Cloud Providers & Platforms
The platforms you actually deploy on: the hyperscalers, the edge and developer PaaS layer that sits above them, and the file-sync SaaS everything ends up integrating with. Interviewers use this ground to check you can pick a provider tier for a workload and explain what you are paying for.
on this pageshowhide
explore
- AWS (has its own guide)442 questions
- IAM & Security69 questions
- Networking & CDN88 questions
- Compute78 questions
- Storage & Databases82 questions
- Messaging & Eventing65 questions
- Observability & Cost60 questions
- Azureempty
- Compute Servicesempty
- Storage & Databasesempty
- Networkingempty
- Identity & Accessempty
- AKS & Containersempty
- Azure Functionsempty
- Azure Service Busempty
- Google Cloudempty
- IAM and Securityempty
- Compute Engineempty
- Cloud Storageempty
- Networking and VPCempty
- GKE and Containersempty
- Alibaba Cloudempty
- Cloudflareempty
- CDN and Cachingempty
- DNS Managementempty
- R2 and KV Storageempty
- Pages and Wranglerempty
- Vercelempty
- Netlifyempty
- Renderempty
- Herokuempty
- Firebaseempty
- Security Rulesempty
- Cloud Functionsempty
- Storage & Hostingempty
- Railwayempty
- Boxempty
- Dropboxempty
- OneDriveempty
- Google Driveempty
- Cloud Platform Concepts272 questions
- Provider Responsibility Model22 questions
- Global Footprint & Placement25 questions
- Tenancy Layout21 questions
- Platform Access Model32 questions
- Renting Compute22 questions
- Platform Storage Services23 questions
- Provider Network Model33 questions
- Reliability & Failure Domains25 questions
- Billing & Charge Model29 questions
- Platform Operations22 questions
- Exit & Switching Costs18 questions
→ has its own guide
- AI & Data Scientistrole
- AI Engineerrole
- AWSskill
- Android Developerrole
- Cloudflareskill
- Cyber Security Expertrole
- Data Engineerrole
- DevOps / SRE Engineerrole
- DevSecOps Engineerrole
- Forward Deployed Engineerrole
- MLOps Engineerrole
- Machine Learning Engineerrole
- Network Engineerrole
- Server-Side Game Developerrole
- Software Architectrole
questions
714 · 2 sectionsWhat is EC2 user data, at what point in an instance's life does the script run, and as which OS user?
basics
~20 sUser data is a text blob you attach to an EC2 instance that cloud-init fetches from the instance metadata service at first boot. A script starting with a shebang runs as root, once per instance — not on every reboot.
In an EC2 Auto Scaling group, what do the minimum, maximum and desired capacity settings each control, and what happens if you manually terminate one of the group's instances?
basics
~20 sDesired capacity is the instance count the group tries to run right now; minimum and maximum are the floor and ceiling that scaling can never cross. Manually terminating an instance leaves the group below desired, so it launches a replacement.
Decode the EC2 instance type name m7g.2xlarge: what does each part of the name tell you, and how many vCPUs and how much memory does that instance have?
basics
~20 sm7g.2xlarge splits into four parts: family m (general purpose, roughly 4 GiB of memory per vCPU), generation 7, processor letter g (AWS Graviton, arm64), and size 2xlarge — 8 vCPUs and 32 GiB of memory.
In EC2, what do you get and what do you give up by running an instance as Spot instead of On-Demand, and how is the Spot price actually determined?
basics
~20 sSpot Instances run on EC2 capacity AWS currently has idle, at a steep discount off On-Demand, but AWS can reclaim them at any moment with a two-minute warning. Spot prices move gradually with supply and demand; there is no bidding auction.
In Amazon ECS, explain what a task definition, a task, and a service each are, and when you would use the RunTask API directly instead of putting the workload behind a service.
basics
~20 sAn ECS task definition is the immutable blueprint: image, CPU and memory, IAM roles, logging. A task is one running copy of it. A service keeps a desired count of tasks alive and replaces failures; RunTask launches one-off jobs.
A nightly cleanup job runs about twenty minutes - why does an event-driven runtime rule itself out, and which tier fits?
basics
~20 sAn event-driven runtime caps how long one invocation may run, so a twenty-minute job is stopped part-way. Put it on a tier that keeps a process alive: a managed container platform running it on a schedule, or a machine that stays up.
You are moving a measured search service onto rented machines — which numbers set the machine size, and which do you ignore?
basics
~20 sSize from the service's own observed processor, memory, disk and network use over a full demand cycle, taken at a high percentile with headroom added. The specification of the server being replaced records a purchase decision, not the workload, and is ignored.
What does a label attached to a cloud resource actually change about the bill, and what does it not change?
basics
~20 sA label copies a key-value pair onto the charges a resource generates, so the provider's detailed cost report can be grouped by team, environment or service. It changes reporting only: the rate, the metered quantity and the total are unaffected.
A monthly cloud budget threshold is crossed at noon — what does crossing it actually do, and what does it not do?
basics
~20 sA budget threshold is a notification rule, not a spending cap. Crossing it emits a message about money already spent. It does not pause running resources, block new ones, or cancel anything, and the figure it fired on lags the usage.
On a cloud transfer bill, a service uploads large video masters and ships finished renditions out to viewers — why is only one direction charged?
basics
~20 sTransfer is metered by direction. Bytes arriving from outside are normally unmetered; bytes leaving toward the internet are priced per gigabyte after a small monthly allowance. So delivery to viewers is the charge, not the upload of masters.