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Top AWS Interview Questions in 2022 (with sample answers)

Updated: Aug 26, 2022


AWS Interview Questions

Cloud computing has become a major driving force for the growth of businesses of all sizes now. Companies are spending a ton of money on cloud computing and it is forecasted that by the end of 2021, it will make up about 23% of the company’s finance. Due to this, AWS has emerged as a possible career option. It is increasing and requires a certain set of skills. The demand for high-skilled certified AWS architects, VPC, Devops, RDS and many more other fields of AWS has been on the rise over the past few years.


If you want to start a career in cloud computing and not sure how to prepare for an AWS interview, you've come to the perfect place. We've compiled a list of some of the most frequently asked AWS Interview questions and answers to help you ace your AWS interview. Moreover, we have provided you with the right solution to be prepared with and how to ace the interviews to get the job of your dreams. Keeping in mind the various fields of AWS, we have compiled interview questions that include various fields of Amazon web services.

One of the key things to keep in mind is to remember the right techniques and use them in a smart manner that impresses the recruiter. Be confident and provide accurate information in the interview. Highlighting your past achievements and things related to the job description will set a good impression.

Frequently Asked Questions



AWS Admin Interview questions


1. What is AWS? Define it.

In this, the interviewer is checking your basic knowledge of AWS. This will be the question that will help him decide if you are worthy enough to ask technical questions or not. Thus, makes it even more essential to answer it in the right manner. Start by telling the full form and explain it by using definitions and other explanations. Keep it concise and to the point.

Sample Answer:

AWS stands for Amazon Web service. It is a collection of remote computing services which is also known as the cloud computing platform. This new realm of cloud computing is also known as IaaS or Infrastructure as a service.



2. Are you aware of the job responsibilities of this role?

Here the interviewer is checking your observing and researching skills. Before applying, there is always a brief description provided about the job role and its responsibilities. Therefore, it is always better to read about the company and the job role thoroughly to ace these kinds of questions. The best way to answer is to pick some pointers from the description provided by the company and elaborate on them.

Sample answer: AWS admin role in the organization

It has two primary responsibilities. One is to configure AWS cloud management and the other is to monitor and manage the web services to ensure that it is running efficiently. Along with this, the other roles include establishing metrics and carefully using the resources to ensure efficient use, maintaining a backup of the resources to avoid uncertainties and doing commercial cloud services, VPC and URL proxies.


3. Describe a time in brief when you had to decide on the spot and how did that turnout?

This question helps the interviewer analyze your approach to problem-solving. It also checks your proactiveness and how quickly you can process the information and come up with a solution. While answering this question, emphasize the positive points and the time factor. Highlight how you took that opportunity to prove your skills and you certainly did that. Moreover, even in the turn out highlight how it benefitted everyone and what could have gone wrong if you hadn’t taken the decision. Remember to not brag much about it.


4. Which Amazon Leadership principle do you relate with the most?

Amazon has 14 leadership principles. It is important that before the interview you are very much familiar with each of them. Now, to answer this question, think of 1 principle you relate with the most and along with it, mention any situation that you were involved in that would demonstrate how you utilized that principle and applied it in practical life. With this, you will be able to set a good impression on the interviewer and will highlight an important skill that is using theoretical knowledge in practical life.



AWS Architect Interview Questions


1. Assume you have an AWS application that requires 24x7 availability and can be unavailable for no more than 15 minutes. How are you going to ensure that the database housed on your EBS volume gets backed up?

Here the interview is going to check your planning, and problem-solving skills by giving you scenario-based questions to know your point of view. Therefore, it is essential to answer in such a way that it adds theoretical knowledge and your approach also towards the problem.

Sample Answer:

The important procedures here are automated backups, which function in the background without requiring any operator involvement. When it comes to backing up data, AWS API and AWS CLI come in handy for automating the process with scripts. The ideal approach is to plan for a timely backup of the EC2 instance's EBS. The EBS snapshot should be saved to Amazon S3 and utilized to rescue the database instance in the event of a breakdown or downtime.


2. How will you gain access to the data stored on EBS in AWS?

As the name implies, elastic block storage provides persistent, highly available, and high-performance block-level storage that can be coupled to a running EC2 instance. The storage can be formatted and mounted as a file system, or it can be accessed directly as raw storage.


3. Why do you want to apply for the role of AWS Architect?

Here the interviewer wants to check what kind of skills you will be mentioning and how is that relevant to the role of AWS architect. To answer this question, start by mentioning the certifications, experiences and languages you are well acquainted with. Along with this, talk about your skills like problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, team player, focused, detail-oriented etc. that you have gained through your past work experiences or college if you are a fresher. Highlight these skills by co-relating them with relevant experience you have had.


4. What is the maximum number of buckets that may be established by default in AWS?

In each of the AWS accounts, 100 buckets can be established. If more buckets are necessary, submit a service limit increase to increase the bucket limit.


AWS interview questions / AWS Security Interview questions


1. How can you secure your AWS resources?

Here the interviewer wants to know that according to you which are the best way to secure AWS resources and you have to be specific about it. Mention the way that you are most confident with and explain it in detail with good logic.

Sample answer:

Enabling Cloud trail in all AWS regions is the best way to secure AWS resources in my opinion (do mention, according to you or in my opinion as it sets an impression of you keeping a stand).

This is because you can track all your activities and there is multi-factor authentication that is beneficial for extra security.


2. Being in the Amazon web service security department, you will have access to the resources and information that shouldn’t go out. How do you plan to ensure that the information doesn’t go out?

Here the interviewer wants to know the ways you mean to ensure the security of the company data. Even though legalities are there and a proper employee agreement is signed but this is just to check the steps or measures you will take that will ensure the company’s data security. Therefore, answering it in an honest way with detailed measures is essential that will help to portray yourself as a person with a cautious mind.


3. Can an Amazon instance be vertically scaled? How?

Yes, you may scale vertically on the Amazon instance. Because of the following steps

· Create a new instance that is larger than the one you are presently running.

· Pause the instance and disconnect the root webs volume from the server before discarding it.

· Then, shut down your live instance and disconnect its root volume.

· Take note of the unique device ID and attach that root disc to your new server before restarting it.



4. what are the features of AWS Glue?

This is mostly asked in AWS Glue interview questions, so if you are applying for this role, it is just asked to check your basic knowledge as a recruiter always looks for a person whose basics are clear so that the training process becomes easy.

Sample answer:

· Automatic Schema Discovery - Allows crawlers to be automated in obtaining scheme-related information and storing it in a data catalogue.

· Job Scheduler - Multiple jobs can be started at the same time, and users can specify dependencies between them.

· Developer Endpoints - aids in the development of custom readers, writers, and transformations.

· Automatic Code Generation - aids in the generation of code.

· Integrated Data Catalog - in the AWS pipeline, stores data from multiple sources.


5. As an AWS VPC what are the recommended practices for Amazon EC2 security?

This can be asked in an AWS VPC interview as a general question or a scenario-based one. The key to answering this one is to tell them a stepwise security procedure that will be efficient.

Follow the steps below to ensure safe Amazon EC2 best practices.

· Control access to your AWS resources by using AWS identity and access management.

· Restriction access by allowing only trustworthy hosts or networks to access ports on your instance.

· Review the rules in your security groups on a frequent basis.

· Only enable the rights you require.

· Disable password-based login, for example, from your AMI.


6. If given an opportunity, would you be willing to take up a challenging role in AWS such as AWS cloud support, AWS Cloud Formulation, AWS Cloud DevOps, AWS S3 or AWS Lambda?

This is a tricky question as the interviewer in here wants to see if you would take a challenging role and are willing to show that spirit but at the same time wants to know your priorities and how would you choose the stream based on your own skills. Therefore, the key to ace this answer is, to be honest. Carefully take some time and think about it, as it is not about taking a challenging role but if you even have the skills for it.


7. What are the potential connectivity concerns while connecting to your instance?

This can be asked in an AWS IAM interview as a question and you need to give a precise answer to this as it is a practical question and such a situation can arise. Therefore, the interviewer wants to check your proactiveness to tackle problems common like this.

Sample answer:


The following are some of the various connection faults that may occur when connecting instances.

· The connection has expired.

· The server does not recognize the user key.

· The host key could not be located, and authorization was denied.

· A private key file that is not password-protected.

· Our key was denied by the server. There are no supported authentication methods available.

· MindTerm on Safari Browser Error Using Mac OS X RDP Client



These are the questions that should be thoroughly prepared before going for an AWS interview, based on extensive study and ongoing discussions with interviewers. So to sum it up this article is meant to help you with AWS Admin interview questions, AWS Architect interview questions, AWS basic interview questions, AWS Cloud support associate interview questions, AWS CloudFormation interview questions, AWS DevOps interview questions, AWS Glue interview questions, AWS IAM interview questions, AWS Lambda interview questions, AWS RDS interview questions, AWS Redshift interview questions, AWS S3 interview questions, AWS Security interview questions, AWS Solution Architect interview questions and AWS VPC interview questions.

We wish you tons of success in your interview.

Happy interviewing.


Disclaimer – The names of companies and brands used in this blog are only for reference. Please refer our terms and conditions for more info.

Image credit – Freepik


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