Excelling in the IT field where the technology is touching the sky, Amazon has earned its place as the leading brand. When Amazon Web Services started the way towards cloud, many companies both invested and benefited from it. Nowadays, the cloud holds an essential role in dignifying most of the business, management, and storage. The concept of the cloud serves one to access and handle data via the internet from anywhere around the world. In this article, we are going to learn about Amazon Cloud Support Engineer Interview questions with answers.
The reason why there is engagement from all sides in the cloud is no matter how big or small companies, all need infrastructure and accessibility to account for a huge amount of data. And it has been recorded that only 10 percent or even fewer organizations have the complete control and systems to cope up altogether with cloud computing, social media, and data analytics. In a recent study, it was found earlier only the IT department was held responsible to take control over the cloud, but as per need and benefit the business decision-makers have accentuated their concern for the cloud.
Now, you may think the cloud is directly linked to the IT sector. But how are business decisions influenced by it? There are five benefits cloud has provided in business, better insight for target customers and product opportunities. Helping in collaboration on access with shared data. Driving better engagement between customers & service providers. Cloud provides a measurable amount of benefit. And the most important is speed, the cloud provides high-performance services and products instantly without fail and delay.
Where a high-tech system works, one needs skilled workers to put in the good work. And that’s where the cloud support engineer walks in. There are over 175 applications provided by AWS (Amazon Web Services) . It takes a group of people to maintain, solve issues and build the AWS instances.
With these many AWS applications, they have over 1 million customers, which needs a great number of people on the team with the required skills of cloud support engineers to resolve queries and maintain the cloud services.
What are the responsibilities of the Amazon cloud support Engineer?
AWS works magnificently and perhaps has a hand behind major technologies we use every single day; websites, monitoring, data management, etc. These on-demand prospects have been pulled by the need for more cloud support engineers. The focus of a cloud support engineer remains on to maintain & build AWS test instances, debug reported issues, and work closely with AWS cloud developers for a keen understanding of products. AWS cloud support engineers are expected to work dedicatedly under tight shifts because as AWS cloud supports the applications on the web one may need the assistance of a cloud support engineer in case of emergency.
What skills does Amazon cloud support engineer need?
The job of an Amazon cloud support engineer or a cloud support engineer expects to be highly skilled. Mandatory to know AWS applications, networking, scripting, security, cloud computing, system administration and architecture, and automated testing. The role of an Amazon cloud support engineer is to pioneer the cloud services provided under AWS. Thus, to be a successful and efficient cloud support engineer, one should prepare themselves accordingly.
The set of skills for a cloud support engineer are technical, financial, data analytic, management, and security skills. Let’s talk about them in brief:
- Technical – All the programming languages, HTML, and computing knowledge.
- Financial – Basic business concepts, online marketing strategies, and financial terminologies.
- Data Analytics – Great with handling big data. Know the concepts of data mining.
- Management – Work the balance of taking risks, service agreements, and disagreements. Having experience with these is a plus.
- Security – Being an expert in security protocols i.e encryptions, authorization is helpful for many IT jobs. The work of security takes the top priority.
There are many skills a cloud support engineer is expected to have. And these were collectively the major things. An aspiring candidate should make sure to have these mentioned skills at hand when walking in for an interview.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the accessible consumer cloud-based services in AWS?
The basic categories in AWS cloud services right now are iCloud which is the first consumer cloud-based service and Dropbox which is a high-rates consumer cloud-based service. Other than these there are three different cloud-based services SaaS (Software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a service).
SaaS is to provide the service with an entire application. The consumer is to use the provider’s software running on a cloud infrastructure. This type of service enables the consumers to use software without going through the hassle of building up or setting up an entire cloud infrastructure. The applications are made accessible through either a client interface or program interface.
PaaS is to provide deployment onto cloud infrastructure to acquire applications created by using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported as given by the provider. This service takes one step ahead of SaaS. That is, it’s not the consumers’ responsibility to build up, manage or control cloud infrastructure but can control the deployment of possible configuration settings.
IaaS is simply putting up the infrastructure to use. Users have the complete provision of processing, storage, networks, and all fundamental computing resources. IaaS works great in taking control because it outsources other platforms to present reliable and efficient services.
2. What is DNS and explain its role?
DNS stands for Domain Name System in the world of computing. It defines the unique website name or says nomenclature which has the details of any website address. Any website present on the internet has a unique domain name and the domain name system acts as a distributed directory that performs many tasks of the website. Centralized DNS can be stated as the hub for browsing internet information.
The role of DNS is as of any basic requirement as to provide the address, if you don’t know the location of a computer then, one can seek its location via DNS easily.
3. Will you prefer cloud-based services for reliable storage?
There are a few points where it is more beneficial to opt for cloud-based services for reliable storage than other accessible storage options. Here’s why:
- The sheer control over sharing and accessing data. Cloud-based storage facilities allow multiple systems to access the same data at a time from anywhere. Here, the speed of sharing is higher in the cloud than in any other storage facility.
- Redundant backup procedures make the storage updated once in a while then wait for manual backups.
- There are few to no limitations of cloud-based storage.
4. Your job is to get new customers for using AWS, how can you convince them?
The first step to convincing someone is to get into their mind. This question may be subjective in how people want to approach to convince others. This is the game of presence of mind and communication skills. In general, one will start with an explanation of the benefits and features of cloud-based services. For example, one may think why not take it backward? To convince people to get cloud-based services is by showing them what issues they may face if they don’t have cloud-based services.
Tip: Use your thinking capabilities, try to be honest yet based on knowledge and experience express how you can handle people’s opinions.
5. What is the basic requirement to run a website?
In the general aspect of the context of working on a website, there are two things required for running a website. First, a properly configured web server including a public IP address. Also, the website should contain web formatted content to display. Second, a user can access the website via the IP address.
6. What does “Computer Networking” stand for? Explain briefly.
It all started with sharing and networks. The simple idea is data is shared over a network, be it any information text, pictures, videos, or any other form of data. When multiple systems are connected by a network and are present under the worldwide established computers, data can be shared from one computer to another. It treats your computer as a node and delivers data or information of any form to the other node as per command.
7. What is Buffer in AWS? And what is its importance?
In simple words, the buffer is a medium of synchronization in the cloud. With heaps of data revolving in the cloud, the buffer works in ways ensuring its efficiency against traffic and load. Buffer is present to balance the components to maintain speed or input and output. Thus, the buffer plays an important role that helps to synchronize the various components through getting requests and processing them in an unsynchronized manner.
8. State some commonly used networking commands.
A few important commands of use are:
- Dig-x host – This is the host reverse lookup procedure.
- Dig domain – This command is used to gather information about any domain usages.
- Wget file – Used this command to download any file from the network
- Ping host – The commands directly deliver the output after it pings the host.
9. What is your idea of a day in a cloud support engineer’s life?
Taking up the responsibilities of a cloud support engineer may be overwhelming and not easy. To start, I’ll give my attention to urgent issues if any. I will put my mind into tasks at hand to focus on engaging more and more in work. My daily routine will include assisting clients with their applications, issues & maintaining AWS instances, and debugging. The role of a cloud support engineer seems hectic but there are no setbacks, only hustle. Like networks, a cloud support engineer takes the responsibility to connect and help our customers and cloud developers. Along that being a solver would work like magic. The main role of a cloud support engineer is to find solutions for a variety of issues if found in the customers’ network or services provided.
10. What can be the biggest challenges for the job?
In this field of cloud computing and handling cloud services, the biggest challenge is the lack of expertise and resources. The reason why is, as the workload increases over time and more & more data collection in the cloud there is a need for advanced technology in controlling and maintaining the cloud. Finding the right tools to keep up is a challenge. To overcome this challenge, one should prepare for coping up with effective tools and ideas.
11. Tell me about the current global networking picture of AWS?
The current statistics of AWS record 55 cloud availability zones covering over 18.1 local regions all across the globe. AWS has spread over six continents including 245 countries and territories. In the future AWS aims to conquer more countries like Bahrain, Sweden, Hong Kong SAR, and the US. AWS has grown at a rapid rate in the past five to six years. And now, with the incline of cloud taking over the IT industry and becoming the wingman in business companies. According to demand and need, cloud services will gain more attention. With that being said a greater number of people would be interested in either investing in the cloud or learning about cloud, and both ways the cloud business will prosper.
12. Define UDP. What do you know about UDP?
UDP, the User Datagram Protocol is a connectionless protocol. One can say UDP is a faster and improved protocol than other protocols. The time taken by UDP to establish a connection is comparatively less than any other protocols. Along with the benefit of connectionless protocol, it gives clients an impressive speed to work with. Talking about networking and working layers, UDP can be used as the transport layer. Also, the key features of UDP are to control the flow of data, processing in a short time, provide a great library, the transmitting time is improved and reliable, and the work of a receiving end is simplified in UDP.
13. What is the role of the data center in AWS?
A data center in AWS is the term for physical servers which are responsible to run the available AWS resources. There is at least one data center in every availability zone providing help and support to AWS users.
CONCLUSION
With this set of interview questions for cloud support engineers, the job is not easy. The job being senior or junior takes the complete attention in need of clients and fellow engineers to learn. Thus, the position is broadened over a few areas to grasp. Maybe someone is good at computing but has to be good at management & financial too. This job profile stands out as a combination of things. The interview for a cloud support engineer can be tough if not prepared well. So, getting the interview beforehand will create a huge difference. You can be a cloud professional provided by the company. And to be clear, your career will take a huge turn if you end up being a cloud support engineer at AWS.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
How to prepare for the AWS interview?
Walking in for an interview is quite overwhelming if you don’t know some basic things for the interview. We start with researching about the company, what they stand for? What goals do they have? Etc. Focus on the fundamental knowledge the most. Be confident while answering any question. Be honest if you don’t have any idea about something. Train your mind to take the adversity down. Talk about the specific achievements and personal growth when asked.
What are the general AWS interview questions?
Collectively stating only questions for AWS interview. These questions are; what is EC2? What is SnowBall? What does VPC stand for? What are AWS instances? Explain T2 instances. What do DNS and load balancer services do? What is the use of an elastic transcoder? Etc.
What is needed to be an AWS cloud support engineer?
There is a minimum qualification requirement set by the company. And other than that, there is a basic cloud certification provided by AWS alone. You can take the certification which can also be beneficial for learning and gaining skills. Then further, you need to explore a bit more in the computing and networking field. Build or learn more and more networking skills, practice algorithms, and apply to new algorithms too. Be the best in your domain so that one can’t pull you off the field.
How much does an AWS cloud support engineer make?
As the job is demanding and needs skillful people to get the work done. Automatically the salaries are expected to be on the higher end. Recalling the fact that cloud support engineers are working with long shifts, some may get paid according to shifts and hours. In the US the range of pay for AWS cloud support engineers is from $92,000 to $138,000. And the median salary to be $115,000. Currently, a survey showed the overall percentage of AWS cloud support engineers make, which is 67% for $115,000 and top 67% for $138,000.
