Cloud Computing Mid
What is FaaS (Function-as-a-Service) and how does it differ from traditional PaaS?
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FaaS and PaaS are identical models, differing only in the marketing name that each cloud vendor chooses to assign to their offering
FaaS requires you to provision and patch the servers yourself, whereas PaaS abstracts everything including the code you write and deploy for events
FaaS hosts persistent always-on application processes billed hourly, whereas PaaS only executes single functions that terminate right after each request
FaaS runs short-lived event-triggered functions that scale to zero and bill per invocation, whereas PaaS keeps a platform running to host longer applications
What is the difference between Public, Private, and Hybrid cloud deployment models? In what scenario would a company choose a Private cloud over a Public one?
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Public shares infrastructure across many tenants, Private is dedicated to one organization, and Hybrid links both; a Private cloud suits strict data-control needs
Public and Private are the same shared model, and Hybrid means no cloud at all; a Private cloud is chosen mainly to cut every possible cost
Public runs on your own servers, Private runs on vendor servers, and Hybrid removes vendors; a Private cloud suits firms wanting elastic public scaling
Public is dedicated to one firm, Private is shared by many tenants, and Hybrid uses only on-premises hardware; a Private cloud suits low-budget startups
What is a community cloud, and in what situations would organizations use one?
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Infrastructure built from volunteer home computers donated freely, used when organizations need massive compute without paying any provider fees at all
Infrastructure owned by a single company for its own exclusive use, adopted when that firm wants total isolation from every other external tenant
Infrastructure open to the general public over the internet, chosen when organizations want the lowest cost and do not care about who shares it
Infrastructure shared by several organizations with common concerns such as compliance or mission, used when they have aligned regulatory and security requirements
What are managed (PaaS) services, and what are the trade-offs of using them versus self-managing the same capability?
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The provider gives full source access and root control with no lock-in at all, while self-managing is always cheaper and simpler across every workload type
The provider only rents you hardware while you patch everything, which lowers control but avoids lock-in, whereas self-managing removes all operational responsibility entirely
The provider handles operations like patching and scaling, saving effort but reducing control and risking lock-in, while self-managing gives flexibility at higher operational cost
The provider guarantees zero cost and unlimited customization forever, whereas self-managing forces vendor lock-in and strips away any ability to tune performance
What is a hypervisor, and what is the difference between Type 1 (bare-metal) and Type 2 (hosted) hypervisors?
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Type 1 emulates the full CPU in software; Type 2 passes instructions straight through.
Type 1 runs inside a browser tab; Type 2 runs as a background system service daemon.
Type 1 hosts only Linux guests; Type 2 hosts only Windows guests on the same box.
Type 1 runs directly on the hardware; Type 2 runs on top of a host operating system.
Explain the difference between Encryption at Rest and Encryption in Transit. Who typically manages the keys in a managed cloud service?
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At rest protects moving data, in transit protects stored data; the user always holds keys.
Both modes protect only backups; keys are shared publicly so any tenant can decrypt data.
At rest encrypts passwords, in transit encrypts logs; no keys are needed for either mode.
At rest protects stored data, in transit protects moving data; the provider often holds keys.
What is the 'Principle of Least Privilege' (PoLP) and how is it applied to Identity and Access Management (IAM)?
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Give each identity broad permissions but log every action taken for later security review.
Grant every identity full admin rights first, then remove access only after incidents.
Grant each identity only the minimum permissions required to do its intended task.
Assign all users to one shared role so permissions stay simple and easy to audit later.
What is the difference between 'Durability' and 'Availability' in cloud storage?
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Durability measures how quickly reads and writes complete, while availability measures the total number of copies the provider keeps replicated across separate physical data centers
Durability is the likelihood your data is not lost or corrupted over time, while availability is the likelihood you can access that data at any given moment
Durability is the likelihood you can access data at any given moment, while availability is the likelihood the data is never lost or corrupted over the entire storage lifetime
Durability measures the encryption strength protecting stored data, while availability measures the geographic spread of Regions where the provider is legally permitted to host it
Explain the concept of 'Storage Tiering' (Hot vs. Cold vs. Archive), and how does it help in cost optimization?
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Frequently accessed data sits in the archive tier with instant retrieval while rarely used data stays hot, cutting spend by keeping everything in the fastest storage class available
Frequently accessed data sits in cheaper-to-read hot tiers while rarely used data moves to colder tiers with lower storage cost, cutting spend by matching tier to access frequency
All data is duplicated equally across hot, cold, and archive tiers at once, cutting spend by spreading identical copies so any single tier failure never affects total availability
Data is tiered strictly by file size rather than access pattern, cutting spend by pushing large objects into hot storage and keeping small objects permanently in the archive tier
What is the difference between an SLA, an SLO, and an SLI?
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An SLI is a measured metric, an SLO is the target for it, and an SLA is the contractual promise with penalties
An SLA is the measured metric, an SLO is the signed contract, and an SLI is the internal target teams aim for
An SLI is the customer contract, an SLO is the raw metric, and an SLA is the informal engineering goal to hit
An SLO is the measured metric, an SLI is the penalty clause, and an SLA is the availability target that is set
What are compliance frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2, and why do they matter when choosing a cloud provider?
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They are open-source security tools that automatically encrypt data before it is uploaded to any provider
They are cloud pricing models that guarantee lower costs when workloads meet certain regional data rules
They are networking protocols that ensure encrypted data transfer between regions across cloud vendors
They are regulatory or audit standards for data handling; certified providers reduce your own compliance burden
What is observability in a cloud context, and how do logs, metrics, and traces differ?
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Logs are discrete event records, metrics are numeric time-series, and traces follow a request across services
Logs are numeric aggregates, metrics are event records, and traces store raw text output from each service
Logs follow requests across services, metrics are discrete events, and traces are numeric measurements taken
Logs are request timelines, metrics are text records, and traces are periodic numeric samples of system health
At a high level, what is container orchestration for, and why is it valuable in the cloud?
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It manages billing and cost allocation for containers running across multiple cloud provider accounts at once
It automates deployment, scaling, self-healing, and networking of containers across a cluster of machines
It replaces containers with virtual machines to improve isolation while scaling workloads across many regions
It compiles container images directly from source code and distributes them to a private registry on its own
Explain the difference between a Stateless and a Stateful application. Why does the cloud favor statelessness for the application tier?
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Stateless apps store session data on each instance, which lets the cloud replicate them without any load balancer
Stateless apps keep no client session data locally, so any instance can handle a request and they scale easily
Stateless apps require sticky sessions bound to one instance, which makes horizontal scaling simpler in the cloud
Stateful apps hold no local session data, so the cloud can freely add or remove instances during traffic spikes
Explain the 'Twelve-Factor App' methodology at a high level. Why is it relevant to the cloud?
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A set of best practices for building portable, scalable, stateless cloud-native apps.
A container orchestration standard defining how Kubernetes pods get scheduled.
A pricing model where cloud costs are split across twelve monthly billing factors.
A twelve-step security checklist every cloud deployment must pass before its release.
What are 'Sticky Sessions' and why are they generally discouraged in cloud-native architectures?
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Binding a user to one server for their session; it hinders scaling and load balancing.
Caching static assets on the client so pages load faster across the whole session.
Sharing session state across all servers so any node can handle any request cleanly.
Encrypting session cookies so they cannot be read or tampered with by any attacker.
What is the role of an API Gateway in a cloud-based microservices architecture?
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A single entry point that routes requests and handles auth and rate limiting.
A service mesh sidecar that encrypts internal traffic between all services directly.
A message broker that queues events and delivers them asynchronously between services.
A database proxy that caches queries and balances load across service data stores.
Why is 'Event-Driven Architecture' often paired with serverless functions?
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Functions run only when triggered by events, scaling automatically and billed per use.
Serverless demands a persistent connection so each function can hold user state locally.
Events require dedicated servers provisioned in advance for predictable throughput levels.
Functions poll a central server constantly for events, keeping resources always running.
What is edge computing (and fog computing), and how does it differ from centralized cloud computing?
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Running all computation in one large data center to maximize resource pooling and reuse.
Processing data near its source to cut latency, versus in centralized data centers.
Distributing databases globally so every region holds an identical copy of all the data.
Storing backups at the network edge while all real processing stays in the main cloud.
Explain RTO and RPO. How do these metrics influence your Disaster Recovery strategy?
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Both measure system uptime percentages used to define availability service agreements.
RTO is max acceptable data loss; RPO is max acceptable downtime after an outage occurs.
RTO tracks recovery cost; RPO tracks the number of restore points kept in the backups.
RTO is max acceptable downtime; RPO is max acceptable data loss measured in time.
Explain the difference between a Cloud Region and an Availability Zone, and how do you use them to design for High Availability?
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An AZ contains multiple regions; spread workloads across regions within one AZ for HA.
A region is a single data center; an AZ is a rack within it used for redundancy only.
A region contains multiple isolated AZs; spread workloads across AZs for availability.
Regions and AZs are identical; using either one alone guarantees full high availability.
What is the difference between High Availability and Fault Tolerance, and how do Regions and Availability Zones help achieve these?
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High availability minimizes downtime through fast recovery, while fault tolerance keeps running with zero interruption during failures
High availability keeps running with zero interruption, while fault tolerance only restores service quickly after any component failure occurs
High availability and fault tolerance are identical, and both simply require deploying redundant servers within one single availability zone
High availability protects against data loss, while fault tolerance is only about scaling capacity to handle larger traffic spikes
How does a Load Balancer contribute to high availability versus just performance?
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It only distributes requests evenly across instances, so it improves throughput but never affects the overall system availability
It performs health checks and reroutes traffic away from failed instances, not only spreading load across healthy ones
It replicates the database across regions automatically, providing availability while performance depends entirely on the instance sizing
It caches responses at the edge so failed instances still serve stale data, guaranteeing availability without any health checks
Explain the concept of 'Right-sizing'. How do you identify if a cloud resource is over-provisioned?
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Match resource size to real demand; consistently low CPU, memory, and network utilization signals it is over-provisioned
Always pick the cheapest instance tier; a rising monthly bill alone is the clearest signal that a resource is over-provisioned
Match resource size to real demand; sustained low CPU and memory utilization over time indicates that it is over-provisioned
Buy the largest instance available; frequent throttling and high latency under peak load indicate that it is over-provisioned
What are 'Spot' or 'Preemptible' instances, and what is the trade-off for their lower cost?
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Dedicated capacity offered cheaply on a long contract that the provider guarantees, so workloads run without any interruption risk
Spare capacity offered cheaply that the provider can reclaim with little notice, so workloads must tolerate interruption
Spare capacity offered cheaply that runs on slower hardware, so the trade-off is reduced performance rather than sudden termination
Shared capacity offered cheaply with strict data limits, so the trade-off is capped storage and network rather than being reclaimed
What is the difference between On-Demand, Reserved (Committed Use), and Spot (Preemptible) pricing models, and when is it risky to use Spot instances?
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On-Demand is flexible pay-as-you-go, Reserved discounts a commitment, Spot is cheapest but reclaimable; risky for stateful or critical work
On-Demand is cheapest, Reserved is reclaimable capacity, Spot discounts a commitment; risky whenever a workload can pause and resume freely
On-Demand and Reserved are identical flat rates, Spot is a premium tier; risky mainly because Spot always costs far more under peak demand
On-Demand needs a long commitment, Reserved is pay-as-you-go, Spot is cheapest and guaranteed; risky only for short-lived batch jobs
What is the conceptual difference between Scalability and Elasticity? Can a system be scalable but not elastic?
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Scalability means handling more load; elasticity means handling less load. No, a system must always support both directions to be considered scalable at all.
Scalability is the ability to grow capacity; elasticity is doing so automatically in real time. Yes, a system can scale manually without being elastic.
Scalability relates only to storage growth; elasticity relates only to compute. Yes, a system can scale storage while keeping its compute completely fixed.
Scalability is automatic real-time adjustment; elasticity is the raw ability to grow. No, any scalable system is by definition also fully elastic too.
Explain the concept of 'Cloud Bursting' and a scenario where it would be beneficial.
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Splitting a workload evenly across two public cloud providers at all times, useful for avoiding vendor lock-in and negotiating better contract pricing.
Running normally in the public cloud and falling back to a private data center on outages, useful for guaranteeing uptime during provider failures.
Running normally in a private data center and overflowing to the public cloud during demand spikes, useful for handling seasonal traffic surges.
Rapidly deleting cloud resources when a budget threshold is exceeded, useful for controlling runaway costs during unexpected sustained traffic growth.
What is auto-scaling, and how does it differ from simply provisioning for peak load?
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Auto-scaling adjusts resources dynamically to match demand, whereas peak provisioning keeps maximum capacity always running and paying for idle resources.
Auto-scaling and peak provisioning both size for maximum load, but auto-scaling spreads that capacity across multiple regions for redundancy purposes.
Auto-scaling manually resizes instances during maintenance windows, whereas peak provisioning automatically responds to real-time traffic fluctuations.
Auto-scaling keeps a fixed reserve of capacity ready at all times, whereas peak provisioning adds resources only after monitoring detects a demand increase.
What is Multi-tenancy, and what are the risks of 'noisy neighbors' in a public cloud environment?
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Multiple customers share the same infrastructure; a noisy neighbor is a tenant that leaks data across boundaries and directly accesses others' private files.
Multiple customers share the same infrastructure; a noisy neighbor is a tenant consuming excess shared resources and degrading others' performance.
Each customer runs in a separate region; a noisy neighbor is a tenant located too far away geographically, adding network latency to shared API calls.
Each customer gets fully dedicated hardware; a noisy neighbor is a tenant sending too many support requests and slowing down the provider's response times.
What is 'Multi-tenancy' in a cloud environment, and what are the potential security risks associated with it?
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A single application instance serves one client only, which eliminates any risk of cross-customer data exposure.
Tenants are billed separately but run isolated clouds, so noisy-neighbor and side-channel attacks are impossible here.
Multiple customers share pooled infrastructure with logical isolation; a flaw could expose one tenant's data to another.
Each customer receives dedicated physical hardware, so no isolation flaws can ever leak sensitive data between them.
Explain the concept of a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Why is it important for a developer to understand subnets and security groups even if they don't manage the infra?
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A logically isolated virtual network in the cloud; subnets and security groups control reachability of your services.
A physical data center rented per customer; subnets and security groups only affect DNS resolution of endpoints.
A managed database cluster spanning regions; subnets and security groups define its automatic backup schedules only.
A shared public network for all tenants; subnets and security groups mainly set the billing tiers for developers.
What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and how does it relate to Edge Computing?
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A CDN encrypts static assets in transit; edge computing decrypts them only after reaching the origin server.
A CDN stores backups in one central region; edge computing moves those backups to a single cheaper zone.
A CDN caches content at edge locations; edge computing extends this by running compute close to users.
A CDN routes all traffic to the origin; edge computing simply renames that origin server as an edge node.
What role does DNS play in cloud architectures, and how is it used for failover and traffic routing?
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It balances traffic across servers by opening TCP connections and closing them when a health check fails.
It resolves names to addresses and can route or fail over traffic using health checks and routing policies.
It stores application session state and can reroute users by rewriting their cookies during regional outages.
It caches static web assets globally and can shift load by compressing responses when a region fails.
What is the purpose of a VPN or Direct Connect link in a hybrid cloud setup?
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It provides secure, private connectivity between on-premises networks and cloud resources.
It caches cloud-hosted content within the local data center to reduce latency for users.
It replicates cloud databases onto on-premises servers over encrypted public internet links.
It automatically converts on-premises virtual machines into managed cloud serverless functions.
What is Serverless (FaaS) and what are the primary trade-offs, such as cold starts and execution limits, compared to long-running containers?
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Functions run on demand in ephemeral instances; trade-offs include cold starts and execution time limits.
Functions require managing the OS and scaling manually; the trade-off is slower deployment of new code.
Functions run only inside long-lived containers; the trade-off is unpredictable billing and no autoscaling.
Functions run continuously on reserved servers; the main trade-off is paying for idle capacity constantly.
When would a company choose a Hybrid Cloud deployment over a pure Public Cloud strategy?
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When every workload can scale elastically and needs no control over the physical infrastructure
When the goal is to spread identical workloads across several competing public cloud providers
When the company wants to fully eliminate all on-premises hardware and its maintenance costs
When data residency, latency, or legacy systems require some workloads to stay on-premises