Top 50 AWS Interview Questions and Answers

The Top 50 AWS Interview Questions and Answers are essential for building a strong foundation in cloud computing, testing both theoretical knowledge and hands-on expertise in AWS services like EC2, S3, IAM, Lambda, and VPC. These questions prepare candidates for real-world scenarios, such as designing scalable architectures, optimizing costs, securing cloud environments, and automating deployments.

They also align with AWS certifications, reinforcing concepts needed for exams like AWS Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer, and Security Specialist. Since AWS skills are highly valued in the job market, mastering these questions improves problem-solving abilities, boosts confidence in technical discussions, and significantly enhances career prospects with high-paying roles in cloud and DevOps engineering. Whether for freshers or experienced professionals, practicing these interview questions ensures readiness for challenging AWS roles and real-world cloud deployments.

1. Basic AWS Concepts

What is AWS?

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud computing platform providing on-demand services like computing, storage, and databases.

What are the benefits of AWS?

Scalability, cost-effectiveness, security, flexibility, pay-as-you-go, and global reach.

What is an AWS Region?

A geographical area containing multiple Availability Zones (AZs).

What is an Availability Zone?

A data center within a region that is isolated from failures in other AZs.

What is the AWS Free Tier?

A limited usage plan that allows users to explore AWS services for free.

What is the AWS Shared Responsibility Model?

AWS secures the cloud it is the security OF the cloud; customers secure their data and applications also it is security IN the cloud.

What are IAM roles?

IAM roles grant temporary permissions to AWS services and users.

What is the difference between IAM users and IAM groups?

Users are individual accounts; groups are collections of users with the same permissions.

What is the AWS Well-Architected Framework?

A set of best practices for designing secure, high-performing applications on AWS.

What is the difference between AWS CLI and AWS SDK?

AWS CLI is a command-line tool, while AWS SDK is used to program AWS interactions.

2. Compute Services

What is Amazon EC2?

A virtual server that runs applications in the cloud.

What are the types of EC2 instances?

General Purpose, Compute-Optimized, Memory-Optimized, Storage-Optimized.

What is an EBS volume?

Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent storage for EC2 instances.

What is Auto Scaling?

Automatically increases or decreases EC2 instances based on demand.

15 . What are the types of AWS Load Balancers?

Application Load Balancer (ALB), Network Load Balancer (NLB), Classic Load Balancer (CLB).

16.What is AWS Lambda?

A serverless computing service that runs code in response to events.

17.How is Lambda different from EC2?

Lambda is serverless and runs only when needed, while EC2 requires manual provisioning.

What is Amazon Elastic Beanstalk?

A PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) for deploying and managing applications.

What is AWS Lightsail?

A simplified cloud platform for developers needing pre-configured environments.

20 . How do you secure an EC2 instance?

Use security groups, IAM roles, key pairs, and patches regularly.

3. Storage Services

What is Amazon S3?

A scalable object storage service for data backup, archiving, and applications.

What are S3 storage classes?

Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier, Glacier Deep Archive.

23 . How does S3 ensure data durability?

Stores multiple copies of data across different AZs.

24 . What is the difference between S3 and EBS?

S3 is object storage; EBS is block storage for EC2.

25 . What is Amazon EFS?

Elastic File System (EFS) provides scalable and shared file storage for EC2 instances.

What is S3 Versioning?

Allows storing multiple versions of an object to prevent accidental deletion.

What is AWS Snowball?

A physical device for large-scale data transfer into AWS.

28 . What is Amazon Glacier?

A low-cost archival storage solution for long-term backups.

What is AWS Storage Gateway?

A hybrid cloud storage service connecting on-premises environments to AWS.

30 . What is S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR)?

Automatically replicates objects to another region for disaster recovery.

4. Security & Identity Management

What is AWS IAM?

A service that is used to create, manage, and delete users, groups, and roles It also manages access and permissions for AWS resources.

What are IAM policies?

JSON documents that define permissions for AWS users and roles.

What is MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) in AWS?

Adds an extra security layer by requiring a second authentication method.

What is AWS KMS (Key Management Service)?

A service that manages encryption keys for securing data.

What is AWS WAF?

A web application firewall that protects against common web threats.

What is the difference between Security Groups and NACLs?

Security Groups operate at the instance level; NACLs operate at the subnet level.

What is AWS GuardDuty?

A threat detection service for monitoring AWS accounts.

38 . What is AWS Shield?

A managed DDoS protection service.

What is the difference between AWS Config and AWS CloudTrail?

AWS Config tracks resource configurations; CloudTrail logs API activity.

40 . What is the principle of least privilege?

Giving users the minimum permissions necessary to perform their tasks.

5. Networking & Databases

What is AWS VPC?

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) allows you to create an isolated network in AWS.

What are subnets?

A subdivision of a VPC for organizing and controlling network access.

What is the difference between a public and private subnet?

A public subnet has internet access, while a private subnet does not.

44 . What is an Elastic IP?

A static, public IP address is assigned to an EC2 instance.

What is AWS Route 53?

A scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service.

What is AWS Direct Connect?

A dedicated network connection between AWS and on-premises data centers.

What is AWS Transit Gateway?

A service that connects multiple VPCs and on-premises networks.

What is a NAT Gateway?

Allows instances in a private subnet to access the internet securely.

49 . What is AWS CloudFront?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) that caches content globally.

50 . What is AWS VPN?

A secure, encrypted connection between on-premises infrastructure and AWS.

Do visit our channel to know more: Click Here

Author:-

Swati Shewale

Call the Trainer and Book your free demo Class for AWS now!!!