AWS IOT solution architect

Q: describe database normalization:

Database normalization is a process used to organize a database into tables and

columns.  The main idea with this is that a table should be about a specific topic and
only supporting topics included

Q: what is layer 3 of the OSI model. Describe.

Layer 3 provides switching and routing technologies, creating logical paths, known as virtual
circuits, for transmitting data from node to node. Routing and forwarding are functions of
this layer, as well as addressing, internetworking, error handling, congestion control and packet
sequencing. Layer 3, the Network Layer

This is the most important layer of the OSI model, which performs real time processing
and transfers data from nodes to nodes.
Routers and switches are the devices used for this layer that connects the notes in
the network to transmit and control data flow.

Q: describe the actions when attempting to contact a website from your browser.

Q: What is RAID and how does it work?

A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) puts multiple hard drives together to
improve on what a single drive can do on its own. Depending on how you configure
a RAID, it can increase your computer's speed while giving you a single "drive" that can
hold as much as all of the drives combined.

Q. what is RAID-10.
RAID 10 is secure because mirroring duplicates all your data. It's fast because the data is
striped across multiple disks; chunks of data can be read and written to different disks
simultaneously. To implement RAID 10, you need at least four physical hard drives. You
also need a disk controller that supports RAID.
Q. what are 2 other types of RAID.
The most common types are RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring) and its variants, RAID 5
(distributed parity), and RAID 6 (dual parity).

Q: how would you design a 3-tier architecture that needed to support a heavy read
workload?
https://medium.com/the-andela-way/designing-a-three-tier-architecture-in-aws-
e5c24671f124

Q: how do you design a clustered database environment? what's a hot standby? describe
failover.
https://ndimensionz.com/kb/what-is-database-clustering-introduction-and-brief-explanation/

Q. When is a time you had to take a calculated decision and

  make the leap?
https://interviewgenie.com/blog-1/2019/3/17/how-to-answer-amazon-bias-for-action-interview-
questions

Q: what is block vs. object storage? What is the difference between block storage and
object storage?
With block storage, files are split into evenly sized blocks of data, each with its own
address but with no additional information (metadata) to provide more context for what
that block of data is. ... Object storage, by contrast, doesn't split files up into
raw blocks of data.

Q: how would you horizontally scale a multi-tier architecture at the top level (network)?
https://www.esds.co.in/blog/vertical-scaling-horizontal-scaling/#sthash.DpoqDwvp.dpbs

What is the difference between 1 tier 2 tier and 3 tier architecture?

1 Tier => The Client, Server and Database resides on the same machine. 2 Tier => The
client on one machine and the server and database on one machine, i.e. two
machines. 3 Tier => We have three different machines one for each client, server and
a separate machine dedicated to database.

Q: what is RPO and RTO?

What is RPO and RTO with examples?
Despite their similarities, RPO and RTO serve different purposes. RTO is concerned
with applications and systems. The measurement includes data recovery but primarily
describes time limitations on application downtime. RPO is concerned with the amount
of data that is lost following a failure event.

.....many more network questions. few storage questions.  

Q. What are the three "tiers" of a web application.
Presentation Tier
Application Tier
Data Tier

Q. What is a virtual machine or a container? What

  differentiates the two?
A VM or Virtual Machine provides hardware virtualization. A Container provides OS level
virtualization. VMs run a complete operating system. A container is a lightweight silo for running an
application on the host operating system. You can have several containers running together and if
one fails it can be easily removed without interrupting the service.

Q Describe tools for data replication?

https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/database-replication
https://blog.openbridge.com/database-replication-aws-database-migration-service-b3cffcd0eff

Q. Walk me through the process of setting up a server,

https://www.techradar.com/news/computing/servers/how-to-set-up-your-first-server-1166915

Q. What is noSQL Database?  

https://www.mongodb.com/nosql-explained

Q. Describe a conflict you had with your management and how you overcame it.  
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/handle-conflict-in-workplace

Q. What is a DDoS attack?

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/what-is-a-ddos-attack/

Q. How to create a bot?

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lex/latest/dg/gs2-create-bot-create.html
Q. how would you design what is needed to host a website on the internet (a
VPC and the different components you can use in AWS?
https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/hands-on/host-static-website/

Q. how would you make switches and routers redundant

http://techgenix.com/importance-network-redundancy/ (because there are switches and
routers that you can configure and use in AWS, right?),

Q. what would you use to store files on a network

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-nas-1847428

Q. how can you make a fault tolerance database.

To make it a fault tolerant, we need to identify potential failures, which a system might
encounter, and design counteractions. Each failure's frequency and impact on
the system need to be estimated to decide which one a system should tolerate.

Q. Read replicas in RDS you say?

https://aws.amazon.com/rds/features/read-replicas/#:~:text=The%20read%20replica%20operates
%20as,in%20the%20source%20DB%20instance.

Q. what are some of the code repositories available on the internet

Source code repositories
A source-code repository is a file archive and web hosting facility for source code of
software, documentation, web pages, and other works, accessible either publicly or
privately. ... Many repositories provide a bug tracking system, and offer release
management, mailing lists, and wiki-based project documentation.

Q. what is containerization (don't you dare mention ECS, ECR)

https://www.citrix.com/glossary/what-is-containerization.html

Q. why use it instead of a virtual machine,

Q. what is the OSI Model, a question about continuous development (can't

remember the proper term).
The purpose of the OSI reference model is to guide vendors and developers so the digital
communication products and software programs they create can interoperate, and to facilitate a
clear framework that describes the functions of a networking or telecommunication system.

Q. General networking questions. What happens at layer 2? Layer 3?

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-layer-2-and-layer-3-switches/

Q. What is MFA?
https://www.onelogin.com/learn/what-is-mfa

Q. What makes an api friendly?

https://www.ben-morris.com/what-makes-a-mobile-friendly-rest-api/

Q. What are the three types of storage?

http://typesofbackup.com/types-of-storage/

Q. Troubleshooting. You have a webserver on an ec2 instance. Your instance

can get to the internet, but nobody on the internet can get to your webserver.
Describe how you would troubleshoot.
What is "big data"? What is a typical big data life cycle? What is map reduce?
Describe the steps involved with map reduce. What is HPFS and what
advantage does it have for processing big data?

RAID, Docker, DevOpS,

Difference between application servers and web servers

High availability of databases,

Design an eCommerce application using AWS services.

What Is Amazon EC2?

EC2 is short for Elastic Compute Cloud, and it provides scalable computing capacity.
Using Amazon EC2 eliminates the need to invest in hardware, leading to faster
development and deployment of applications. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch as
many or as few virtual servers as needed, configure security and networking, and
manage storage. It can scale up or down to handle changes in requirements, reducing
the need to forecast traffic. EC2 provides virtual computing environments called
“instances.”

2: What Are Some of the Security Best Practices for Amazon EC2?

Security best practices for Amazon EC2 include using Identity and Access Management
(IAM) to control access to AWS resources; restricting access by only allowing trusted
hosts or networks to access ports on an instance; only opening up those permissions
you require, and disabling password-based logins for instances launched from your AMI

3: What Is Amazon S3? 

S3 is short for Simple Storage Service, and Amazon S3 is the most supported storage
platform available. S3 is object storage that can store and retrieve any amount of data
from anywhere. Despite that versatility, it is practically unlimited as well as cost-effective
because it is storage available on demand. In addition to these benefits, it offers
unprecedented levels of durability and availability. Amazon S3 helps to manage data for
cost optimization, access control, and compliance. 

4: Can S3 Be Used with EC2 Instances, and If Yes, How?

Amazon S3 can be used for instances with root devices backed by local instance
storage. That way, developers have access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast,
inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network
of websites. To execute systems in the Amazon EC2 environment, developers load
Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) into Amazon S3 and then move them between
Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2.
Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 are two of the best-known web services that make up
AWS.

5: What Is Identity Access Management (IAM) and How Is It Used?

Identity Access Management (IAM) is a web service for securely controlling access to
AWS services. IAM lets you manage users, security credentials such as access keys,
and permissions that control which AWS resources users and applications can access.

6: What Is Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and Why Is It Used?

A VPC is the best way of connecting to your cloud resources from your own data center.
Once you connect your datacenter to the VPC in which your instances are present,
each instance is assigned a private IP address that can be accessed from your data
center. That way, you can access your public cloud resources as if they were on your
own private network.

7: What Is Amazon Route 53?

Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS). The
name refers to TCP or UDP port 53, where DNS server requests are addressed.

8: What Is Cloudtrail and How Do Cloudtrail and Route 53 Work Together? 

CloudTrail is a service that captures information about every request sent to the
Amazon Route 53 API by an AWS account, including requests that are sent by IAM
users. CloudTrail saves log files of these requests to an Amazon S3 bucket. CloudTrail
captures information about all requests. You can use information in the CloudTrail log
files to determine which requests were sent to Amazon Route 53, the IP address that
the request was sent from, who sent the request, when it was sent, and more.
9: When Would You Prefer Provisioned IOPS over Standard Rds Storage?

You would use Provisioned IOPS when you have batch-oriented workloads. Provisioned
IOPS delivers high IO rates, but it is also expensive. However, batch processing
workloads do not require manual intervention. 

10: How Do Amazon Rds, Dynamodb, and Redshift Differ from Each Other?

Amazon RDS is a database management service for relational databases. It manages

patching, upgrading, and data backups automatically. It’s a database management
service for structured data only. On the other hand, DynamoDB is a NoSQL database
service for dealing with unstructured data. Redshift is a data warehouse product used in
data analysis.

11: What Are the Benefits of AWS’s Disaster Recovery?

Businesses use cloud computing in part to enable faster disaster recovery of critical IT
systems without the cost of a second physical site. The AWS cloud supports many
popular disaster recovery architectures ranging from small customer workload data
center failures to environments that enable rapid failover at scale. With data centers all
over the world, AWS provides a set of cloud-based disaster recovery services that
enable rapid recovery of your IT infrastructure and data.

Q. Difference between SQL vs NoSQL and their use cases?

https://www.integrant.com/when-to-use-sql-vs-nosql/

Q. Difference between Authorization and Authentication and provide example in each?

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-authentication-and-
authorization/

AuthenticationAuthorizationAuthentication confirms your identity to grant access to the

system.Authorization determines whether you are authorized to access the resources.It is the
process of validating user credentials to gain user access.It is the process of verifying whether
access is allowed or not.It determines whether user is what he claims to be.It determines what
user can and cannot access.Authentication usually requires a username and a
password.Authentication factors required for authorization may vary, depending on the security
level.Authentication is the first step of authorization so always comes first.Authorization is done
after successful authentication.For example, students of a particular university are required to
authenticate themselves before accessing the student link of the university’s official website.
This is called authentication.For example, authorization determines exactly what information the
students are authorized to access on the university website after successful authenticatio

Q. What is a load balancer and how does it work? What is the Network Load Balancer vs
Application Load Balancer?

https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/features/

Network Load Balancer — This is the distribution of traffic based

on network variables, such as IP address and destination ports. ... Each Target can be
on different ports. Application Load Balancer — This is the distribution of requests
based on multiple variables, from the network layer to the application layer

Q. how do you design a performant architecture if you have web server, and database?

Q. Difference between Stateful and Stateless and why do we need to use both in the same
infrastructure?

https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/cloud-native-apps/stateful-vs-stateless

Q. What is SSL and how does it work?

SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an
organization's details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the
https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.

Q. Difference between router and switches?

The most basic explanation is that a switch is designed to connect computers within
a network, while a router is designed to connect multiple networks together.
Q. What is CI/CD and how does it work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=Rq5TQlPyr8g&feature=emb_logo

Q. Difference between Security and Compliance?

To restate from above, security is the practice of implementing effective technical

controls to protect digital assets, and compliance is the application of that practice to
meet a third party's regulatory or contractual requirements.

Q. How does SSO (Single Sign On) works?

https://www.onelogin.com/learn/how-single-sign-on-works#:~:text=In%20SSO%2C
%20authentication%20verification%20data%20takes%20the%20form%20of
%20tokens.&text=The%20website%20redirects%20the%20user,a%20single%20username
%20and%20password.&text=Since%20the%20user%20has%20been,without%20requiring
%20an%20additional%20login.

Q. What is federal identity?

A federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's

electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management
systems.

Q. What is data compression and how does it work?

https://www.netmotionsoftware.com/blog/connectivity/how-does-data-compression-work

Q. What is Data Deduplication and how does it work?

https://www.networkworld.com/article/3296623/what-is-data-deduplication-and-how-is-it-
implemented.html

Q. What is RAID?
A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) puts multiple hard drives together to
improve on what a single drive can do on its own. Depending on how you configure
a RAID, it can increase your computer's speed while giving you a single "drive" that can
hold as much as all of the drives combined

Q. What is VPN and how does it work?

A VPN works by routing your device's internet connection through your

chosen VPN's private server rather than your internet service provider (ISP) so that
when your data is transmitted to the internet, it comes from the VPN rather than your
computer.

Q. What is firewall and how does it work?

https://www.nortonsecurityonline.com/security-center/how-does-firewall-work.html

Q. What is MPLS?

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2297171/network-security-mpls-explained.html

What is the difference between TCP and UDP? Difference

  between latency and bandwidth? 

TCP or Transmission Control Protocol and UDP or User Datagram Protocol. TCP is
connection oriented – once a connection is established, data can be sent bidirectional. UDP
is a simpler, connection less Internet protocol. Multiple messages are sent as packets in
chunks using UDP. TCP and UDP protocols: UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol.
Recall that a datagram and a packet are more or less the same thing. UDP, also built on top of
the IP protocol, works similarly to TCP, but is simpler and faster. The main difference is
that UDP doesn't require the recipient to acknowledge that each packet has been received.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred per second. Latency is delay.
Latency is how long it takes data to travel between its source and destination, measured in
milliseconds

What are web sockets?

https://medium.com/@td0m/what-are-web-sockets-what-about-rest-apis-b9c15fd72aac

https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/?
Usecases:

nc2=h_ql_sol_use_r1#

Amazon Leadership principles: Behavioral Questions

1. Customer Obsession

Leaders start with the customer and work backward. They work vigorously to earn and keep

customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

• Who was your most difficult customer? https://broadly.com/blog/examples-of-difficult-customers/

Best way to answer how you have dealt with difficult customers:

You want to show the interviewer you have the people skills and problem-solving skills needed to help satisfy the customer.

"At my last job, a customer came in cursing and yelling-the works. I knew it was out of frustration so I didn't take it personally and I made sure
the customer knew their concerns were being heard. I listened carefully and apologized. She was complaining about an item she wanted to return,
however she didn't have her receipt. I explained that I wasn't able to give her a cash refund without the receipt, but that I could allow her to have
the same amount in store credit. It ended up being a win-win situation for everyone."

• Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client’s expectation. What happened,

and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?

https://www.mockquestions.com/interview/Behavioral/Tell-me-about-a-time-when-you-were-unable-

to-meet--GQT168854.html
• When you’re working with a large number of customers, it’s tricky to deliver excellent service

to them all. How do you go about prioritizing your customers’ needs?

https://brainly.in/question/6077307

• Tell the story of the last time you had to apologize to someone.

https://www.monsterindia.com/career-advice/interviewing-for-amazon-read-these-10-amazon-

interview-questions-before-you-go-7495.html

2. Ownership

Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term

results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say

“that’s not my job.

• Tell me about a time when you had to leave a task unfinished.

• Tell me about a time when you had to work on a project with unclear responsibilities.

3. Invent and Simplify

Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to

simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by

“not invented here”. As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long

periods of time.
• Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.

• Tell me about a time when you invented something.

4. Are Right, A Lot

Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse

perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

• Tell me about a time when you were wrong.

• Tell me about a time when you had to work with incomplete data or information.

5. Learn and Be Curious

Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about

new possibilities and act to explore them.

• Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.

• Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or

observation.

6. Hire and Develop The Best

Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional

talent and will move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take

seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms

for development like Career Choice.

• Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.

• Tell me about a time when you made a wrong hire. When did you figure it out and what did

you do?

7. Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are

unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver

high-quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down

the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

• Tell me about a time when you couldn’t meet your own expectations on a project.

• Tell me about a time when a team member didn’t meet your expectations on a project.

8. Think Big

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction

that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve

customers.
• Tell me about your proudest professional achievement.

• Tell me about a time when you went way beyond the scope of the project and delivered.

A good example of this is their flywheel.

9. Bias for Action

Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive

study. We value calculated risk taking.

• Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than

waiting for someone else to do it.

• Tell me about a time when you took a calculated risk.

• Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn’t very responsive.

What did you do?

10. Frugality

Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention.

There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense.

• Tell me about a time when you had to work with limited time or resources.
11. Earn Trust

Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-

critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their

team’s body odour smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the

best.

• What would you do if you found out that your closest friend at work was stealing?

• Tell me about a time when you had to tell someone a harsh truth.

12. Dive Deep

Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical

when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

• Give me two examples of when you did more than what was required in any job experience.

• Tell me about something that you learnt recently in your role.

13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing

so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not

compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.
• Tell me about a time when you did not accept the status quo.

• Tell me about an unpopular decision of yours.

• Tell me about a time when you had to step up and disagree with a team members approach.

• If your direct manager was instructing you to do something you disagreed with, how would you

handle it?

14. Deliver Results

Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in

a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

• By providing an example, tell me when you have had to handle a variety of assignments.

Describe the results.

• What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced in your life? How did you handle it?

• Give me an example of a time when you were 75% of the way through a project, and you had to

pivot strategy–how were you able to make that into a success story?