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Interview practice

Cloud Engineer (AWS / Azure)

2–5 years · Mid — AWS / Azure · Networking · IAM · Cost · Serverless · Storage

0–2 years 2–5 years 5–8 years 8+ years
ownership A feature you owned end to end 1 of 6
Describe a feature you owned from start to finish, including the challenges you faced.
What a strong answer covers

Identifies the feature and its purpose; explains specific challenges such as scaling, security, or integration; details the decision-making process and trade-offs; describes how the feature was tested and deployed; reflects on the outcomes and user feedback.

The follow-up you would get

What would you change about the approach you took?

Could you have answered that?
technical Networking 2 of 6
You have a VPC with public and private subnets, and your application in the private subnet cannot access an external API. What are the steps to diagnose the issue?
What a strong answer covers

Checks the route table for the private subnet; verifies the NAT Gateway's configuration and its association; examines security group rules and Network ACLs; ensures that the VPC endpoint is correctly set up if needed.

The follow-up you would get

The NAT Gateway is configured correctly. What else could prevent external API access?

Could you have answered that?
scenario IAM 3 of 6
A team member reports they cannot deploy a service due to insufficient permissions, but you believe they should have access. What's your immediate course of action?
What a strong answer covers

Confirms the user's IAM role and policies; checks any recent changes made to permissions; looks for service control policies affecting access; audits resource-based policies that might be blocking; uses AWS CLI or Azure CLI to simulate the policy evaluation.

The follow-up you would get

After granting temporary permissions, what measures do you take to ensure least privilege going forward?

Could you have answered that?
technical Serverless 4 of 6
A Lambda function that previously completed in 200ms now takes over 1 second. What do you check first to diagnose the issue?
What a strong answer covers

Inspects the CloudWatch logs for error messages or timeouts; evaluates the function's concurrency limits and throttling behavior; considers cold start times based on the runtime environment; checks any external service dependencies for latency.

The follow-up you would get

There are no errors in the logs. What else could impact the Lambda execution time?

Could you have answered that?
scenario Serverless 5 of 6
A critical Lambda function is failing to execute as expected, and you're under pressure to resolve the issue quickly. What do you do?
What a strong answer covers

Reviews CloudWatch logs for the Lambda function; checks error messages and stack traces; verifies the event source configuration; inspects resource limits like memory and timeout settings; looks into any dependencies that may have changed.

The follow-up you would get

The function has a sudden surge in traffic. How do you ensure it can scale appropriately while controlling costs?

Could you have answered that?
technical Cost 6 of 6
You notice a sudden spike in monthly AWS costs. What steps do you take to identify the cause?
What a strong answer covers

Accesses the Cost Explorer to analyse usage patterns; checks for any new services launched recently; reviews CloudTrail logs for unusual activity; evaluates the billing dashboard for specific resource spending.

The follow-up you would get

The analysis shows no new services. What other factors could contribute to cost spikes?

Could you have answered that?
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