AWS Interview Preparation Guide

AWS Interview Preparation Guide

Hour 1: Core AWS Services and Concepts

1.1 EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Overview: EC2 provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

Key Concepts: Instances, AMIs, instance types, EBS volumes, security groups, key pairs.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/index.html

1.2 S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Overview: S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability,

security, and performance.

Key Concepts: Buckets, objects, storage classes, versioning, lifecycle policies, permissions.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/s3/index.html

1.3 RDS (Relational Database Service)

Overview: RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.

Key Concepts: Instances, databases, snapshots, backups, Multi-AZ deployments, read replicas.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rds/index.html

1.4 IAM (Identity and Access Management)

Overview: IAM enables you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely.

Key Concepts: Users, groups, roles, policies, permissions.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iam/index.html
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Hour 2: Practical Knowledge and Hands-On Practice

2.1 VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

Overview: VPC allows you to launch AWS resources in a logically isolated virtual network.

Key Concepts: Subnets, route tables, internet gateways, NAT gateways, security groups, network

ACLs.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/index.html

2.2 Lambda and Serverless

Overview: AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers.

Key Concepts: Functions, triggers, event sources, execution role, layers.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/index.html

2.3 CloudFormation

Overview: CloudFormation gives you an easy way to model a collection of related AWS and

third-party resources, provision them quickly and consistently, and manage them throughout their

lifecycles.

Key Concepts: Templates, stacks, resources, parameters, outputs.

Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/index.html

2.4 Common Interview Questions and Scenarios

Common Questions:

1. Explain the differences between different storage classes in S3.

2. How would you secure an application in AWS?

3. Describe a VPC and its components.

4. How do you scale an application using AWS services?

5. Explain how you would migrate an on-premises application to AWS.

Scenarios:

- Designing a fault-tolerant web application using AWS.

- Setting up a CI/CD pipeline with AWS tools (e.g., CodePipeline, CodeBuild).

- Managing cost optimization and billing in AWS.

Common Questions and Answers

1. Explain the differences between different storage classes in S3.

AWS S3 offers various storage classes designed for different use cases:

- S3 Standard: General-purpose storage for frequently accessed data. Provides high durability,

availability, and low latency.

- S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Optimizes costs by automatically moving data to the most cost-effective

access tier, based on changing access patterns.

- S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access): For data that is accessed less frequently but requires rapid

access when needed. Offers lower storage costs but higher retrieval costs.

- S3 One Zone-IA: Similar to Standard-IA but stores data in a single Availability Zone, offering lower

costs but less redundancy.

- S3 Glacier: Low-cost storage for data archiving and long-term backup. Retrieval times range from

minutes to hours.

- S3 Glacier Deep Archive: The lowest-cost storage for long-term data archiving with retrieval times

of up to 12 hours.
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2. How would you secure an application in AWS?

Securing an application in AWS involves several steps:

- IAM Policies: Implement the principle of least privilege, using IAM roles and policies to restrict

access.

- Network Security: Use VPCs, subnets, security groups, and network ACLs to control inbound and

outbound traffic.

- Encryption: Encrypt data at rest using services like AWS KMS and enable encryption in transit

using SSL/TLS.

- Monitoring and Logging: Use AWS CloudTrail, CloudWatch, and GuardDuty for logging,

monitoring, and threat detection.

- Security Best Practices: Regularly update and patch systems, conduct security reviews, and use

AWS Config to monitor compliance with security policies.

3. Describe a VPC and its components.

A VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) is a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch

AWS resources in a virtual network that you define. Key components include:

- Subnets: Divide the VPC IP address range into smaller ranges. Subnets can be public

(internet-facing) or private (internal).

- Route Tables: Direct network traffic within the VPC and between subnets. Custom route tables can

be created for specific subnets.

- Internet Gateway: A horizontally scaled, redundant, and highly available VPC component that

allows communication between instances in your VPC and the internet.

- NAT Gateway: Enables instances in a private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS

services, but prevents the internet from initiating a connection with those instances.
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- Security Groups: Act as a virtual firewall for your instances to control inbound and outbound traffic.

- Network ACLs: Provide an additional layer of security by controlling traffic to and from subnets.

4. How do you scale an application using AWS services?

Scaling an application in AWS can be achieved both vertically and horizontally:

- Vertical Scaling: Increase the instance size (CPU, RAM) for your EC2 instances.

- Horizontal Scaling: Add more instances to distribute the load.

Key AWS services for scaling include:

- Auto Scaling: Automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances based on demand.

- Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such

as EC2 instances.

- Amazon RDS: Supports read replicas and Multi-AZ deployments for scaling databases.

- Amazon ECS/EKS: For containerized applications, use services like ECS (Elastic Container

Service) or EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) to manage and scale containers.

- AWS Lambda: For serverless applications, use AWS Lambda to automatically scale based on the

number of incoming requests.

5. Explain how you would migrate an on-premises application to AWS.

Migrating an on-premises application to AWS involves several steps:

- Assessment and Planning: Evaluate the existing application, dependencies, and architecture. Plan

the migration strategy (rehost, refactor, revise, rebuild, or replace).

- Choosing the Right Services: Select appropriate AWS services (e.g., EC2, RDS, S3) based on the

application's needs.
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- Networking Setup: Set up VPCs, subnets, security groups, and VPN or Direct Connect for secure

connectivity.

- Data Migration: Use AWS Data Migration Service (DMS), AWS Snowball, or S3 for transferring

large datasets.

- Application Deployment: Deploy the application on AWS using services like EC2, RDS, and Elastic

Beanstalk.

- Testing and Validation: Test the application thoroughly to ensure it works as expected in the AWS

environment.

- Optimization and Monitoring: Optimize resources and set up monitoring using CloudWatch,

CloudTrail, and other AWS tools.