Potential Interview Questions for Cloud/IT/Software Architects

A list of a few questions being asked during an interview for a cloud/IT/software architect position. I'll keep the list updated once in a while.

Architecture (API, cloud native, networking)

• Explain the concept of transactions in a microservice architecture.
• Could you describe your experience in AWS, Azure, and/or GCP?
• Describe the concept of integration architecture.
• Describe the difference between North-South and East-West traffic flow.
• Why would you use REST instead of SOAP or any other integration approach?
• What is your position about coding/programming as a cloud architecture?
• Explain integration architecture strategies for polycloud applications.
• What are some best practices when it comes to application configuration?
• Describe some patterns the support resiliency or stability in an application.

Databases (RDBMS, NoSQL, Caching)

• Explain the difference between relational and non-relational databases.
• What is the difference between a view and a materialized view?
• Explain the different eviction policies related to caching.
• Explain the different patterns involved when using caching.

DevOps

• Describe the DevSecOps pipeline in your last project.
• Could you describe your experience using Kubernetes? Distribution? Tools? Operations/Development?
• Explain what is the 12-Factor App strategy for distributed applications.

Miscellaneous

• What are the new technologies you would like to start learning in your new role?
• If you would need to build an application from scratch what technologies would you choose?
• How do you keep up with the latest technology trends?
• What is your recommendation for our cloud native journey?
• Describe the type of work environment in which you are most productive and why.
• Describe some good practices for multisite collaboration and team work.
• Describe how you handle or manage stakeholder expectations.
• Tell us one (or a few) good thing that you bring to your team and project.

Programming (algorithms, multi-threading, etc.)

• Explain the difference between a semaphore and a mutex.
• Explain the difference between a binary tree and a red-black tree.
• What are the best strategies for unit testing?

Security

• Explain how SSL/TLS works. What are the differences between them?
• Explain how OAuth2 works.
• Explain how OIDC works in conjunction with OAuth2.
• Explain the differences between symmetric and assymetric key encryptions.
• What should be considered from the design and IT Security (IT Sec) perspective for moving an on-premise architecture to the public cloud (i.e., AWS, Azure, GCP)?
• What are the differences and benefits between ABAC vs RBAC?