It would probably be hard to find a software and application development company that wouldn’t be using the services of Microsoft Azure. It is widely acknowledged as one of the main tools that lessen some specific burdens of software development, especially from the operational side. Companies are looking for reputable and motivated Azure-savvy developers that could employ their knowledge and do wonders for their career. If you’re one of these people and are currently waiting for your job interview - fantastic! This tutorial on Azure interview questions is just what you need!
Further ahead you will find segmented and organized interview questions on Azure. Whether you’re looking for some basic-level questions or advanced inquires on Azure - this is the tutorial that will help you study and learn all that you’ll need in that job interview.
Table of Contents
- 1. Learning The Basics of Azure
- 1.1. Question 1: What is Microsoft Azure?
- 1.2. Question 2: What’s a ‘role’?
- 1.3. Question 3: What are Azure ‘diagnostics’?
- 1.4. Question 4: Azure is a cloud computing-based service. Mention a few benefits that cloud computing provides.
- 1.5. Question 5: What are the ‘deployment models’ used in Azure?
- 1.6. Question 6: Can you name some Microsoft Azure applications?
- 1.7. Question 7: Do you know what benefits Traffic Manager offers?
- 1.8. Question 8: Can you explain what are Break-Fix issues in Microsoft Azure?
- 1.9. Question 9: What are ‘Azure Windows emulators’ used for?
- 1.10. Question 10: Define ‘fault domains’.
- 1.11. Question 11: What is ‘scalability’?
- 1.12. Question 12: What are the different types of services offered by cloud computing?
- 1.13. Question 13: What’s a ‘BLOB’?
- 1.14. Question 14: Repetitive and Minimal monitoring - can you tell the difference?
- 1.15. Question 15: Tell us about the Availability Set in Microsoft Azure?
- 2. Azure Interview Questions - Advanced
- 2.1. Question 1: What’s the difference between ‘Windows Ques’ and ‘Service Bus Ques’?
- 2.2. Question 2: What’s a ‘cspack’?
- 2.3. Question 3: What are ‘break-fix issues’?
- 2.4. Question 4: What’s the difference between a ‘shortcut’ and a ‘copy’?
- 2.5. Question 5: What are the main Power Center commands that can be used in Informatica?
- 3. Conclusions
Learning The Basics of Azure
As you can probably imagine, we’ll begin the tutorial by talking about and covering some of the introductory level Microsoft Azure material. These questions will help you develop an idea of what to expect during the job interview.
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Your employers are most likely going to ask you the most basic of questions at the beginning of the interview. Let’s say, you’ve just come in, greeted everybody and sat down to chat. Surely, the interviewers will inquire about your interests, free time activities and so on. Once this is out of the way, you may transition to the main part of the job talk - the Azure interview questions.
Basic questions are there to check your very fundamental understanding of the topic (in this case - Azure). They usually involve a lot of commonly used terms, definitions, and examples. The formats may vary, but one thing that most of them have in common is their broadness. Questions concerning the basic information on Azure tend to be quite broad - you have a lot of room for elaborations!
One thing that you can keep in mind while studying Microsoft Azure basics is that a lot of employers are willing to train people once they hire them. Most high-tier companies have special training periods and programs for new employees to get accustomed to the company. This is why more often than not employers are looking at your personality rather than the level of your skill.
Now, don’t get me wrong - skills are essential! What I mean is that even if you fail to answer a couple of the interview questions on Azure, but show high motivation and passion to get the job, the company might be willing to give you a chance.
With all of that said, lets transition to the actual interview questions.
Question 1: What is Microsoft Azure?
If you happen to attend more than one job interview where you’ll be asked Azure interview questions, it is almost guaranteed that this is going to be one of the very first inquiries that your potential employers will have for you.
Quite frankly, Azure is a cloud computing-based service that is designed to build and manage various applications. It does this by storing and keeping the information (data) of these apps on global Microsoft servers, making the processes of development and management smooth and fluid.
Question 2: What’s a ‘role’?
Roles are specific, designated and objective-oriented servers. In total, Azure has three main roles - web, worker and VM ones. All of these roles are concerned with working towards and achieving a shared, common goal.
Question 3: What are Azure ‘diagnostics’?
One of the more commonly asked Microsoft Azure interview questions, the concept behind diagnostics is pretty simple. Diagnostics are used to enable the roles that we talked about in the previous question. As the name implies, the main objective of diagnostics is to collect information and diagnose the programs that are currently running on Azure. You could view it as a constant check-up tool.
Question 4: Azure is a cloud computing-based service. Mention a few benefits that cloud computing provides.
What’s cool about this particular question is that it’s pretty open-ended - the interviewers don’t ask you to name ALL of the perks and benefits of using cloud computing - just a few. You are free to choose the ones that you like the most.
Just for the sake of the argument, I’ll provide you with an example of a way you could answer this question.
Cloud computing is very versatile, highly available and allows the user (client) to pay only when he or she is using the service. It is a great way to not only create team-based projects but to also manage and deploy them without a need of some sort of a specific, infrastructure-reliant path. Azure interview questions like this can always pop-up so be sure to know some examples.
Question 5: What are the ‘deployment models’ used in Azure?
In total, you (as a developer) can use four different deployment models. Their use depends on the specific context of the situation.
The four models are a community, hybrid, public and private clouds.
Question 6: Can you name some Microsoft Azure applications?
The answer should be:
- Mobile Apps
- Web Applications
- Cloud Services
- Media Services
- Storage
- Infrastructure Services
Question 7: Do you know what benefits Traffic Manager offers?
It increases performance, does not have the downtime to update or maintenance, and you can easily configure it on the Windows Azure portal.
Question 8: Can you explain what are Break-Fix issues in Microsoft Azure?
This is one of the tricky Azure interview questions that seem pretty easy but still can confuse some. The answer is pretty simple, all the technical problems can be called Break-Fix issues. This term is mostly used when technology fails in the normal course of its function.
Question 9: What are ‘Azure Windows emulators’ used for?
This might seem like one of the more difficult interview questions on Azure, but if you have encountered emulators before, you probably know that it’s quite simple.
Computing emulators (at least in Azure) are used to run and test your apps before actually launching them on Azure. This way, you save both time and energy - that’s why emulators are a popular tool to use.
Question 10: Define ‘fault domains’.
Fault domains are pieces of hardware that are based in the same geographical location, sharing the same source of power. Information on these pieces of hardware is evenly distributed - this is done to avoid a loss of data during hardware failure or power outage event.
Question 11: What is ‘scalability’?
Yet again, one of those Azure interview questions that you are bound to get asked at the beginning of your job interview. Scalability is a very important aspect of cloud computing, so do take the time to fully understand it.
Scalability consists of two main types - horizontal and vertical. Horizontal scalability is concerned with increasing the performance rates of cloud computing by adding additional hardware to the system (or upgrading the already-existing one). Vertical scalability is the opposite - it aims to increase performance rates by updating the storage capacity of already-existing machines.
Even though both types of scalability are very different, they have a similar aim, and thus are both equally important.
Question 12: What are the different types of services offered by cloud computing?
Generally, there are three different types of services available through cloud computing - PaaS, IaaS and SaaS.
PaaS stands for “Platform as a Service”. It allows direct contact with a platform, without a need for an OS. IaaS stands for “Infrastructure as a Service”. This is when you acquire the hardware needed to perform your tasks. Finally, there is SaaS - “Software as a Service”. It allows you to use software without employing any type of specific infrastructure.
Question 13: What’s a ‘BLOB’?
If you chuckle during this and similar Azure interview questions, no one’s going to judge you.
On a serious note, though, BLOB stands for a “Binary Large Object”. These are files that can be of any size, though more often than not they are quite large.
Question 14: Repetitive and Minimal monitoring - can you tell the difference?
Repetitive monitoring collects metrics that are based on performance and requires a close analysis of data fed during the process of application.
Alternatively, minimal monitoring is a default configuration method. It gathers the information from performance counters that are made the operating system of the host.
Question 15: Tell us about the Availability Set in Microsoft Azure?
The answer should go like this:
It is a logical grouping of Virtual Machines. By using Availability Set, Azure cloud has a better understanding of how the application for a user is built to provide redundancy and availability.
Azure Interview Questions - Advanced
Now, with the basics out of the way, we can move on to some of the more advanced interview questions on Azure that you might receive during the interview.
The format of the questions will more or less remain the same. You most likely won’t get asked to manage a whole project from the ground up or to explain the difficult intricacies of Azure. However, it probably won’t be enough to have just heard something about the cloud computing service to be able to thoroughly answer the advanced queries.
Assuming that you’re already quite proficient with Microsoft Azure and are only looking for Azure interview questions to revise before the imminent job interview, these questions shouldn’t be too big of a challenge. Even if you’re just starting with Azure, these questions will be a good waypoint of what you should focus on while studying the topic.
Question 1: What’s the difference between ‘Windows Ques’ and ‘Service Bus Ques’?
Both of these ques are supported and used on Azure. However, while Windows ques are used for more narrow and localized messaging, Service Bus ques relate to the bigger and broader communication infrastructure.
Question 2: What’s a ‘cspack’?
This is one of the more widely used command lines. It is concerned with preparing a service package and then organizing and taking care of the app’s deployment.
Honestly, this is a good example of the more advanced Azure interview questions. It’s not necessarily a difficult question in of itself but is quite a niche when compared to the broad and flexible basic questions that you might receive. While the basic inquiries require you to give definitions and examples on broad topics and concepts, the advanced versions of the questions are aimed at some of the more specific stuff (i. e. command lines).
Question 3: What are ‘break-fix issues’?
This is an agreed-upon term used to describe technical problems that may arise within Azure. The term itself, however, does not only encompass the technical fault itself, but also the processes of trying to fix the problem and its simultaneous prevention in future scenarios.
Question 4: What’s the difference between a ‘shortcut’ and a ‘copy’?
When you create a copy of an object, you now have two files that take up the same amount of space. Shortcuts, however, are small-sized files that allow quick access to the main object that they lead to.
Honestly, copies and shortcuts in Azure are the same as in any OS.
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Question 5: What are the main Power Center commands that can be used in Informatica?
Finally, for the last of the Azure interview questions, this might prove to be a challenging one, especially if you’ve never used Informatica before.
There are two of such essential commands - slashes and dashes. Without these commands, Informatica will simply ignore the given text.
These types of interview questions on Azure require you to be knowledgeable not only with Azure itself but also with the various add-ons, plugins and other related platforms.
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Conclusions
Whether you’re just starting as an Azure developer or you’re already familiar with the tropes of the industry, the material provided in this guide will help you in both getting that dream job or climbing the career ladder if you already work with Azure. With the industry constantly advancing and developing, it can be a tough competition - that’s why you’ll need all of the help you can get! And what better help than studying and learning some of the most popular Azure interview questions that employers ask their job candidates?
Study hard, trust yourself and don’t stress too much - and you’ll be golden! I truly do hope that this question will help you in performing well during your job interview, and wish you the best of luck!