Needless to say, this massive growth of cloud computing is due to all the goodness it offers to the users. It could be the high scalability and flexibility to adjust servers and resources, reduced IT costs with pay-as-you-go model without investing in expensive hardware, better performance and speed, and many other benefits. No wonder cloud computing had generated around 400 billion USD in revenue in 2021. This growth is also fuelled by Covid-19 when working from home was possible only through online means and by using various cloud-based services and technologies.
Demand for cloud computing professionals
As a result of cloud computing’s popularity and increased usage, cloud computing professionals also are in high demand. Cloud computing jobs are flourishing to meet the increased development and maintenance requirements for cloud infrastructure. Whether you are an experienced cloud engineer or a fresher, recruiters are always hunting for new talents from various locations, specialists, and job titles. If you want to build a career in the cloud and pass interviews with flying colors, here are some cloud computing interview questions for freshers and experienced. Check them out to be prepared for cloud computing jobs.
Which are the different layers that define cloud architecture?
Answer: Digging deeper into cloud computing helps you enhance your knowledge. Cloud Architecture consists of four layers. Let’s check out one by one:
Physical Layer: This layer contains networks, physical servers, etc. Infrastructure Layer: It consists of network, storage resources, virtual servers, etc. It’s where the services like networks and servers are delivered to consumers, and access to scalable storage, compute power, and on-demand resources are given. Platform Layer: This layer has services or components, such as Google Application Engine and Windows Azure. It provides services that offer the complete tools to deploy and develop applications. Software Layer: End-users are directly connected with this layer. It’s where software like Dropbox, Salesforce, Gmail, etc., exist that a consumer can access over the internet. It has two key features – configurability and scalability.
What is on-demand functionality? How is it connected to cloud computing?
Answer: On-demand functionality is the option that allows users to upgrade resources quickly in real-time to meet their demands. On-demand functionality offers the resources instantly when needed, including speed, servers, networks, software applications, and storage space. Apart from cloud resources, services like podcasts and mobile internet are also available on-demand for consumers. Most of the service providers offer a control panel from where you can make the changes and see the status of your server. You can enhance or scale the resources whenever you need them. Here, all the resources are placed in a single central system known as a pool where users can quickly add the resources.
Security benefits of cloud computing?
Answer: Some of the security benefits of cloud computing are:
Higher Availability: The built-in redundancies make cloud applications available all the time so you can monitor them for security and fix issues in real-time. Data security: Data is crucial for every business, and cloud-based security solutions can guard your sensitive data and protect it from intruders. DDoS Protection: The security solutions with DDoS protection can track traffic volumes to stop unwanted risks associated with distributed denial of service (DDoS). The solutions can prevent attackers from flooding your site or applications with an overwhelming amount of traffic that can render them unresponsive. 24 x 7 Visibility: Monitoring applications 24 x 7 is necessary to have continuous visibility into your applications to measure the risks and make real-time business decisions. Threat Detection: With end-point scanning, detecting cyber threats is a significant benefit in cloud computing. This helps in minimizing the risks of the organization’s assets. Regulatory Compliance: Cloud-based security solutions can help organizations such as public bodies or corporations maintain compliance by meeting regulatory requirements and guarding their personal and financial data.
What are cloud storage levels?
Answer: Cloud storage is the model that deposits your digital information such as photos, videos, documents, etc., over virtual servers. It enables you to access your data whenever and wherever you want. There are four levels of cloud storage:
Private Cloud Storage: This is a secure, expensive, and scalable cloud storage type and is suitable for large organizations. In this case, all the data are stored on the enterprise’s intranet and protected by its own firewall. The user will have complete control over the data. Public Cloud Storage: This is an affordable, reliable, and easily scalable cloud storage type. It doesn’t need any maintenance and is suitable for mid-size companies as well as individual users. Anyone with user authority can access the data on the public cloud —examples: Google Cloud, Microsft Azure, IBM Cloud, etc. Hybrid Cloud Storage: This is a secure, scalable, and affordable type of cloud storage. It offers easy customization greater control and is suitable for mid-size as well as small-sized companies. Hybrid cloud storage is the combination of public and private cloud storage. Users can access both the world-class security features of the private cloud and the personalization feature of the public cloud. Community Cloud Storage: This is an affordable, scalable, and secure cloud storage. It is suitable for health, financial, and legal companies and offers cloud solutions to specific companies with strict compliance policies.
Apart from them, cloud storage can also be of 3 types:
Explain different open-source cloud computing platform databases?
Answer: Open-source cloud computing platform databases are:
MongoDB: It is an open-source database based on a NoSQL document where it stores data and records it in table rows. Documents of various categories are grouped to keep every data on a single document. It is written in C++ language. CouchDB: It is an Apache server-based database that allows you to access any data via the Couch Replication protocol. It speaks JSON and supports binary data for storage needs. LucidDB: LucidDB is written in C++ and Java. It is an open-source relational database management system used for business intelligence and data warehousing. Moreover, it allows better performance with single Windows or Linux server.
Difference between elasticity and scalability in cloud computing
Answer: Elasticity in Cloud Computing: It is the ability to adapt automatically to match the resources in real-time, for example, adding virtual machines as closely as possible. In other words, you can say it remains responsive when there is a rapid rise in loads. Scalability in Cloud Computing: It is the ability to handle the needs that changes over time without affecting performance. It remains responsive while the load increases gradually over time. Scalability helps in longer and stable growth in a planned manner.
What are the different components required in cloud computing?
Answer: The list of components required in cloud computing are:
Client Infrastructure: This is the part of the frontend that offers an excellent interface to the users to interact with the cloud easily. Application: This is the platform (software or app) where clients can access the cloud. Service: There are different cloud service models that a client may need according to their requirements.
Runtime Cloud: It provides the runtime and execution environment to virtual machines. Storage: This component offers storage for storing data in the cloud and managing it when needed. It can be accessed by various clients simultaneously. Infrastructure: It includes hardware components, software components, and other storage resources. You can get services on application, network, and host levels. Management: It manages components like applications, storage services, runtime cloud, and more. Security: It includes a set of technologies, policies, controls, and applications. It is used to protect data, Infrastructure, IPs, applications, etc. Internet: This is the medium used to communicate between backend and frontend components. It provides a simple way to interact with each other.
What are the different types of cloud?
Answer: The list of various types of cloud:
What is resource replication in cloud computing?
Answer: Resource replication in cloud computing means the creation of various instances from the same resource. When you need to enhance the performance and availability of the resources, resource replication will come into the picture. Virtualization operation is performed to replicate IT resources by using a replication mechanism.
What are the different platforms of cloud architecture?
Answer: There are many cloud architecture platforms across the globe with unique features.
Explain “EUCALYPTUS” in cloud computing.
Answer: Eucalyptus is open-source software that provides S3-compatible cloud storage and EC-2 compatible computing platform. It introduces efficient and scalable private and hybrid clouds within an IT infrastructure. It also supports high-performance cloud computing and can be deployed on Linux OS distributions, such as RHEL/CentOS, Debian, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu. Features:
It is compatible with AWS (EBS, S3, and EC2). It supports elastic IP management. It provides a web-based interface for the configuration. Also, it provides policies and SLAs. It supports hypervisor technologies.
Explain the difference between the Hybrid Cloud and Hybrid IT.
Answer: The difference between Hybrid IT and Hybrid Cloud is as follows: Hybrid Cloud: It combines the functionalities of both private and public clouds. It adds the capability of on-premises security of private cloud and benefits of public cloud. Thus, it offers flexibility to host resources where businesses can run classified applications or workloads and at a similar time access resources like IaaS and SaaS whenever they need. Hybrid IT: It decides the delivery and deployment of applications, information, and digital services. The goal is to create cloud-based delivery models that help users when they need tools. Moreover, it achieves the capability of the same service for the whole infrastructure, whether it’s a data center or a cloud service.
Explain Edge Computing and showcase its connection with the cloud.
Answer: Edge computing is the distributed and modern IT architecture that processes client data and computation at the closest network source possible. This will enhance response time and save bandwidth. Instead of processing raw data and transferring it to the main data center for analysis, it moves some parts of computing resources and storage out of the data center. Edge computing is connected with the cloud as it involves some processes that run in the cloud. It moves some computing processes to the edge devices, including edge servers, IoT devices, etc. In many cases, using both computing simultaneously leads to better performance outcomes. In other words, enterprises can use both computing to benefit from cloud environments and performance that cloud data centers don’t always support because of latency issues.
What is an AMI?
In simple words, AMI is the copy of a disk that’s attached to the instance that can include multiple disk images. The main component is the read-only image that includes Unix, Linux, or Windows operating system and additional software to deliver a portion of a service.
What are the uses of APIs in cloud services?
Answer: The API gives authorization and authentication to access cloud services, such as storage, monitoring, or compute Infrastructure. API has possible functions of the application or services that you need to execute while using it. Here, you can build applications or integrate your business tools to make your management work more manageable. Simply put, APIs offer an interface or gateway to an organization to interact directly with cloud services according to their terms.
Mention the key components of AWS.
Answer: The key components of AWS are:
Explain public, static, and void classes.
Answer: Public Class: It refers to a method that is visible from other objects and can be called from other types. Any class can access the subject. Static Class: It is associated with a class that is not a specific class object. Here, you can call the static method without creating any class instance. Void Class: This means the method doesn’t have any return value.
What is hypervisor in Cloud Computing?
Answer: Hypervisor is the software that is used in cloud hosting to allocate various resources after dividing them into different pieces of hardware. It is used as a key that enables virtualization. In simple words, it is the software, firmware, or both that is installed on single hardware to host virtual machines. It enables a single server to run various VMs independently with separate operating systems. Due to this, crashes in one VM doesn/t affect other VMs, applications, or operating systems.
Explain Load Balancing in Cloud Computing.
Answer: Load balancing is the way of splitting or dividing workloads and other properties in cloud computing. Due to load balancing in cloud computing, enterprises can easily manage their workload demands and application demands. It includes demands that are available over the internet and holds the workload traffic. Load balancing is vital among the services, such as SMTP, FTP, POP/IMAP, DNS, and HTTP. Thus, many firms attain more availability and scalability through load balancing. It is divided into two categories – software-based and hardware-based load balancing.
Conclusion
Cloud computing is growing rapidly and showing hardly any signs of deceleration. With increased cloud usage and demands, it’s beneficial to build a career in cloud computing. And if you are an aspiring candidate, the above cloud computing interview questions for freshers and experienced professionals will prepare you for challenges. You may also be interested in GCP certification learning resources. Good luck!
