline development.

Scenario-Based Airflow Interview Questions

While scenario-based questions are not overly technical, they’re some of the most important
questions in an Airflow interview. Providing detailed and well-thought-out answers shows
deep competence not only with Airflow but also with data architecture and design
principles.

19. Your team is currently supporting a legacy data pipeline that

leverages homegrown tooling. You’re tasked with migrating this pipeline
to Airflow. How would you approach this?
Answer: This is a fun one! With a question like this, the world is at your fingertips. The most
important thing is this - when walking through the process, make sure to pick tools and
processes in the legacy data pipeline that you are familiar with. This shows your expertise
and will make your answer to your question more informed.

This is the perfect opportunity to also show off your project management and leadership
skills. Mention how you would structure the project, interact with stakeholders and other
engineers, and document/communicate processes. This shows an emphasis on providing
value and making your team’s life easier.

If a company has a certain tool in their stack (let’s say, Google BigQuery), it might make
sense to talk about how you can refactor this process to move off of something like Postgres
and onto BigQuery. This helps to show awareness and knowledge not only of Airflow but
also of other components of a company’s infrastructure.

20. Design a DAG that pulls data from an API and persists the response
in a flat-file, then loads the data into a cloud data warehouse before
transforming it. What are some important things to keep in mind?
Answer: To design this DAG, you’ll first need to hit the API to extract data. This can be done
using the PythonOperator and a custom-built callable. Within that callable, you’ll also want
to persist the data to a cloud storage location, such as AWS S3.

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Once this data has been persisted, you can leverage a prebuilt operator, such as the
S3ToSnowflakeOperator , to load data from S3 into a Snowflake data warehouse. Finally, a
DBT job can be executed to transform this data using the DbtCloudRunJobOperator .

You’ll want to schedule this DAG to run at the desired interval and configure it to handle
failures gracefully (but with visibility). Check out the diagram below!

It’s important to keep in mind that Airflow is interacting with both a cloud storage file
system, as well as a data warehouse. For this DAG to execute successfully, these resources
will need to exist, and connections should be defined and used. These are denoted by the
icons below each task in the architecture diagram above.

Tell me more: These are some of the most common Airflow interview questions, focusing
more on high-level DAG design and implementatio, rather than minute, technical details.
With these questions, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

Make sure to break the DAG down into clear, distinct tasks. In this case, the interviewer
will be looking for a DAG that has three tasks.

Mention specific tools that you might use to build this DAG, but don’t go into too much
detail. For example, if you’d like to use the DbtCloudRunJobOperator , mention this
tool, but don’t feel the need to elaborate much more than that (unless asked).

Remember to mention a few potential snags or things to keep in mind. This shows the
interviewer that you have the awareness and experience to address edge and corner
cases when building data pipelines.

21. Outside of traditional Data Engineering workflows, what are other

ways that Apache Airflow is being used by data teams?
Answer: Airflow’s extensibility and growing popularity in the data community has made it a
go-to tool for more than just Data Engineers. Data Scientists and Machine Learning
Engineers use Airflow to train (and re-train) their models, as well as perform a complete
suite of MLOps. AI Engineers are even starting to use Airflow to manage and scale their
generative AI models, with new integrations for tools such as OpenAI, OpenSearch, and
Pinecone.

Tell me more: Thriving outside of traditional data engineering pipelines may not have been
something that the initial creators of the Airflow envisioned. However, by leveraging Python
and open-source philosophies, Airflow has grown to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving
data/AI space. When programmatic tasks need to be scheduled and executed, Airflow just
may be the best tool for the job!

Conclusion
Nice work! You’ve made it through the ringer. The questions above are challenging but
capture much of what is asked in technical interviews centered around Airflow.

In addition to brushing up on the questions above, one of the best ways to prepare for an
Airflow interview is to build your own data pipelines using Airflow.

Find a dataset that interests you, and begin to build your ETL (or ELT) pipeline from scratch.
Practice using the TaskFlow API and traditional operators. Store sensitive information using
Airflow connections. Try your hand at reporting on failure using callbacks, and test your
DAG with unit tests and end-to-end. Most importantly, document and share the work that
you did.

A project like this helps to show not only competency in Airflow but also a passion to and
desire to learn and grow. If you still need a primer on some of the basic principles, you can

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Home Blog AWS

Top 50 AWS Interview Questions

and Answers For 2025
A complete guide to exploring the basic, intermediate, and advanced AWS
interview questions, along with questions based on real-world situations.
Updated Mar 21, 2025 · 15 min read

Zoumana Keita
A data scientist who likes to write and share knowledge with the data and IA community

TO P I C S

AWS

Career Services

Cloud

The core of this guide is to make the AWS interview process easier to understand by offering
a carefully selected list of interview questions and answers. This range includes everything
from the basic principles that form the foundation of AWS's extensive ecosystem to the
detailed, scenario-based questions that test your deep understanding and practical use of
AWS services.

Whether you're at the beginning of your data career or are an experienced professional, this
article aims to provide you with the knowledge and confidence needed to tackle any AWS
interview question. By exploring basic, intermediate, and advanced AWS interview questions,
along with questions based on real-world situations, this guide aims to cover all the
important areas, ensuring a well-rounded preparation strategy.

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Why AWS?
Before exploring the questions and answers, it is important to understand why it is worth
considering the AWS Cloud as the go-to platform.

The following graphic provides the worldwide market share of leading cloud infrastructure
service providers for the first quarter (Q1) of 2024. Below is a breakdown of the market
shares depicted:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has the largest market share at 31%.

Microsoft Azure follows with 25%.

Google Cloud holds 11% of the market.

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Alibaba Cloud has a 4% share.

Salesforce has been growing to reach 3%.

IBM Cloud, Oracle, and Tencent Cloud are at the bottom, with 2% each.

Source (Statista)

The graphic also notes that the data includes platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure
as a service (IaaS), as well as hosted private cloud services. Additionally, there's a mention
that cloud infrastructure service revenues in Q1 2024 amounted to $76 billion, which is a
significant jump from Q2 2023, when they were $65 billion.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to be the dominant player in the cloud market as of
Q1 2024, holding a significant lead over its closest competitor, Microsoft Azure.

AWS's leadership in the cloud market highlights its importance for upskilling and offers
significant career advantages due to its wide adoption and the value placed on AWS skills in
the tech industry.

Our cheat sheet AWS, Azure and GCP Service comparison for Data Science & AI provides a
comparison of the main services needed for data and AI-related work from data engineering
to data analysis and data science to creating data applications.

Basic AWS Interview Questions

Starting with the fundamentals, this section introduces basic AWS interview questions
essential for building a foundational understanding. It's tailored for those new to AWS or
needing a refresher, setting the stage for more detailed exploration later.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing provides on-demand access to IT resources like compute, storage, and
databases over the internet. Users pay only for what they use instead of owning physical
infrastructure.

Cloud enables accessing technology services flexibly as needed without big upfront
investments. Leading providers like AWS offer a wide range of cloud services via the pay-as-
you-go consumption model. Our AWS Cloud Concepts course covers many of these basics.

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What is the problem with the traditional IT approach compared to using

the Cloud?
Multiple industries are moving away from traditional IT to adopt cloud infrastructures for
multiple reasons. This is because the Cloud approach provides greater business agility,
faster innovation, flexible scaling and lower total cost of ownership compared to traditional
IT. Below are some of the characteristics that differentiate them:

Traditional IT Cloud computing

Requires large upfront capital No upfront infrastructure investment

expenditures
Pay-as-you-go based on usage
Limited ability to scale based on
demand Rapid scaling to meet demand

Lengthy procurement and provisioning Reduced maintenance overhead

cycles Faster innovation and new IT
Higher maintenance overhead initiatives

Limited agility and innovation Increased agility and responsiveness

How many types of deployment models exist in the cloud?

There are three different types of deployment models in the cloud, and they are illustrated
below:

Private cloud: this type of service is used by a single organization and is not exposed to
the public. It is adapted to organizations using sensitive applications.

Public cloud: these cloud resources are owned and operated by third-party cloud
services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and all those mentioned in the AWS
market share section.

Hybrid cloud: this is the combination of both private and public clouds. It is designed to
keep some servers on-premises while extending the remaining capabilities to the cloud.
Hybrid cloud provides flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud.

What are the five characteristics of cloud computing?

Cloud computing is composed of five main characteristics, and they are illustrated below:

On-demand self-service: Users can provision cloud services as needed without human
interaction with the service provider.

Broad network access: Services are available over the network and accessed through
standard mechanisms like mobile phones, laptops, and tablets.

Multi-tenacy and resource pooling: Resources are pooled to serve multiple customers,
with different virtual and physical resources dynamically assigned based on demand.

Rapid elasticity and scalability: Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and scaled
up or down quickly and automatically to match capacity with demand.

Measured service: Resource usage is monitored, controlled, reported, and billed

transparently based on utilization. Usage can be managed, controlled, and reported,
providing transparency for the provider and consumer.

What are the main types of Cloud Computing?

There are three main types of cloud computing: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Provides basic building blocks for cloud IT like
compute, storage, and networking that users can access on-demand without needing to
manage the underlying infrastructure. Examples: AWS EC2, S3, VPC.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provides a managed platform or environment for

developing, deploying, and managing cloud-based apps without needing to build the
underlying infrastructure. Examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku

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Software as a Service (SaaS): Provides access to complete end-user applications
running in the cloud that users can use over the internet. Users don't manage
infrastructure or platforms. Examples: AWS Simple Email Service, Google Docs,
Salesforce CRM.

You can explore these in more detail in our Understanding Cloud Computing course.

What is Amazon EC2, and what are its main uses?

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) provides scalable virtual servers called instances in
the AWS Cloud. It is used to run a variety of workloads flexibly and cost-effectively. Some of
its main uses are illustrated below:

Host websites and web applications

Run backend processes and batch jobs

Implement hybrid cloud solutions

Achieve high availability and scalability

Reduce time to market for new use cases

What is Amazon S3, and why is it important?

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a versatile, scalable, and secure object storage
service. It serves as the foundation for many cloud-based applications and workloads. Below
are a few features highlighting its importance:

Durable with 99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability, making it suitable for
critical data.

Supports robust security features like access policies, encryption, VPC endpoints.

Integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like Lambda, EC2, EBS, just to name a
few.

Low latency and high throughput make it ideal for big data analytics, mobile
applications, media storage and delivery.

Flexible management features for monitoring, access logs, replication, versioning,

lifecycle policies.

Backed by the AWS global infrastructure for low latency access worldwide.

Explain the concept of ‘Regions’ and ‘Availability Zones’ in AWS

AWS Regions correspond to separate geographic locations where AWS resources are
located. Businesses choose regions close to their customers to reduce latency, and
cross-region replication provides better disaster recovery.

Availability Zones consist of one or more discrete data centers with redundant power,
networking, and connectivity. They allow the deployment of resources in a more fault-
tolerant way.

Our course AWS Cloud Concepts provides readers with a complete guide to learning about
AWS’s main core services, best practices for designing AWS applications, and the benefits of
using AWS for businesses.

What is IAM, and why is it important?

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a service that helps you securely control
access to AWS services and resources. IAM allows you to manage users, groups, and roles
with fine-grained permissions. It’s important because it helps enforce the principle of least
privilege, ensuring users only have access to the resources they need, thereby enhancing
security and compliance.

Our Complete Guide to AWS IAM explains the service in full detail.

What is Amazon RDS, and how does it differ from traditional databases?
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a managed database service that allows users
to set up, operate, and scale databases without worrying about infrastructure management
tasks like backups, patches, and scaling. Unlike traditional databases, Amazon RDS is

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scalable and highly available out of the box, supports automated backups, and allows read
replicas and multi-AZ deployments for failover and redundancy.

Here's a table highlighting the differences between RDS and more traditional databases for
those of you who are more visual:

Feature Amazon RDS Traditional databases

Requires hardware upgrades; scaling

Scalability Easily scales vertically or horizontally
can be costly

Supports Multi-AZ deployments for High availability setup requires

Availability
high availability complex configuration

Managed by AWS, including backups, Manually managed, including regular

Maintenance
updates, and patches updates and backups

Backup and
Automated backups and snapshots Requires manual backup processes
recovery

Fixed costs; higher upfront investment

Cost Pay-as-you-go pricing
required

What is Amazon VPC, and why is it used?

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) enables you to create a virtual network in AWS that
closely resembles a traditional network in an on-premises data center. VPC is used to isolate
resources, control inbound and outbound traffic, and segment workloads into subnets with
strict security configurations. It provides granular control over IP ranges, security groups,
and network access control lists.

What is Amazon CloudWatch, and what are its main components?

Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service designed to track various
metrics, set alarms, and automatically respond to changes in AWS resources. It helps
improve visibility into application performance, system health, and operational issues,
making it an essential tool for AWS users. Here are the main components of CloudWatch:

Metrics: CloudWatch collects data points, or metrics, that provide insights into resource
utilization, application performance, and operational health. This data allows for trend
analysis and proactive scaling.

Alarms: Alarms notify users or trigger automated actions based on specific metric
thresholds. For example, if CPU usage exceeds a set threshold, an alarm can initiate
auto-scaling to handle increased load.

Logs: CloudWatch Logs provides centralized storage for application and infrastructure
logs, which is essential for troubleshooting and identifying issues. Logs can be filtered,
monitored, and analyzed to maintain smooth operations.

Events: CloudWatch Events (or Amazon EventBridge) detects changes in AWS resources
and can trigger predefined actions, such as invoking a Lambda function when a specific
event occurs. This allows for greater automation and rapid response to critical events.

What is AWS Lambda, and how does it enable serverless computing?

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that eliminates the need to manage servers,
making it easier for developers to run their code in the cloud. Here’s how it works and why
it’s an enabler of serverless computing:

Code execution on demand: Lambda runs code only when it’s triggered by an event—
like an HTTP request or a file upload in Amazon S3. This ensures you only use resources
when needed, optimizing costs and efficiency.

Automatic scaling: Lambda scales automatically based on the number of incoming

requests. It can handle from a single request to thousands per second, so applications
remain responsive even as traffic varies.

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Focus on code, not infrastructure: Since Lambda abstracts away the server
infrastructure, developers can focus solely on writing and deploying code without
worrying about provisioning, managing, or scaling servers.

Through these features, Lambda embodies the principles of serverless computing—removing

the burden of infrastructure management and allowing developers to build, test, and scale
applications with greater agility.

What is Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) in AWS?

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) is a service that automatically distributes incoming application
traffic across multiple targets, ensuring your application remains responsive and resilient.
ELB offers several benefits that make it an essential component of scalable AWS
architectures:

Traffic distribution: ELB intelligently balances incoming traffic across multiple targets,
including EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses. This helps avoid overloading any
single resource, ensuring consistent application performance.

Fault tolerance and high availability: ELB provides fault tolerance by distributing traffic
across multiple Availability Zones, helping your application remain available even if one
zone experiences issues.

Enhanced reliability and scalability: ELB automatically adjusts traffic distribution as

demand changes, making it easier to handle sudden spikes in traffic without impacting
application performance.

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AWS Interview Questions for Intermediate and

Experienced
AWS DevOps interview questions
Moving to specialized roles, the emphasis here is on how AWS supports DevOps practices.
This part examines the automation and optimization of AWS environments, challenging
individuals to showcase their skills in leveraging AWS for continuous integration and delivery.
If you're going for an advanced AWS role, check out our Data Architect Interview Questions
blog post to practice some data infrastructure and architecture questions.

How do you use AWS CodePipeline to automate a CI/CD pipeline for a multi-tier
application?

CodePipeline can be used to automate the flow from code check-in to build, test, and
deployment across multiple environments to streamline the delivery of updates while
maintaining high standards of quality.

The following steps can be followed to automate a CI/CD pipeline:

Create a pipeline: Start by creating a pipeline in AWS CodePipeline, specifying your

source code repository (e.g., GitHub, AWS CodeCommit).

Define build stage: Connect to a build service like AWS CodeBuild to compile your code,
run tests, and create deployable artifacts.

Setup deployment stages: Configure deployment stages for each tier of your
application. Use AWS CodeDeploy to automate deployments to Amazon EC2 instances,
AWS Elastic Beanstalk for web applications, or AWS ECS for containerized applications.

Add approval steps (optional): For critical environments, insert manual approval steps
before deployment stages to ensure quality and control.

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Monitor and iterate: Monitor the pipeline's performance and adjust as necessary. Utilize
feedback and iteration to continuously improve the deployment process.

What key factors should be considered in designing a deployment solution on

AWS to effectively provision, configure, deploy, scale, and monitor applications?

Creating a well-architected AWS deployment involves tailoring AWS services to your app's
needs, covering compute, storage, and database requirements. This process, complicated by
AWS's vast service catalog, includes several crucial steps:

Provisioning: Set up essential AWS infrastructure such as EC2, VPC, subnets or managed
services like S3, RDS, CloudFront for underlying applications.

Configuring: Adjust your setup to meet specific requirements related to the

environment, security, availability, and performance.

Deploying: Efficiently roll out or update app components, ensuring smooth version
transitions.

Scaling: Dynamically modify resource allocation based on predefined criteria to handle

load changes.

Monitoring: Keep track of resource usage, deployment outcomes, app health, and logs
to ensure everything runs as expected.

What is Infrastructure as a Code? Describe in your own words

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a method of managing and provisioning computer data

centers through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware
configuration or interactive configuration tools.

Essentially, it allows developers and IT operations teams to automatically manage, monitor,

and provision resources through code, rather than manually setting up and configuring
hardware.

Also, IaC enables consistent environments to be deployed rapidly and scalably by codifying
infrastructure, thereby reducing human error and increasing efficiency.

What is your approach to handling continuous integration and deployment in

AWS DevOps?

In AWS DevOps, continuous integration and deployment can be managed by utilizing AWS
Developer Tools. Begin by storing and versioning your application's source code with these
tools.

Then, leverage services like AWS CodePipeline for orchestrating the build, test, and
deployment processes. CodePipeline serves as the backbone, integrating with AWS
CodeBuild for compiling and testing code, and AWS CodeDeploy for automating the
deployment to various environments. This streamlined approach ensures efficient,
automated workflows for continuous integration and delivery.

How does Amazon ECS benefit AWS DevOps?

Amazon ECS is a scalable container management service that simplifies running Docker
containers on EC2 instances through a managed cluster, enhancing application deployment
and operation.

What are some strategies for blue/green deployments on AWS?

Blue/green deployments minimize downtime and risk by running two environments: one
(blue) with the current version and one (green) with the new version. In AWS, this can be
achieved using services like Elastic Beanstalk, AWS CodeDeploy, or ECS. You can shift traffic
between environments using Route 53 or an Application Load Balancer, test the green
environment safely, and roll back instantly if needed.

Why might ECS be preferred over Kubernetes?

ECS offers greater flexibility, scalability, and simplicity in implementation compared to

Kubernetes, making it a preferred choice for some deployments.

How would you manage and secure secrets for a CI/CD pipeline in AWS?

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To securely manage secrets in an AWS CI/CD pipeline, you can use AWS Secrets Manager or
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store to store sensitive information such as API keys,
database passwords, and certificates. Both services integrate with AWS services like
CodePipeline and CodeBuild, allowing secure access to secrets without hardcoding them in
your codebase.

By controlling access permissions with IAM, you can ensure that only authorized entities can
access sensitive data, enhancing security within the CI/CD process.

How do you use AWS Systems Manager in a production environment?

AWS Systems Manager helps automate and manage your infrastructure at scale. In a
production environment, it’s commonly used for patch management, remote command
execution, inventory collection, and securely storing configuration parameters and secrets. It
integrates with EC2, RDS, and other AWS services, enabling centralized visibility and
operational control.

What is AWS CloudFormation, and how does it facilitate DevOps practices?

AWS CloudFormation automates the provisioning and management of AWS infrastructure

through code, enabling Infrastructure as Code (IaC). This service lets you define your
infrastructure as templates, making it easy to version, test, and replicate environments
across development, staging, and production.

In a DevOps setting, CloudFormation helps maintain consistency, reduces manual

configuration errors, and supports automated deployments, making it integral to continuous
delivery and environment replication.

To close the DevOps set of questions, here's a table summarizing the different AWS services
used in this area, as well as their use cases:

Service Purpose Use cases in DevOps

Continuous integration and

Automates CI/CD workflows across
AWS CodePipeline deployment for streamlined
multiple environments
updates

Compiles code, runs tests, and produces Build automation, testing, and
AWS CodeBuild
deployable artifacts artifact generation

Manages application deployments to Automated deployments across

AWS CodeDeploy various AWS environments (e.g., EC2, environments with rollback
Lambda) capabilities

Container management for deploying Running microservices, simplifying

Amazon ECS
Docker containers app deployment and management

AWS Secrets Stores and manages sensitive Secure storage of API keys,
Manager information securely passwords, and other sensitive data

Infrastructure consistency,
AWS Automates infrastructure setup through
environment replication, IaC best
CloudFormation code (IaC)
practices

AWS solution architect interview questions

For solution architects, the focus is on designing AWS solutions that meet specific
requirements. This segment tests the ability to create scalable, efficient, and cost-effective
systems using AWS, highlighting architectural best practices.

What is the role of an AWS solution architect?

AWS solutions architects design and oversee applications on AWS, ensuring scalability and
optimal performance. They guide developers, system administrators, and customers on
utilizing AWS effectively for their business needs and communicate complex concepts to
both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What are the key security best practices for AWS EC2?

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Essential EC2 security practices include using IAM for access management, restricting
access to trusted hosts, minimizing permissions, disabling password-based logins for AMIs,
and implementing multi-factor authentication for enhanced security.

How do you ensure multi-region redundancy in an AWS architecture?

To design for multi-region redundancy, deploy critical resources like EC2 instances, RDS
databases, and S3 buckets in multiple AWS Regions. Use Route 53 for geo-based DNS routing
and S3 Cross-Region Replication for data backup. Employ active-active or active-passive
configurations depending on your failover strategy, and monitor performance and
replication using CloudWatch and AWS Global Accelerator.

What are the strategies to create a highly available and fault-tolerant AWS
architecture for critical web applications?

Building a highly available and fault-tolerant architecture on AWS involves several strategies
to reduce the impact of failure and ensure continuous operation. Key principles include:

Implementing redundancy across system components to eliminate single points of

failure

Using load balancing to distribute traffic evenly and ensure optimal performance

Setting up automated monitoring for real-time failure detection and response. Systems
should be designed for scalability to handle varying loads, with a distributed
architecture to enhance fault tolerance.

Employing fault isolation, regular backups, and disaster recovery plans are essential
for data protection and quick recovery.

Designing for graceful degradation maintains functionality during outages, while

continuous testing and deployment practices improve system reliability.

Explain how you would choose between Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, and
Amazon Redshift for a data-driven application.

Choosing between Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, and Redshift for a data-driven application
depends on your specific needs:

Amazon RDS is ideal for applications that require a traditional relational database with
standard SQL support, transactions, and complex queries.

Amazon DynamoDB suits applications needing a highly scalable, NoSQL database with
fast, predictable performance at any scale. It's great for flexible data models and rapid
development.

Amazon Redshift is best for analytical applications requiring complex queries over large
datasets, offering fast query performance by using columnar storage and data
warehousing technology.

What considerations would you take into account when migrating an existing on-
premises application to AWS? Use an example of choice.

When moving a company's customer relationship management (CRM) software from an in-
house server setup to Amazon Web Services (AWS), it's essential to follow a strategic
framework similar to the one AWS suggests, tailored for this specific scenario:

Initial preparation and strategy formation

Evaluate the existing CRM setup to identify limitations and areas for improvement.

Set clear migration goals, such as achieving better scalability, enhancing data
analysis features, or cutting down on maintenance costs.

Identify AWS solutions required, like leveraging Amazon EC2 for computing
resources and Amazon RDS for managing the database.

Assessment and strategy planning

Catalog CRM components to prioritize which parts to migrate first.

Select appropriate migration techniques, for example, moving the CRM database
with AWS Database Migration Service (DMS).

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Plan for a steady network connection during the move, potentially using AWS Direct
Connect.

Execution and validation

Map out a detailed migration strategy beginning with less critical CRM modules as
a trial run.

Secure approval from key stakeholders before migrating the main CRM functions,
employing AWS services.

Test the migrated CRM's performance and security on AWS, making adjustments as
needed.

Transition to cloud operation

Switch to fully managing the CRM application in the AWS environment, phasing out
old on-premises components.

Utilize AWS's suite of monitoring and management tools for continuous oversight
and refinement.

Apply insights gained from this migration to inform future transitions, considering
broader cloud adoption across other applications.

This approach ensures the CRM migration to AWS is aligned with strategic business
objectives, maximizing the benefits of cloud computing in terms of scalability, efficiency,
and cost savings.

Describe how you would use AWS services to implement a microservices

architecture.

Implementing a microservice architecture involves breaking down a software application

into small, independent services that communicate through APIs. Here’s a concise guide to
setting up microservices:

Adopt Agile Development: Use agile methodologies to facilitate rapid development and
deployment of individual microservices.

Embrace API-First Design: Develop APIs for microservices interaction first to ensure
clear, consistent communication between services.

Leverage CI/CD Practices: Implement continuous integration and continuous delivery

(CI/CD) to automate testing and deployment, enhancing development speed and
reliability.

Incorporate Twelve-Factor App Principles: Apply these principles to create scalable,

maintainable services that are easy to deploy on cloud platforms like AWS.

Choose the Right Architecture Pattern: Consider API-driven, event-driven, or data

streaming patterns based on your application’s needs to optimize communication and
data flow between services.

Leverage AWS for Deployment: Use AWS services such as container technologies for
scalable microservices or serverless computing to reduce operational complexity and
focus on building application logic.

Implement Serverless Principles: When appropriate, use serverless architectures to

eliminate infrastructure management, scale automatically, and pay only for what you
use, enhancing system efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Ensure System Resilience: Design microservices for fault tolerance and resilience, using
AWS's built-in availability features to maintain service continuity.

Focus on Cross-Service Aspects: Address distributed monitoring, logging, tracing, and

data consistency to maintain system health and performance.

Review with AWS Well-Architected Framework: Use the AWS Well-Architected Tool to
evaluate your architecture against AWS’s best practices, ensuring reliability, security,
efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

By carefully considering these points, teams can effectively implement a microservice

architecture that is scalable, flexible, and suitable for their specific application needs, all

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while leveraging AWS’s extensive cloud capabilities.

What is the relationship between AWS Glue and AWS Lake Formation?

AWS Lake Formation builds on AWS Glue's infrastructure, incorporating its ETL capabilities,
control console, data catalog, and serverless architecture. While AWS Glue focuses on ETL
processes, Lake Formation adds features for building, securing, and managing data lakes,
enhancing Glue's functions.

For AWS Glue interview questions, it's important to understand how Glue supports Lake
Formation. Candidates should be ready to discuss Glue's role in data lake management
within AWS, showing their grasp of both services' integration and functionalities in the AWS
ecosystem. This demonstrates a deep understanding of how these services collaborate to
process and manage data efficiently.

How do you optimize AWS costs for a high-traffic web application?

To optimize AWS costs for a high-traffic application, you can start by using AWS Cost
Explorer and AWS Budgets to monitor and manage spending. Then, consider these
strategies:

Use Reserved and Spot Instances for predictable and flexible workloads, respectively.

Auto-scaling helps adjust resource allocation based on demand, reducing costs during
low-traffic periods.

Optimize storage with Amazon S3 lifecycle policies and S3 Intelligent-Tiering to move

infrequently accessed data to cost-effective storage classes.

Implement caching with Amazon CloudFront and Amazon ElastiCache to reduce

repeated requests to backend resources, saving bandwidth and compute costs.

This approach ensures the application is cost-efficient without compromising on

performance or availability.

What are the key pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework?

The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides a structured approach to designing secure,

efficient, and resilient AWS architectures. It consists of five main pillars:
B LO G S category
Operational excellence: Focuses on supporting development and operations through
monitoring, incident response, and automation.
EN
Security: Covers protecting data, systems, and assets through identity management,
encryption, and incident response.

Reliability: Involves building systems that can recover from failures, scaling resources
Sale ends in
dynamically, and handling network issues. 1d 20h 55m 35s
Performance efficiency: Encourages the use of scalable resources and optimized
workloads.

Cost optimization: Focuses on managing costs by selecting the right resources and
using pricing models such as Reserved Instances.

Understanding these pillars allows AWS architects to build well-balanced solutions that align
with best practices for security, performance, reliability, and cost management.

Advanced AWS Interview Questions and Answers

AWS data engineer interview questions
Addressing data engineers, this section dives into AWS services for data handling, including
warehousing and real-time processing. It looks at the expertise required to build scalable
data pipelines with AWS.

Describe the difference between Amazon Redshift, RDS, and S3, and when should
each one be used?

Amazon S3 is an object storage service that provides scalable and durable storage for
any amount of data. It can be used to store raw, unstructured data like log files, CSVs,
images, etc.

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Amazon Redshift is a cloud data warehouse optimized for analytics and business
intelligence. It integrates with S3 and can load data stored there to perform complex
queries and generate reports.

Amazon RDS provides managed relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc. It
can power transactional applications that need ACID-compliant databases with
features like indexing, constraints, etc.

Describe a scenario where you would use Amazon Kinesis over AWS Lambda for
data processing. What are the key considerations?

Kinesis can be used to handle large amounts of streaming data and allows reading and
processing the streams with consumer applications.

Some of the key considerations are illustrated below:

Data volume: Kinesis can handle up to megabytes per second of data vs Lambda's limit
of 6MB per invocation, which is useful for high throughput streams.

Streaming processing: Kinesis consumers can continuously process data in real-time as

it arrives vs Lambda's batch invocations, and this helps with low latency processing.

Replay capability: Kinesis streams retain data for a configured period, allowing
replaying and reprocessing if needed, whereas Lambda not suited for replay.

Ordering: Kinesis shards allow ordered processing of related records. Lambda on the
other hand may process out of order.

Scaling and parallelism: Kinesis shards can scale to handle load. Lambda may need
orchestraation.

Integration: Kinesis integrates well with other AWS services like Firehose, Redshift, EMR
for analytics.

Furthermore, for high-volume, continuous, ordered, and replayable stream processing cases
like real-time analytics, Kinesis provides native streaming support compared to Lambda's
batch approach.

To learn more about data streaming, our course Streaming Data with AWS Kinesis and
Lambda helps users learn how to leverage these technologies to ingest data from millions of
sources and analyze them in real-time. This can help better prepare for AWS lambda
interview questions.

What are the key differences between batch and real-time data processing?
When would you choose one approach over the other for a data engineering
project?

Batch processing involves collecting data over a period of time and processing it in large
chunks or batches. This works well for analyzing historical, less frequent data.

Real-time streaming processing analyzes data continuously as it arrives in small increments.

It allows for analyzing fresh, frequently updated data.

For a data engineering project, real-time streaming could be chosen when:

You need immediate insights and can't wait for a batch process to run. For example,
fraud detection.

The data is constantly changing and analysis needs to keep up, like social media
monitoring.

Low latency is required, like for automated trading systems.

Batch processing may be better when:

Historical data needs complex modeling or analysis, like demand forecasting.

Data comes from various sources that only provide periodic dumps.

Lower processing costs are critical over processing speed.

So real-time is best for rapidly evolving data needing continuous analysis, while batch suits
periodically available data requiring historical modeling.

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How can you automate schema evolution in a data pipeline on AWS?

Schema evolution can be managed using AWS Glue’s dynamic frame and schema inference
features. Combined with the Glue Data Catalog, you can automatically track schema
changes. To avoid breaking downstream processes, implement schema validation steps with
tools like AWS Deequ or integrate custom logic into your ETL scripts to log and resolve
mismatches.

How do you handle schema-on-read vs schema-on-write in AWS data lakes?

Schema-on-read is commonly used in data lakes where raw, semi-structured data is stored
(e.g., in S3), and the schema is applied only during query time using tools like Athena or
Redshift Spectrum. This approach offers flexibility for diverse data sources. Schema-on-write,
often used in RDS or Redshift, enforces structure upfront and is preferred for transactional or
structured datasets needing strict data validation.

What is an operational data store, and how does it complement a data

warehouse?

An operational data store (ODS) is a database designed to support real-time business

operations and analytics. It acts as an interim platform between transactional systems and
the data warehouse.

While a data warehouse contains high-quality data optimized for business intelligence and
reporting, an ODS contains up-to-date, subject-oriented, integrated data from multiple
sources.

Below are the key features of an ODS:

It provides real-time data for operations monitoring and decision-making

Integrates live data from multiple sources

It is optimized for fast queries and analytics vs long-term storage

ODS contains granular, atomic data vs aggregated in warehouse

An ODS and data warehouse are complementary systems. ODS supports real-time
operations using current data, while the data warehouse enables strategic reporting and
analysis leveraging integrated historical data. When combined, they provide a
comprehensive platform for both operational and analytical needs.

How would you set up a data lake on AWS, and what services would you use?

To build a data lake on AWS, the core service to start with is Amazon S3 for storing raw,
structured, and unstructured data in a scalable and durable way. Here’s a step-by-step
approach and additional services involved:

Storage layer: Use Amazon S3 to store large volumes of data. Organize data with a
structured folder hierarchy based on data type, source, or freshness.

Data cataloging: Use AWS Glue to create a data catalog, which makes it easier to
search and query data stored in S3 by creating metadata definitions.

Data transformation and ETL: Use AWS Glue ETL to prepare and transform raw data
into a format that’s ready for analysis.

Security and access control: Implement AWS IAM and AWS Lake Formation to manage
access, permissions, and data encryption.

Analytics and querying: Use Amazon Athena for ad-hoc querying, Amazon Redshift
Spectrum for analytics, and Amazon QuickSight for visualization.

This setup provides a flexible, scalable data lake architecture that can handle large volumes
of data for both structured and unstructured analysis.

Explain the different storage classes in Amazon S3 and when to use each.

Amazon S3 offers multiple storage classes, each optimized for specific use cases and cost
requirements. The following table summarizes them:

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Storage class Use case Access frequency Cost efficiency

S3 Standard Frequently accessed data High Standard pricing

S3 Intelligent- Unpredictable access Automatically Cost-effective with

Tiering patterns adjusted automated tiering

Infrequently accessed but Lower cost, rapid

S3 Standard-IA Low
quickly retrievable retrieval

Infrequent access in a single Lower cost, less

S3 One Zone-IA Low
AZ redundancy

Long-term archival with Low-cost, retrieval in

S3 Glacier Rare
infrequent access minutes or hours

S3 Glacier Deep Regulatory or compliance Lowest cost, retrieval in

Very rare
Archive archiving 12–48 hours

Understanding S3 storage classes helps optimize storage costs and access times based on
specific data needs.

AWS Scenario-based Questions

Focusing on practical application, these questions assess problem-solving abilities in
realistic scenarios, demanding a comprehensive understanding of how to employ AWS
services to tackle complex challenges.

The following table summarizes scenarios that are typically asked during AWS interviews,
along with their description and potential solutions:

Case
Description Solution
type

A company plans to migrate its

legacy application to AWS. The EC2 for compute
Applicat application is data-intensive and
S3 for storage
ion requires low-latency access for
migratio users across the globe. What AWS CloudFront for content delivery
n services and architecture would
Route 53 for DNS routing
you recommend to ensure high
availability and low latency?

Backup for regular backups of

critical data and systems with a
5-minute recovery points
objective (RPO)

Your organization wants to CloudFormation to define and

implement a disaster recovery plan provision the disaster recovery
for its critical AWS workloads with infrastructure across multiple
Disaster an RPO (Recovery Point Objective) regions
recovery of 5 minutes and an RTO (Recovery
Enable Cross Region Replication
Time Objective) of 1 hour. Describe
in S3 to replicate backups across
the AWS services you would use to
regions
meet these objectives.
Setup CloudWatch alarms to
monitor systems and
automatically trigger failover if
there are issues

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CloudFront and Route 53 for

Consider a scenario where you content delivery
need to design a scalable and Auto Scaling group of EC2 across
secure web application multiple availability zones for
DDos
infrastructure on AWS. The scalability
attacks
application should handle sudden
protecti Shield for DDoS protection
spikes in traffic and protect against
on
DDoS attacks. What AWS services CloudWatch for monitoring
and features would you use in your
design? Web Application Firewall (WAF)
for filtering malicious requests

Kinesis for real-time data

An IoT startup wants to process and
ingestion
analyze real-time data from
Real- thousands of sensors across the EC2 and EMR for distributed
time globe. The solution needs to be processing
data highly scalable and cost-effective.
Redshift for analytical queries
analytic Which AWS services would you use
s to build this platform, and how Auto Scaling to help scale up
would you ensure it scales with and scale down resources based
demand? on demand

Kinesis and Kafka for real-time

A financial services company data ingestion
requires a data analytics solution EMR for distributed data
on AWS to process and analyze processing
large volumes of transaction data in
Large- Redshift for analytical queries
real time. The solution must also
volume
comply with stringent security and CloudTrail and Config to provide
data
compliance standards. How would compliance monitoring and
analysis
you architect this solution using configuration management
AWS, and what measures would you
put in place to ensure security and Leverage multiple availability
compliance? zones and IAM policies for
access control.

Non-Technical AWS Interview Questions

Besides technical prowess, understanding the broader impact of AWS solutions is vital to a
successful interview, and below are a few questions, along with their answers. These answers
can be different from one candidate to another, depending on their experience and
background.

How do you stay updated with AWS and cloud technology trends?
Expected from candidate: The interviewer wants to know about your commitment to
continuous learning and how they keep your skills relevant. They are looking for specific
resources or practices they use to stay informed.

Example answer: "I stay updated by reading AWS official blogs and participating in
community forums like the AWS subreddit. I also attend local AWS user group meetups
and webinars. These activities help me stay informed about the latest AWS features and
best practices."

Describe a time when you had to explain a complex AWS concept to

someone without a technical background. How did you go about it?
Expected from candidate: This question assesses your communication skills and ability
to simplify complex information. The interviewer is looking for evidence of your teaching
ability and patience.

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Example answer: "In my previous role, I had to explain cloud storage benefits to our non-
technical stakeholders. I used the analogy of storing files in a cloud drive versus a
physical hard drive, highlighting ease of access and security. This helped them
understand the concept without getting into the technicalities."

What motivates you to work in the cloud computing industry, specifically

with AWS?
Expected from candidate: The interviewer wants to gauge your passion for the field and
understand what drives you. They're looking for genuine motivations that align with the
role and company values.

Example answer: "What excites me about cloud computing, especially AWS, is its
transformative power in scaling businesses and driving innovation. The constant
evolution of AWS services motivates me to solve new challenges and contribute to
impactful projects."

Can you describe a challenging project you managed and how you
ensured its success?
Expected from candidate: Here, the focus is on your project management and problem-
solving skills. The interviewer is interested in your approach to overcoming obstacles
and driving projects to completion.

Example answer: "In a previous project, we faced significant delays due to resource
constraints. I prioritized tasks based on impact, negotiated for additional resources, and
kept clear communication with the team and stakeholders. This approach helped us
meet our project milestones and ultimately deliver on time."

How do you handle tight deadlines when multiple projects are

demanding your attention?
Expected from candidate: This question tests your time management and prioritization
skills. The interviewer wants to know how you manage stress and workload effectively.

Example answer: "I use a combination of prioritization and delegation. I assess each
project's urgency and impact, prioritize accordingly, and delegate tasks when
appropriate. I also communicate regularly with stakeholders about progress and any
adjustments needed to meet deadlines."

What do you think sets AWS apart from other cloud service providers?
Expected from candidate: The interviewer is looking for your understanding of AWS's
unique value proposition. The goal is to see that you have a good grasp of what makes
AWS a leader in the cloud industry.

Example answer: "AWS sets itself apart through its extensive global infrastructure, which
offers unmatched scalability and reliability. Additionally, AWS's commitment to
innovation, with a broad and deep range of services, allows for more flexible and
tailored cloud solutions compared to its competitors."

How do you approach learning new AWS tools or services when they’re
introduced?
Expected from candidate: This question assesses your adaptability and learning style.
The interviewer wants to see that you have a proactive approach to mastering new
technologies, which is essential in the fast-evolving field of cloud computing.

Example answer: "When AWS introduces a new service, I start by reviewing the official
documentation and release notes to understand its purpose and functionality. I then explore
hands-on tutorials and experiment in a sandbox environment for practical experience. If
possible, I discuss the service with colleagues or participate in forums to see how others
are leveraging it. This combination of theory and practice helps me get comfortable with
new tools quickly."
Describe how you balance security and efficiency when designing AWS
solutions.

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Expected from candidate: The interviewer is assessing your ability to think strategically
about security while also considering performance. The goal is to see that you can
balance best practices for security with the need for operational efficiency.

Example answer: "I believe that security and efficiency go hand-in-hand. When designing
AWS solutions, I start with a security-first mindset by implementing IAM policies, network
isolation with VPCs, and data encryption. For efficiency, I ensure that these security
practices don’t introduce unnecessary latency by optimizing configurations and choosing
scalable services like AWS Lambda for compute-intensive tasks. My approach is to build
secure architectures that are also responsive and cost-effective."
Conclusion
This article has offered a comprehensive roadmap of AWS interview questions for
candidates at various levels of expertise—from those just starting to explore the world of
AWS to seasoned professionals seeking to elevate their careers.

Whether one is preparing for your first AWS interview or aiming to secure a more advanced
position, this guide serves as an invaluable resource. It prepares you not just to respond to
interview questions but to engage deeply with the AWS platform, enhancing your
understanding and application of its vast capabilities.

Get certified in your dream Data Engineer role

Our certification programs help you stand out and prove your skills
are job-ready to potential employers.

Get your Certification

FAQs

Do I need an AWS certification to land a cloud-related job?

While not mandatory, AWS certifications like the AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Associate or AWS Certified Developer Associate validate your expertise and enhance
your resume. Many employers value certifications as proof of your skills, but hands-on
experience is equally important.

What are the most important AWS services to focus on for interviews?

What non-technical skills are essential for succeeding in an AWS

interview?

What if I don’t know the answer to a technical question during an AWS

interview?

How can I negotiate my salary for an AWS-related role?

What should I do after failing an AWS certification exam or interview?

AUTHOR

Zoumana Keita

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EC2 Instance:
1. What is an EC2 instance? Answer: An EC2 instance is a virtual server in the
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. It provides scalable computing
capacity in the AWS cloud, allowing users to run applications and services.
2. Can you explain the difference between an instance and an AMI? Answer: An
instance is a running virtual server in EC2, while an AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
is a pre-configured virtual machine template that serves as a blueprint for
launching instances. You use an AMI to create, launch, and clone instances.
3. How do you launch an EC2 instance? Answer: You can launch an EC2 instance
through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI (Command Line Interface), or
SDKs using the "RunInstances" command.
4. What is the significance of an instance type? Answer: An instance type defines
the hardware of the host computer used for your instance. Each instance type
offers different combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity.
It determines the performance and pricing of your instance.
5. What is the purpose of user data in EC2 instances? Answer: User data allows
you to run scripts or provide configuration information when launching an
instance. This is useful for tasks like installing software, setting up
configurations, or running custom startup scripts.
6. How can you stop and start an EC2 instance? Answer: You can stop an EC2
instance through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs. To start a
stopped instance, use the same methods.

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7. What is the difference between stopping and terminating an EC2 instance?

Answer: When you stop an instance, it is turned off but remains in the AWS
infrastructure. You can start it again later. Terminating an instance permanently
deletes it and its associated resources.
8. How do you resize an EC2 instance? Answer: You can resize an EC2 instance
by stopping it, changing its instance type in the AWS Management Console, and
then starting it again.
9. Can you attach an IAM role to an existing EC2 instance? Answer: Yes, you can
associate an IAM role with an existing EC2 instance. You do this by stopping the
instance, modifying the instance settings, and attaching the desired IAM role.
10. Explain the concept of an Elastic IP address in EC2. Answer: An Elastic IP
address is a static, public IPv4 address that you can allocate to your AWS
account. It's designed for dynamic cloud computing to ensure that the IP address
of your EC2 instance doesn't change if the instance is stopped or terminated.
Security Groups:
11. What is a security group in EC2? Answer: A security group acts as a virtual
firewall for an instance. It controls inbound and outbound traffic, allowing or
denying communication based on rules defined for the group.
12. How is a security group different from a Network Access Control List (NACL)?
Answer: A security group operates at the instance level, while a Network Access
Control List (NACL) operates at the subnet level. Security groups are stateful,
while NACLs are stateless.
13. Can you associate multiple security groups with a single EC2 instance?
Answer: Yes, you can associate multiple security groups with a single EC2
instance. The rules of all associated security groups are aggregated.
14. What are inbound and outbound rules in a security group? Answer: Inbound
rules control the incoming traffic to an instance, while outbound rules control the
outgoing traffic. Each rule defines a combination of protocol, port, and
source/destination for the traffic.
15. How does security group evaluation work? Answer: Security group rules are
evaluated based on the most specific rule that matches the traffic. If no rule
explicitly allows the traffic, it is denied by default. The rule with the highest
priority takes precedence.
EBS Volumes:
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16. What is an EBS volume? Answer: An EBS (Elastic Block Store) volume is a
block-level storage device that you can attach to an EC2 instance. It provides
persistent storage that persists independently from the life of an instance.
17. What is the difference between EBS-backed and instance-store backed
instances? Answer: EBS-backed instances store the root file system on an EBS
volume, providing persistent storage. Instance-store backed instances use the
instance's root disk that is physically attached to the host computer.
18. How can you increase the size of an EBS volume? Answer: You can increase
the size of an EBS volume, but it requires creating a snapshot of the existing
volume, then creating a larger volume from that snapshot, and finally attaching it
to the instance.
19. Can you attach multiple EBS volumes to a single EC2 instance? Answer: Yes,
you can attach multiple EBS volumes to a single EC2 instance, each identified by
a unique device name.
20. Explain the difference between General Purpose SSD (gp2) and Provisioned
IOPS SSD (io1). Answer: General Purpose SSD (gp2) provides balanced
performance for a wide range of workloads. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) allows
you to specify a consistent IOPS rate, making it ideal for I/O-intensive
applications.
DLM (Data Lifecycle Manager):
21. What is AWS Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM)? Answer: AWS Data Lifecycle
Manager is a service that automates the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS
snapshots. It helps in managing the lifecycle of your EBS volumes' backups.
22. How do you create a lifecycle policy for EBS snapshots? Answer: You create a
lifecycle policy in the AWS DLM console or by using the DLM API. The policy
defines the rules for creating and retaining snapshots, such as the frequency and
retention period.
23. Explain the concept of retention policies in DLM. Answer: Retention policies in
DLM specify how many snapshots to retain and for how long. You can set up
policies to keep a certain number of snapshots, or to retain snapshots for a
specific number of days.
Snapshots:
24. What is an EBS snapshot? Answer: An EBS snapshot is a point-in-time copy of
an EBS volume. It captures the data and configuration of the volume, allowing
you to restore it or create new volumes from the snapshot.
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25. How do you create a snapshot of an EBS volume? Answer: You can create a
snapshot using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs. You select the
EBS volume, initiate the snapshot process, and it will be created asynchronously.
26. Can you create a snapshot of a root volume that is attached to a running EC2
instance? Answer: Yes, you can create a snapshot of a root volume while it is
attached to a running instance. However, it's recommended to stop the instance
to ensure data consistency.
27. What is the difference between a snapshot and an AMI? Answer: A snapshot is
a point-in-time copy of an EBS volume, while an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is
a pre-configured image that can be used to launch EC2 instances. An AMI can
include multiple snapshots.
Load Balancers:
28. What is an Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)? Answer: An Elastic Load Balancer
(ELB) is a service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic
across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, or IP addresses.
29. Can you explain the types of load balancers in AWS? Answer: AWS offers three
types of load balancers: Application Load Balancer (ALB), Network Load Balancer
(NLB), and Classic Load Balancer. ALB operates at the application layer, NLB
operates at the transport layer, and Classic Load Balancer provides basic load
balancing.
30. How does an Application Load Balancer (ALB) differ from a Network Load
Balancer (NLB)? Answer: ALB operates at the application layer and can route
traffic based on content. It's best suited for web applications. NLB operates at
the transport layer and is ideal for high-performance, low-latency use cases.
31. What is the purpose of a Target Group? Answer: A Target Group is used with an
Application Load Balancer or Network Load Balancer. It routes traffic to
registered targets based on health checks and load balancing algorithms.
Auto Scaling Group:
32. What is Auto Scaling in AWS? Answer: Auto Scaling is a feature that
automatically adjusts the number and size of your EC2 instances based on the
conditions you set. It helps maintain application availability and scale resources
efficiently.
33. How do you set up an Auto Scaling group? Answer: To set up an Auto Scaling
group, you define a launch configuration or launch template that specifies the
instance type, AMI, key pair, and security groups. Then, you create an Auto
Scaling group using this configuration.
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34. Explain the significance of Launch Configurations in Auto Scaling. Answer: A

Launch Configuration is a template that defines the parameters for launching
instances in an Auto Scaling group. It includes information like the instance type,
AMI, key pair, and security groups.
IAM Roles for EC2:
35. What is an IAM role? Answer: An IAM role is an AWS identity with permissions
policies that determine what tasks it can perform. It is used to grant permissions
to resources within your AWS account.
36. How do you associate an IAM role with an EC2 instance? Answer: You
associate an IAM role with an EC2 instance by attaching the role to the instance
during launch or by stopping the instance, modifying the instance settings, and
then attaching the role.
37. What are the advantages of using IAM roles with EC2 instances? Answer:
Using IAM roles allows you to grant specific permissions to instances without
having to share security credentials. This enhances security and simplifies
management.
Elastic Beanstalk:
38. What is AWS Elastic Beanstalk? Answer: AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a fully
managed service that makes it easy to deploy and run applications in multiple
languages. It automatically handles the details of capacity provisioning, load
balancing, and application deployment.
39. How does Elastic Beanstalk differ from EC2 instances? Answer: Elastic
Beanstalk abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, automating deployment,
scaling, and management tasks. EC2 instances, on the other hand, require
manual configuration and management.
40. What programming languages and platforms are supported by Elastic
Beanstalk? Answer: Elastic Beanstalk supports a wide range of programming
languages and platforms, including Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go,
and Docker.
Placement Groups:
41. What is a placement group in EC2? Answer: A placement group is a logical
grouping of instances within a single Availability Zone. It is used to influence the
placement of instances to meet specific requirements, such as low latency or
high network throughput.

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42. What are the types of placement groups available? Answer: There are three
types of placement groups: Cluster Placement Group, Spread Placement Group,
and Partition Placement Group.
43. When would you use a cluster placement group vs a spread placement
group? Answer: A cluster placement group is suitable for applications that
require low network latency and high network throughput within the group. A
spread placement group is used when you want to distribute instances across
distinct underlying hardware.
44. Can you move an existing instance into a placement group? Answer: No, you
cannot move an existing instance into a placement group. You can only launch an
instance into a placement group, or create a new AMI from the existing instance
and then launch a new instance into the group.
Systems ManagerRun Command:
45. What is AWS Systems Manager Run Command? Answer: AWS Systems
Manager Run Command is a service that lets you remotely and securely manage
the configuration of your EC2 instances or on-premises machines at scale.
46. How do you execute a command on multiple instances using Run Command?
Answer: You can execute a command on multiple instances by creating a
document in Systems Manager, selecting the target instances, and specifying the
command to be executed.
47. What is the benefit of using Run Command over traditional remote access
methods (like SSH or RDP)? Answer: Run Command provides a centralized and
secure way to execute commands across multiple instances without the need for
direct access. It also tracks command execution and logs output.
48. Can you explain the concept of SSM Documents? Answer: SSM Documents are
JSON or YAML scripts that define the actions that Run Command performs on
your instances. They contain the steps and parameters needed to execute
commands.
49. How do you schedule commands using Systems Manager? Answer: You can
schedule commands using Systems Manager State Manager. State Manager
allows you to define a desired state, and Systems Manager will automatically
enforce that state on your instances.
50. What is the difference between Run Command and Automation in Systems
Manager? Answer: Run Command allows you to manually execute commands on
instances, while Automation in Systems Manager allows you to create workflows
that can be executed automatically in response to events.
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51. What is AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store? Answer: AWS Systems
Manager Parameter Store provides secure, hierarchical storage for configuration
data management. It's used to store sensitive information like database
passwords, API keys, and configuration values.
52. What are the different types of parameters in Parameter Store? Answer:
Parameter Store supports two types of parameters: SecureString, which encrypts
the parameter value, and String, which stores the parameter value as plain text.
53. How do you retrieve a parameter from Parameter Store in an EC2 instance?
Answer: You can use the AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) on an EC2
instance to retrieve parameters from Parameter Store using the aws ssm get-
parameter command.

54. What is the benefit of using Parameter Store over environment variables or
configuration files? Answer: Parameter Store provides a centralized and secure
way to manage configuration data. It supports versioning, encryption, and access
control, making it suitable for sensitive information.
55. Explain the difference between SecureString and String parameters. Answer:
SecureString parameters are encrypted using AWS Key Management Service
(KMS), providing an extra layer of security for sensitive information. String
parameters store the value as plain text.
Systems ManagerSession Manager:
56. What is AWS Systems Manager Session Manager? Answer: AWS Systems
Manager Session Manager allows you to manage your EC2 instances through an
interactive browser-based shell or through the AWS CLI. It provides secure and
auditable access without requiring a direct SSH or RDP connection.
57. How does Session Manager ensure secure access to instances? Answer:
Session Manager uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies to
control access. It also provides detailed audit logs that track all session activity.
58. Can you use Session Manager to connect to on-premises servers or other
cloud platforms? Answer: Yes, Session Manager can be used to connect to on-
premises servers or other cloud platforms that have the SSM Agent installed.
59. What are the advantages of using Session Manager over traditional remote
access methods? Answer: Session Manager provides secure, auditable access
without exposing public IP addresses or requiring direct inbound connections. It
also allows for fine-grained access control through IAM policies.
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60. How do you configure Session Manager on an EC2 instance? Answer: To

configure Session Manager, you need to ensure that the AWS Systems Manager
Agent (SSM Agent) is installed and running on the instance. You also need the
necessary IAM permissions to start sessions.

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1. What is AWS IAM?

Answer: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a service that allows you
to manage users, groups, and roles in your AWS account. It enables you to
control access to AWS services and resources securely.
2. Explain the purpose of IAM in AWS.
Answer: The purpose of IAM is to provide a centralized system for managing
access to AWS services and resources. It allows you to create and control users,
assign specific permissions, and define roles with specific privileges, enhancing
security and compliance in your AWS environment.
3. What are IAM users, groups, and roles?
Answer:
IAM Users: IAM users are individual entities associated with an AWS
account. Each user has unique credentials and permissions that define what
actions they can perform within the account.
Groups: Groups are collections of IAM users. By placing users into groups,
you can assign common permissions to multiple users at once, simplifying
access management.
Roles: IAM roles are sets of permissions that define what actions an entity
(e.g., an AWS service or a user from another AWS account) can perform.
Roles do not have their own permanent set of credentials; they are assumed
by trusted entities.
4. How do you secure your AWS account with IAM?
Answer: To secure an AWS account with IAM, you should:
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Implement strong password policies and require multi-factor authentication

(MFA).
Regularly review and audit user permissions to ensure they align with the
principle of least privilege.
Avoid sharing long-term access keys and instead use IAM roles for
temporary access.
Enable CloudTrail to monitor and log all API activities.
Use IAM policies and resource-based policies to control access to AWS
resources.
5. How do you grant permissions to an IAM user?
Answer: Permissions are granted by attaching policies to IAM users. You can
attach policies directly to a user or add them to a group that the user belongs to.
Policies define the specific actions that a user is allowed or denied.
6. Explain the concept of IAM policies.
Answer: IAM policies are JSON documents that define permissions and actions.
They specify what actions are allowed or denied on AWS resources. Policies can
be attached to IAM users, groups, or roles to grant or restrict access.
7. What are the different types of IAM policies?
Answer: There are two main types of IAM policies:
Managed Policies: These are standalone policies that you can attach to
multiple users, groups, or roles. They can be AWS managed (created and
managed by AWS) or customer managed (created and managed by you).
Inline Policies: These are policies that are embedded directly into a user,
group, or role. They are created and managed directly on the user, group, or
role itself.
8. What is the principle of least privilege in IAM?
Answer: The principle of least privilege means granting the minimum level of
access or permissions necessary for a user, group, or role to perform their
required tasks. This reduces the potential impact of a security breach or misuse
of permissions.
9. How do you manage access keys for IAM users?
Answer: Access keys consist of an access key ID and a secret access key. You
can manage access keys for IAM users by creating, rotating, and deleting them
through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs. It's recommended to
regularly rotate access keys for enhanced security.
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10. What is MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) in IAM? - Answer: MFA is an

additional layer of security that requires users to provide two or more forms of
authentication before gaining access to AWS resources. This typically involves
something the user knows (e.g., a password) and something they possess (e.g., a
physical MFA device or a mobile app).
11. Explain IAM roles for EC2 instances. - Answer: IAM roles for EC2 instances allow
EC2 instances to assume a role and obtain temporary security credentials. This
eliminates the need to store long-term credentials on an EC2 instance. Roles are
attached to an EC2 instance during launch.
12. What is IAM federation? - Answer: IAM federation allows you to integrate your
existing identity system with AWS, enabling users to access AWS resources using
their existing credentials. This can be achieved through federation services like AWS
Single Sign-On (SSO) or third-party identity providers.
13. What is the IAM policy evaluation logic? - Answer: IAM policy evaluation follows
the "deny by default" principle. If there are no policies explicitly allowing an action, it
is denied. Policies can be attached to users, groups, roles, or resources. The most
specific policy (with the least privilege) is applied.
14. How do you create a custom IAM policy? - Answer: To create a custom IAM
policy, you can do so through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS
SDKs. You write the policy in JSON format, specifying the actions, resources, and
conditions. Once created, you can attach it to users, groups, or roles.
15. What is IAM condition element in a policy? - Answer: Conditions in IAM policies
allow you to control when a policy is in effect. They are expressed as key-value pairs,
and they can be used to limit access based on various factors such as time, source IP,
and more.
16. How do you rotate access keys for an IAM user? - Answer: You can rotate
access keys for an IAM user by creating a new access key, updating applications or
services to use the new key, and then deleting the old access key. This ensures a
seamless transition without interrupting access.
17. What is IAM policy versioning? - Answer: IAM policy versioning allows you to
have multiple versions of a policy. When you update a policy, AWS creates a new
version while keeping the old versions intact. This enables you to maintain backward
compatibility and roll back changes if needed.
18. How can you monitor IAM events and activities? - Answer: You can monitor IAM
events and activities by enabling AWS CloudTrail, which records all API calls made on
your account. CloudTrail logs can be analyzed to track IAM activities and events.

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19. What is AWS Organizations and how does it relate to IAM? - Answer: AWS
Organizations is a service that allows you to centrally manage and govern multiple
AWS accounts. It helps you consolidate billing, apply policies across accounts, and
simplify management. IAM is used within each individual account, while AWS
Organizations provides management at the organizational level.
20. How do you troubleshoot IAM permission issues? - Answer: Troubleshooting
IAM permission issues involves checking policies, roles, and group memberships to
ensure that the user has the necessary permissions. CloudTrail logs can be reviewed
to identify any denied actions and diagnose the issue.

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1. What is AWS S3?

Answer: Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is an object storage service that
offers scalable storage for web applications, mobile applications, and data
backup.
2. Explain the S3 storage classes.
Answer: AWS S3 provides various storage classes, including Standard,
Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier, and Glacier Deep Archive.
Each class has different pricing, availability, and durability characteristics.
3. How is data organized in S3?
Answer: Data in S3 is stored in buckets, which are similar to folders. Each bucket
contains objects, which are the actual files or data.
4. What is a bucket policy?
Answer: A bucket policy is a JSON-based document that defines what actions
are allowed or denied on a bucket and its objects. It helps control access to the
resources in the bucket.
5. Explain CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) in the context of S3.
Answer: CORS defines a way for client web applications that are loaded at one
origin to interact with resources from a different origin. It's important for web
applications that use resources stored in S3.
6. How can you secure data in S3?
Answer: Data in S3 can be secured using Access Control Lists (ACLs), bucket
policies, and IAM policies. Encryption, both in-transit and at-rest, can also be
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used.
7. What is versioning in S3?
Answer: Versioning is a feature that allows you to keep multiple versions of an
object in a bucket. It helps in protecting against accidental deletions or
overwrites.
8. Explain the difference between S3 and EBS.
Answer: S3 is object storage designed for web-based storage and retrieval,
while EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides block-level storage volumes for use with
EC2 instances.
9. How do you enable versioning for an S3 bucket?
Answer: Versioning can be enabled through the AWS Management Console,
AWS CLI, or SDKs by navigating to the bucket's properties and enabling
versioning.
10. What is the significance of S3 Object URL? - Answer: An S3 Object URL is a
unique web address assigned to each object in S3. It allows direct access to the
object via HTTP or HTTPS.
11. Explain S3 Object Lifecycle Policies. - Answer: S3 Object Lifecycle Policies allow
you to automatically transition objects to different storage classes or delete them
based on predefined rules.
12. What is S3 Transfer Acceleration? - Answer: S3 Transfer Acceleration is a
feature that utilizes Amazon CloudFront’s globally distributed edge locations to
accelerate the uploading and downloading of objects in S3.
13. What is Multipart Upload in S3? - Answer: Multipart Upload allows you to upload
large objects in parts, which can improve performance and reliability. It's especially
useful for objects over 100 MB.
14. How do you secure data in transit to S3? - Answer: Data in transit can be
secured by using SSL/TLS to encrypt the connection when accessing S3 over HTTPS.
15. What is the maximum size for an S3 object? - Answer: The maximum size for an
S3 object is 5 terabytes.
16. Explain Cross-Region Replication in S3. - Answer: Cross-Region Replication is a
feature that automatically replicates objects from one S3 bucket to another in a
different AWS region, providing data redundancy.

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17. What is the difference between S3 and EFS? - Answer: S3 is object storage,
while EFS (Elastic File System) is a scalable file storage system. S3 is suitable for
storing objects, while EFS is designed for shared file access.
18. What is the use case for S3 Select? - Answer: S3 Select allows you to retrieve
only the specific data you need from an object, which can reduce data transfer costs
and increase query performance.
19. Explain the concept of S3 Access Points. - Answer: S3 Access Points are unique
hostnames that customers create to enforce distinct permissions and network
controls for any request made through the access point.
20. What is the S3 event notification feature used for? - Answer: S3 event
notifications enable you to receive notifications when certain events occur in your S3
buckets, such as when an object is created, deleted, or restored.
21. How do you monitor S3 bucket metrics? - Answer: You can use Amazon
CloudWatch to monitor S3 bucket metrics. Metrics include request metrics, storage
metrics, and replication metrics.
22. What is the difference between S3 and Glacier? - Answer: S3 is designed for
immediate access to data, while Glacier is designed for long-term archival storage
with slower retrieval times.
23. How can you optimize costs in S3? - Answer: You can optimize costs in S3 by
using features like S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Object Lifecycle Policies, and setting up
appropriate access controls.
24. Explain how S3 works with CloudFront. - Answer: S3 can be used as an origin
for CloudFront, allowing you to distribute content globally with low-latency access.
25. What is the S3 Storage Class Analysis feature? - Answer: S3 Storage Class
Analysis analyzes storage access patterns to help you decide when to transition
objects to a different storage class for cost savings.
26. How do you enable logging for an S3 bucket? - Answer: Logging can be
enabled by specifying a target bucket where access logs will be stored. This is done
through the bucket's properties in the AWS Management Console.
27. What is S3 Select + Glacier? - Answer: S3 Select + Glacier allows you to perform
complex queries on data stored in Amazon S3 Glacier, reducing the time and cost of
accessing the data.
28. How can you set up Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) in S3? - Answer:
CORS can be configured in the S3 bucket properties by adding a CORS configuration
with allowed origins, headers, and methods.
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29. What is the use of S3 Batch Operations? - Answer: S3 Batch Operations allow
you to manage and process large numbers of objects in S3, making it easier to
perform tasks like copying, tagging, or transitioning objects.
30. How do you enable server access logging for an S3 bucket? - Answer: Server
access logging can be enabled by specifying the target bucket and prefix for the
access logs. This is done through the bucket's properties in the AWS Management
Console.

1. Explain the benefits and drawbacks of using S3 over traditional file systems for
object storage.
Answer: S3 provides highly durable and scalable object storage with a simple
API, making it suitable for web-scale applications. However, it may have higher
latency compared to traditional file systems, especially for small, frequent
operations.
2. Describe a scenario where you had to optimize S3 performance for a high-
traffic application. What steps did you take?
Answer: In a high-traffic scenario, I focused on optimizing for throughput and
reducing latency. This included utilizing S3 Transfer Acceleration, implementing
multi-part uploads for large files, and optimizing the application to leverage S3's
multi-threaded capabilities.
3. Explain how you can secure sensitive data stored in S3, both in transit and at
rest, in compliance with industry standards.
Answer: To secure data in transit, I would ensure that SSL/TLS encryption is
enforced for all interactions with S3. For data at rest, I would use server-side
encryption with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) or customer-provided keys
(SSE-C). I would also implement IAM policies and bucket policies to control
access.
4. Describe a situation where you had to optimize costs in an S3 environment.
What strategies did you employ?
Answer: I implemented S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically move objects to
the most cost-effective storage class based on usage patterns. Additionally, I set
up S3 Object Lifecycle Policies to transition less frequently accessed data to
lower-cost storage classes like S3 Standard-IA or S3 One Zone-IA.
5. Explain how you would design a multi-region, highly available architecture
using S3 for data replication.
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Answer: I would set up Cross-Region Replication (CRR) to automatically replicate

objects from the source bucket to a destination bucket in a different region. I'd
ensure that versioning is enabled to maintain multiple copies of objects, and I'd
use S3 Transfer Acceleration to optimize transfer speed.
6. What considerations are important when migrating large datasets to S3?
Answer: When migrating large datasets, I would plan for efficient data transfer,
possibly using AWS Snowball or AWS DataSync for large initial transfers. I'd also
consider using multi-part uploads, and I'd implement data validation checks to
ensure data integrity.
7. How would you handle a scenario where there's a sudden spike in S3 usage
leading to potential cost overruns?
Answer: I would monitor S3 metrics using Amazon CloudWatch and set up alerts
for unusual spikes in usage. I'd also analyze the access patterns and consider
implementing S3 Intelligent-Tiering or Object Lifecycle Policies to optimize costs.
8. Explain how S3 Select can be used to improve query performance on large
datasets stored in S3.
Answer: S3 Select allows you to retrieve only the specific data you need from an
object, reducing data transfer and improving query performance. It's especially
useful for large CSV, JSON, or Parquet files.
9. Describe a scenario where you had to troubleshoot an issue with S3 bucket
permissions. How did you approach the problem?
Answer: I would start by examining the bucket policy, ACLs, and IAM policies
associated with the bucket. I'd check for any conflicting or overly permissive
policies and make necessary adjustments to ensure the correct level of access.
10. Explain how you would set up a cross-account access policy for an S3 bucket.
- Answer: I would create a bucket policy that specifies the ARN (Amazon Resource
Name) of the IAM user or role from the other account and define the allowed actions
and resources. This would grant the necessary cross-account access permissions.

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Securing AWS Account:

1. What are some best practices for securing an AWS account? Answer: Best
practices include enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA), using strong
passwords, regularly reviewing IAM policies, and monitoring account activity.
2. What is AWS IAM Access Analyzer and how can it help in securing an AWS
account? Answer: IAM Access Analyzer analyzes resource policies to help you
understand who can access your resources and how, allowing you to make
informed decisions about access.
Securing Load Balancers:
3. What are some security considerations for AWS Elastic Load Balancers
(ELBs)? Answer: Considerations include configuring security groups, using
SSL/TLS for secure communication, and enabling access logs for monitoring.
4. How can you restrict access to an AWS Application Load Balancer (ALB)
based on IP address? Answer: You can configure an ALB to allow or deny traffic
based on IP addresses by using security groups / Network ACLs or AWS WAF
rules.
5. What is the purpose of SSL termination on a load balancer? Answer: SSL
termination offloads the SSL decryption process from the backend servers to the
load balancer, improving performance and reducing the server's CPU usage.
6. What are some best practices for securing applications hosted on AWS?
Answer: Best practices include regular security patching, implementing WAF
rules, using security groups and NACLs, and monitoring application logs.
AWS WAF and Web ACL:
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7. What is AWS WAF and how does it help in securing web applications? Answer:
AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from
common web exploits. It can filter and monitor incoming web traffic to your
application. You can protect against vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and
CSRF attacks by implementing security measures such as input validation, output
encoding, and using security headers.
8. What is a Web ACL in AWS WAF? Answer: A Web ACL is a set of rules that
define the conditions under which a web application firewall allows or blocks
requests to your application.
9. What is the benefit of using AWS Managed Rules with AWS WAF? Answer:
AWS Managed Rules are pre-configured rulesets provided by AWS that can help
protect your web applications from common threats without the need for manual
rule creation.
AWS Shield:
10. What is AWS Shield and how does it help protect against DDoS attacks?
Answer: AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS against network
and transport layer attacks.
11. How does AWS Shield protect against network and transport layer DDoS
attacks? Answer: AWS Shield provides always-on network flow monitoring, near
real-time attack visibility, and automatic traffic anomaly detection and mitigation.
12. What is the difference between AWS Shield Standard and AWS Shield
Advanced? Answer: Shield Standard provides protection against most common
and frequent DDoS attacks. Shield Advanced provides enhanced protection,
including additional DDoS mitigation capacity and 24x7 access to the AWS DDoS
Response Team (DRT).
Amazon CloudFront:
13. How can you use Amazon CloudFront to enhance the security of your web
applications? Answer: CloudFront can be used to distribute content securely
through HTTPS, implement geo-restriction, and integrate with AWS WAF to
protect against web application attacks.
14. What is Origin Access Identity (OAI) in Amazon CloudFront? Answer: OAI is a
virtual identity that you can use to grant CloudFront permission to fetch private
content from an S3 bucket.

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15. How can you configure CloudFront to prevent hotlinking of your content?
Answer: You can configure CloudFront to check the referrer header and only
serve content to requests that originate from your specified domains.
16. What is the purpose of CloudFront signed URLs and cookies? Answer:
CloudFront signed URLs and cookies provide a way to control access to your
content by requiring viewers to use a special URL or include special information
in their request.
AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and Data Encryption:
17. What is AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and what is its purpose?
Answer: AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is a managed service that makes it
easy to create and control encryption keys for your applications. It helps you
protect sensitive data.
18. How does AWS KMS help in securing data at rest in AWS services like S3 and
EBS? Answer: AWS KMS allows you to create and manage encryption keys that
can be used to encrypt data at rest in services like S3 and EBS, providing an
additional layer of security.
19. What is an AWS KMS Customer Master Key (CMK)? Answer: An AWS KMS
Customer Master Key (CMK) is a logical key that represents a top-level
encryption key. It can be used to encrypt and decrypt data, and it's managed by
AWS KMS.
20. What is envelope encryption and how does AWS KMS use it? Answer: Envelope
encryption is a method where a data encryption key is used to encrypt data, and
then the data encryption key itself is encrypted using a master key. AWS KMS
uses this approach to secure data.
21. Can you explain the difference between AWS managed keys (AWS managed
CMKs) and customer managed keys (CMKs)? Answer: AWS managed keys are
created, managed, and used by AWS services on your behalf. Customer
managed keys (CMKs) are created, managed, and used by you within AWS KMS.
22. How can you rotate a Customer Master Key (CMK) in AWS KMS? Answer: You
can enable automatic key rotation for a CMK, and AWS KMS will automatically
rotate the backing key material. Alternatively, you can manually rotate a CMK.
23. What is AWS KMS grants and how do they work? Answer: A grant in AWS KMS
is a way to delegate permissions to use a customer managed key (CMK) in
specific ways. Grants are used to allow other AWS identities or services to use
the key.

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24. How does AWS KMS integrate with AWS services like S3 and EBS for
encryption? Answer: AWS services like S3 and EBS can interact with AWS KMS
to request encryption keys for encrypting data at rest. AWS KMS then returns the
appropriate encryption key.
25. What is AWS CloudHSM and how can it enhance security for sensitive data in
AWS? Answer: AWS CloudHSM is a hardware security module (HSM) that
provides secure cryptographic key storage. It can be used to protect sensitive
data and meet compliance requirements.
26. How can you encrypt data in an Amazon RDS database? Answer: You can
enable encryption at rest when creating a new RDS instance, or modify an
existing instance to enable encryption. AWS RDS uses AWS KMS to manage the
encryption keys.
27. What is AWS SSM Parameter Store and how can it be used for secret
management? Answer: AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Parameter Store is a
service that provides secure, hierarchical storage for configuration data
management and secrets management. It can be used to store sensitive
information securely.
28. How do you handle security incidents and breaches in an AWS environment?
Answer: Establish an incident response plan, monitor for unusual activity, and
have procedures in place to investigate and mitigate security incidents.
29. How can you secure sensitive information like API keys and passwords in your
applications deployed on AWS? Answer: You can use AWS Secrets Manager or
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store to securely store and retrieve sensitive
information.

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RDS Configuration:
1. What is Amazon RDS? Answer: Amazon RDS is a managed relational database
service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in
the cloud.
2. Which database engines are supported by Amazon RDS? Answer: Amazon
RDS supports various database engines including Aurora (Mysql and Postgre
SQL compatable editions), MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and Microsoft
SQL Server.
3. What are the benefits of using Amazon RDS over managing your own
database server? Answer: Benefits include automated backups, automated
software patching, high availability, and ease of scalability.
4. What is a DB instance in Amazon RDS? Answer: A DB instance is a database
environment running in Amazon RDS, comprising the primary instance and, if
enabled, one or more Read Replicas.
5. How do you choose the appropriate instance type for an RDS database?
Answer: Consider factors like the workload type, size of the database, and
performance requirements when choosing an instance type.
Multi-AZ Deployment:
6. What is Multi-AZ deployment in Amazon RDS? Answer: Multi-AZ deployment is
a feature of Amazon RDS that automatically replicates your database to a
standby instance in a different Availability Zone, providing high availability and
fault tolerance.

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7. How does Multi-AZ deployment enhance database availability? Answer: In

Multi-AZ, if the primary instance fails, traffic is automatically redirected to the
standby instance, minimizing downtime.
8. Is manual intervention required to failover to the standby instance in Multi-
AZ? Answer: No, Multi-AZ failover is automatic and does not require manual
intervention.
Read Replica:
9. What is a Read Replica in Amazon RDS? Answer: A Read Replica is a copy of a
source database in Amazon RDS that allows you to offload read traffic from the
primary database, improving performance.
10. How does Read Replica enhance database scalability? Answer: Read Replicas
allow you to scale read-heavy workloads by distributing traffic across multiple
replicas.
11. Can you promote a Read Replica to become the new primary instance?
Answer: Yes, you can promote a Read Replica to become the new primary
instance in case the original primary instance fails.
Backup Strategies:
12. What are the different types of backups available in Amazon RDS? Answer:
Amazon RDS supports automated daily backups and manual snapshots that you
can create at any time.
13. How long are automated backups retained in Amazon RDS? Answer:
Automated backups are retained for a period of up to 35 days.
14. What is the difference between automated backups and manual snapshots?
Answer: Automated backups are taken daily and are retained for a specified
period, while manual snapshots are taken at a specific point in time and retained
until you choose to delete them.
15. How can you restore a database from a snapshot in Amazon RDS? Answer:
You can restore a database from a snapshot / we can use Point-in-time Option.
AWS Secrets Manager:
16. What is AWS Secrets Manager and how does it relate to Amazon RDS?
Answer: AWS Secrets Manager is a service that helps you securely store and
manage sensitive information. It can be used to store database credentials for
RDS instances.
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17. How does AWS Secrets Manager improve security for database credentials?
Answer: AWS Secrets Manager allows you to rotate and manage credentials
centrally, reducing the risk of exposure.
18. Can AWS Secrets Manager be integrated with other AWS services? Answer:
Yes, AWS Secrets Manager can be integrated with various AWS services,
including Amazon RDS, Lambda, and ECS.
VPC Settings for RDS:
19. What are the VPC considerations when launching an RDS instance? Answer:
When launching an RDS instance, you need to select a VPC, subnet, and security
group for the instance. Launch RDS in Private subnets as it contains sensitive
information.
20. Can an RDS instance be moved to a different VPC after it has been created?
Answer: No, you cannot move an existing RDS instance to a different VPC. You
would need to create a new instance in the desired VPC and migrate the data or
create a snapshot, copy snapshot to desired region and launch. IF another vpc is
in same region but another vpc, we can launch rds from snapshot.
21. How does subnet group selection affect an RDS instance in a VPC? Answer:
The subnet group determines the subnets where the RDS instance will be
deployed. It's important for network configuration and high availability.
Additional Questions:
22. What is the purpose of the parameter group in Amazon RDS? Answer: A
parameter group contains database engine configuration settings. You can
customize parameter groups to suit your specific requirements.
23. How do you monitor the performance of an Amazon RDS instance? Answer:
You can use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor performance metrics like CPU
utilization, storage, and I/O. We can Enable Enhanced monitoring and
Performance insights for additional monitoring, if required.
24. What is the difference between a database instance and database cluster in
Amazon RDS? Answer: A database instance is just RDS instance, DB CLuster is
combination of Writer Instance and some reader instance.
25. Can you encrypt an existing unencrypted Amazon RDS instance? Answer: No,
Directly we cannot enforce encryption on Existing RDS instance but, by taking a
snapshot, creating a copy with encryption, and then promoting the copy.

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AWS Multi-Account Architecture with Organizations:

Common Accounts we use in most of the environments. Answer: Training Account,
Dev Account, Quality Assurance Account, UAT Account, Production Account. Central
Networking Account, Central Logging Account and Management Account.
1. What is AWS Organizations and how does it help in multi-account
architecture? Answer: AWS Organizations is a service that allows you to
centrally manage multiple AWS accounts. It helps in creating a hierarchical
structure for accounts and enables central policy management.
2. What is an SCP (Service Control Policy) in AWS Organizations? Answer: An
SCP is a policy that defines the maximum permissions that can be granted to
resources within an AWS account. It helps in controlling what actions and
services can be used within member accounts.
3. How does Centralized Billing work in AWS Organizations? Answer: Centralized
Billing allows you to consolidate billing and payment information for multiple AWS
accounts. It helps in tracking and managing costs across the organization.
4. What is IAM Identity Center in the context of AWS Organizations? Answer: IAM
Identity Center provides a centralized view of all users, groups, and roles across
all AWS accounts in the organization. It simplifies identity management and
access control.
5. What are the benefits of using AWS Organizations for multi-account
architecture? Answer: Benefits include centralized management, better security
through SCPs, simplified billing, and improved compliance.

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6. How can you enforce a specific policy across multiple AWS accounts using
SCPs? Answer: You can attach an SCP to the root of your organization, which will
be inherited by all member accounts. This allows you to enforce policies
organization-wide. Or, We can apply at OU level, All OU level added accounts.
CloudTrail:
7. What is AWS CloudTrail and what does it do? Answer: AWS CloudTrail is a
service that records AWS API calls made on our account. It provides detailed
information about who made the call, what action was performed, and more.
8. Why is CloudTrail important for security and compliance? Answer: CloudTrail
provides an audit trail of all API activity, which is crucial for security analysis,
troubleshooting, and meeting compliance requirements.
9. How can you access CloudTrail logs? Answer: CloudTrail logs can be accessed
through the AWS Management Console and AWS CLI, We can even send logs to
S3 bucket and query it with Athena Service.
Amazon Config:
10. What is AWS Config and how does it work? Answer: AWS Config is a service
that continuously monitors and records AWS resource configurations. It helps in
assessing, auditing, and evaluating compliance with desired configurations.
11. How does AWS Config help with compliance management? Answer: AWS
Config tracks changes to resource configurations and evaluates them against
defined rules. It provides a compliance dashboard and can send notifications for
non-compliant resources.
12. What is a Config Rule in AWS Config? Answer: A Config Rule is a customizable
rule that checks whether your AWS resources comply with your desired
configurations. It can be an AWS-managed rule or a custom rule.
13. How does AWS Config handle resources that were created before it was
enabled? Answer: AWS Config retroactively records configuration changes for
resources created before it was enabled, allowing you to assess historical
compliance.
14. What is the role of CloudTrail in AWS Config? Answer: CloudTrail records API
calls made on your AWS account, which is used by AWS Config to track and
record changes to resource configurations.
Trusted Advisor:

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15. What is AWS Trusted Advisor? Answer: AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that
provides real-time guidance to help you optimize your AWS infrastructure,
improve security, save money, and increase performance.
16. What are the key areas that Trusted Advisor provides recommendations for?
Answer: Trusted Advisor provides recommendations in areas like Cost
Optimization, Performance, Security, Fault Tolerance, and Service Limits.
17. How does Trusted Advisor help in cost optimization? Answer: Trusted Advisor
analyzes your AWS environment and provides recommendations to reduce costs
by identifying idle resources, underutilized instances, and more.
18. Can Trusted Advisor make changes to your AWS environment automatically?
Answer: No, Trusted Advisor provides recommendations, but you need to
manually apply the changes based on the suggestions.
AWS Support Plans:
19. What is AWS Support? Answer: AWS Support provides a range of plans that
offer access to AWS experts, resources, and technical support to help you
successfully build, deploy, and manage applications on the AWS platform.
20. What are the different AWS Support plans available? Answer: AWS offers four
support plans: Basic, Developer, Business, and Enterprise. Each plan provides
different levels of support, response times, and features.
21. What is included in the AWS Basic Support plan? Answer: The AWS Basic
Support plan includes 24/7 access to customer service, documentation,
whitepapers, and support forums. It also provides access to AWS Trusted Advisor
and AWS Personal Health Dashboard.
22. What are the key features of the AWS Developer Support plan? Answer: The
AWS Developer Support plan includes all the features of Basic Support, as well
as general guidance on AWS architecture and best practices, and an unlimited
number of support cases with a 12-hour response time.
23. What additional benefits does the AWS Business Support plan offer over
Developer Support? Answer: The AWS Business Support plan includes all the
features of Developer Support, with faster response times (1-hour response for
urgent cases), access to Infrastructure Event Management, and AWS Trusted
Advisor checks.

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24. What is the AWS Enterprise Support plan designed for? Answer: The AWS
Enterprise Support plan is designed for large-scale enterprises with mission-
critical workloads. It provides personalized, proactive support, a dedicated
Technical Account Manager (TAM), and additional features for optimizing AWS
infrastructure.
25. How can you choose the right AWS Support plan for your organization?
Answer: Choosing the right support plan depends on your organization's specific
needs, such as the level of criticality of your workloads, response time
requirements, and the level of personalized support and guidance required.
26. Can you upgrade or downgrade your AWS Support plan? Answer: Yes, you can
upgrade or downgrade your AWS Support plan at any time. Keep in mind that any
changes to the plan will be effective from the beginning of the next billing cycle.
27. What is AWS Personal Health Dashboard and how does it benefit AWS
customers? Answer: AWS Personal Health Dashboard provides personalized
information about the performance and availability of AWS services that you're
using. It helps you stay informed about events that may impact your AWS
resources.
28. How does AWS Infrastructure Event Management assist in operational
readiness? Answer: AWS Infrastructure Event Management helps you plan for
and respond to AWS infrastructure events. It provides personalized alerts and
guidance to help you prepare for and respond to events that may impact your
AWS resources.

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VPC Basics:
1. What is a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in AWS? Answer: A VPC is a virtual
network dedicated to your AWS account. It allows you to launch Amazon Web
Services resources into a virtual network that you've defined.
2. Why would you use a VPC in AWS? Answer: VPC provides isolated network
resources, allowing you to have control over network configuration. It's useful for
security, custom routing, and connecting resources in a controlled manner.
3. Can you have multiple VPCs within a single AWS account? Answer: Yes, you
can create multiple VPCs within a single AWS account.
4. What is the default VPC? Answer: The default VPC is created for each AWS
account in each region. It's ready for use and includes default subnets, route
tables, and security group rules.
5. Can you delete the default VPC? Answer: Yes, you can delete the default VPC.
However, it's recommended to create custom VPCs and use them instead.
CIDR Ranges:
6. What is a CIDR range in the context of VPC? Answer: A CIDR (Classless Inter-
Domain Routing) range is a notation that describes a range of IP addresses. In a
VPC, it defines the IP address space of the VPC.
7. How do you select an appropriate CIDR block for a VPC? Answer: Select a
CIDR block that provides enough IP addresses for your resources, considering
future growth. Avoid overlapping with other networks you may need to connect
to.
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8. What is the smallest and largest VPC CIDR block you can create? Answer: The
smallest VPC CIDR block is a /28 (16 IPv4 addresses). The largest is a /16
(65,536 IPv4 addresses). AWS Reservs 5 IP Addresses, do minus -5 to get
usable IPs count.
Public and Private Subnets:
9. What is the difference between a public subnet and a private subnet in a
VPC? Answer: A public subnet has a route to the internet, typically through an
Internet Gateway. A private subnet doesn't have a direct route to the internet.
10. How are internet-facing resources placed in a VPC? Answer: Internet-facing
resources are typically placed in public subnets, where they can have a public IP
address. or You can place in private subnet, they can access internet through a
NAT Gateway.
11. How do private subnets communicate with the internet? Answer: Private
subnets can communicate with the internet through a NAT Gateway.
Network ACLs:
12. What is a Network Access Control List (NACL) in a VPC? Answer: A NACL is a
stateless, numbered list of rules that control traffic in and out of one or more
subnets within a VPC.
13. How does a NACL differ from a security group? Answer: A NACL is stateless,
operates at the subnet level, and controls traffic based on rules defined by
explicit allow or deny statements. A security group is stateful, operates at the
instance level, and controls inbound and outbound traffic based on rules.
14. Can a NACL block traffic based on protocol and port number? Answer: Yes, a
NACL can block traffic based on the protocol (TCP, UDP, ICMP) and port number.
VPC Peering:
15. What is VPC peering and when would you use it? Answer: VPC peering allows
you to connect two VPCs together, enabling instances in different VPCs to
communicate as if they were on the same network. It's used for scenarios like
resource sharing or multi-tier applications.
16. Can you peer VPCs in different AWS accounts? Answer: Yes, you can peer
VPCs in different AWS accounts, provided both accounts accept the peering
request.

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17. What are the limitations of VPC peering? Answer: VPC peering is limited to a
specific region. It's not transitive, meaning if VPC A is peered with VPC B, and
VPC B is peered with VPC C, VPC A can't communicate directly with VPC C.
Transit Gateway Basics:
18. What is an AWS Transit Gateway? Answer: AWS Transit Gateway is a service
that enables multiple VPCs, VPNs, and Direct Connect connections to be
connected through a single gateway. It simplifies network architecture and
management.
19. How does a Transit Gateway simplify VPC and VPN connectivity? Answer:
Transit Gateway acts as a central hub that allows you to connect multiple VPCs,
VPNs, and Direct Connect connections. This reduces the need for complex VPC
peering arrangements or VPN connections.
20. Can a Transit Gateway span multiple AWS regions? Answer: Yes, a Transit
Gateway can span multiple AWS regions within the same AWS account.
Site-to-Site VPN Connection:
21. What is a Site-to-Site VPN connection in AWS? Answer: A Site-to-Site VPN
connection connects your on-premises network to your VPC over an encrypted
Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) or Direct Connect.
22. When would you use a Site-to-Site VPN connection? Answer: Site-to-Site VPN
is used when you need secure communication between your on-premises
network and your AWS resources, but don't want to expose them to the public
internet.
23. What information is needed to establish a Site-to-Site VPN connection?
Answer: To establish a Site-to-Site VPN connection, you need the public IP
address of your customer gateway, the pre-shared key, and the BGP ASN (if
using BGP).
VPC Endpoints:
24. What is a VPC endpoint? Answer: A VPC endpoint allows you to privately
connect your VPC to supported AWS services and VPC endpoint services
powered by AWS PrivateLink.
25. How does a VPC endpoint enhance security for accessing AWS services?
Answer: A VPC endpoint allows you to access AWS services without going over
the internet. This keeps traffic within the AWS network and enhances security.

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26. What types of VPC endpoints are available? Answer: There are two types of
VPC endpoints: Interface Endpoints (powered by AWS PrivateLink) and Gateway
Endpoints. Interface Endpoints are for AWS services, and Gateway Endpoints are
for S3 and DynamoDB.
Routing in a VPC:
27. How does routing work within a VPC? Answer: Each subnet in a VPC has a route
table associated with it. The route table specifies how traffic is directed in and
out of the subnet. Routes can point to the internet gateway, Virtual Private
Gateway, NAT Gateway, or VPC peering connection.
28. What is the purpose of a route table in a VPC? Answer: A route table in a VPC
determines where network traffic is directed. It specifies the next hop for traffic
based on its destination.
29. Can you associate multiple route tables with a subnet? Answer: Yes, you can
associate multiple route tables with a subnet. However, only one route table can
be the main route table for a subnet.
Elastic IP Addresses:
30. What is an Elastic IP (EIP) in the context of VPC? Answer: An Elastic IP is a
static, public IPv4 address that you can allocate to your AWS account. It's
designed for dynamic cloud computing to ensure that the IP address of your EC2
instance doesn't change if the instance is stopped or terminated.
31. How do you associate an Elastic IP with an EC2 instance in a VPC? Answer:
You can associate an Elastic IP with an EC2 instance using the AWS Management
Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs. Once associated, the Elastic IP becomes the public
IPv4 address of the instance.
Direct Connect:
32. What is AWS Direct Connect and how does it relate to VPC? Answer: AWS
Direct Connect is a network service that provides dedicated network connections
from your on-premises data centers to AWS. It's often used to establish a private
and reliable connection between on-premises networks and AWS VPCs.
33. When would you use Direct Connect instead of VPN connections? Answer:
Direct Connect is preferred over VPN connections when you require higher
bandwidth, lower latency, or a dedicated network connection to AWS. It's
especially useful for mission-critical and data-intensive applications.
Flow Logs:
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34. What are VPC Flow Logs? Answer: VPC Flow Logs capture information about the
IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC. They provide detailed
information, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols.
35. How are Flow Logs useful for network troubleshooting and security analysis?
Answer: Flow Logs can be analyzed to troubleshoot network connectivity issues,
monitor traffic patterns, and identify potential security risks or unusual activity in
your VPC.
NAT Gateways and NAT Instances:
36. What is the purpose of a NAT Gateway in a VPC? Answer: A NAT Gateway
allows resources in a private subnet to connect to the internet, while preventing
inbound traffic initiated from the internet. It's used for instances that need to
download updates or access external resources.
37. How does a NAT Gateway differ from a NAT instance? Answer: A NAT Gateway
is a managed AWS service that provides high availability and automatic scaling. A
NAT instance is a manually configured EC2 instance that acts as a NAT device.
NAT Gateways are recommended for most use cases due to their simplicity and
scalability.
VPC Endpoints for S3:
38. What is a VPC endpoint for S3? Answer: A VPC endpoint for S3 allows you to
access Amazon S3 from your VPC without going over the internet. It provides a
private connection to S3, enhancing security and performance.
39. How does it allow secure access to S3 without going over the internet?
Answer: The VPC endpoint for S3 routes traffic directly from your VPC to S3 over
the Amazon network. This keeps the traffic within the AWS network and avoids
exposure to the public internet.
VPC Security Best Practices:
40. What are some best practices for securing a VPC? Answer: Some best
practices include using security groups and NACLs effectively, minimizing
exposure of resources to the public internet, using VPC flow logs for monitoring,
and implementing encryption for data in transit and at rest.
41. How can you prevent public exposure of resources in a VPC? Answer: You can
prevent public exposure by placing resources in private subnets without direct
internet access, and using NAT Gateways or instances for outbound internet
access. Additionally, use Security Groups and NACLs to control inbound and
outbound traffic.
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42. What is a VPC endpoint for DynamoDB? Answer: A VPC endpoint for
DynamoDB allows you to access Amazon DynamoDB from your VPC without
going over the internet. It provides a private connection to DynamoDB, enhancing
security and performance.
43. How does it allow secure access to DynamoDB without going over the
internet? Answer: The VPC endpoint for DynamoDB routes traffic directly from
your VPC to DynamoDB over the Amazon network. This keeps the traffic within
the AWS network and avoids exposure to the public internet.
VPC Limits:
44. Are there any limitations or quotas on VPC resources? Answer: Yes, there are
various limits on VPC resources, such as the maximum number of VPCs per
region, the maximum number of subnets per VPC, and the maximum number of
Elastic IP addresses per account, among others. These limits can be found in the
AWS documentation.
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