Home - mjaffry01/Archinterview GitHub Wiki
Azure and .NET Architect Interview Syllabus Azure Architecture Fundamentals (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) • Cloud Service Models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) – Understand the differences in responsibility and use-cases for each model (e.g. Azure VMs as IaaS, Azure App Service as PaaS, Microsoft 365 as SaaS)[1]. Be prepared to choose the appropriate model for a scenario, considering factors like control vs. convenience and the shared responsibility split. • Azure Infrastructure Basics – Familiarize yourself with Azure’s global architecture: Regions and Availability Zones/Availability Sets (for high availability), and how Azure’s data centers provide redundancy and low-latency access. Understand the concept of the shared responsibility model in Azure (cloud vs. customer responsibilities)[2]. • Core Azure Services Overview – Know the primary categories of Azure services (compute, storage, networking, databases, identity) at a high level[2]. You should be able to identify the purpose of key services in each category (e.g. what Azure AD is for identity, what Azure Storage or Azure SQL Database provide) even if details are covered in later sections. Designing Scalable and Resilient Systems on Azure • High Availability & Fault Tolerance – Strategies to avoid single points of failure, such as using multiple instances across Availability Zones or region pairs, and employing load balancers to distribute traffic. Design for redundancy in every tier (web/app servers, databases, etc.) so the system can withstand component failures. • Scalability (Vertical & Horizontal) – Know how to design systems that scale out (adding instances) vs. up (bigger instances). Emphasize horizontal scaling for cloud-native solutions[3][4]. Understand Azure features like VM Scale Sets and auto-scaling rules for Azure App Services or Functions to handle elastic workload demand. • Autoscaling and Load Balancing – Implementation of automatic scaling and load distribution to maintain performance under varying loads[5]. Be familiar with Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Azure Front Door, and how they ensure high availability by routing traffic and handling failovers. • Resilience & Self-Healing – Design for self-healing applications that gracefully handle failures (timeouts, transient faults). Apply cloud design patterns like Circuit Breaker (to handle failing remote calls) and Retry policies for transient errors to improve resiliency[6]. Ensure critical services have health probes and implement graceful degradation when dependencies fail. • Disaster Recovery and Geo-Redundancy – Plan for regional outages by architecting multi-region deployments and DR strategies[7]. Understand Active-Active vs. Active-Passive failover, use of Azure Site Recovery for VM replication, geo-redundant storage/SQL auto-failover groups for data, and defining RPO/RTO objectives. You should be able to discuss backup strategies and how to test DR plans. Azure Services for Compute, Storage, Networking, Databases, Identity, and Security • Compute Services – Know the range of compute options on Azure and when to use each. This includes Virtual Machines (IaaS VMs for full control), Azure App Service (PaaS for web apps and APIs), Azure Functions (serverless compute for event-driven tasks), and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for orchestrating containers. Be prepared to justify a compute choice based on requirements (e.g. lift-and-shift legacy app to VMs vs. use App Service for a new web app). • Storage Services – Understand Azure storage offerings and their use-cases[8][9]. Key services: Azure Blob Storage (unstructured object storage for logs, media, backups), Azure Files (managed SMB file shares), Azure Table Storage or Cosmos DB Table API (NoSQL key-attribute storage), Azure Queue Storage (simple message queue), and Managed Disks for VMs. Know when to use each (e.g. Blob vs File storage differences for content distribution vs file sharing). • Database and Data Services – Cover Azure’s data platforms: Azure SQL Database/Managed Instance for relational data (fully managed SQL Server Engine), Azure Cosmos DB for globally distributed NoSQL (with tunable consistency), Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL for open-source DB engines, and Azure Synapse Analytics or Databricks for big data analytics (if relevant). Emphasize choosing between these based on data model and scaling needs (e.g. relational ACID requirements vs. schema-free or massive scale). Also understand basic features like automatic backups, scaling, and geo-replication in these services. • Networking Services – Familiarize with Azure networking fundamentals: Azure Virtual Networks (VNet) and subnets to isolate resources, Network Security Groups (NSGs) to control traffic, Azure VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute for hybrid connectivity, and load-balancing options (Basic/Standard Load Balancer at L4, Application Gateway with WAF for L7 traffic, Traffic Manager for DNS-based routing, Front Door for global HTTP routing). Understand how to design network topologies (spoke-hub, VNet peering) and use services like Azure DNS and CDN for global content delivery. • Identity and Security Services – Know the core Azure identity service Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity management (user accounts, app registrations, OAuth/OIDC authentication, SSO). Understand fundamentals of authentication vs. authorization. Also be aware of security services: Azure Key Vault for secret/key management, Azure Security Center (Defender for Cloud) for cloud security posture management, and Azure Sentinel (SIEM) for threat detection. While these have a dedicated security section later, ensure you can list them as part of Azure’s service portfolio[2]. DevOps on Azure (CI/CD & Infrastructure as Code) • CI/CD Pipelines – Demonstrate knowledge of setting up continuous integration and deployment for Azure-hosted applications. This includes using Azure DevOps Pipelines or GitHub Actions to build and deploy .NET applications. Be ready to discuss pipeline stages (build, test, deploy) and how to automate testing and quality checks as part of the pipeline. For instance, understand how to deploy an Azure Web App or AKS container via a CI/CD pipeline, and implement strategies like blue-green or canary deployments using Azure App Service deployment slots. • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – Experience with provisioning Azure resources using code. Be familiar with ARM Templates and Bicep (declarative Azure Resource Manager templates) as well as Terraform (an IaC tool by HashiCorp)[10]. Know the benefits of IaC (consistency, repeatability) and how to structure deployments (modular templates, parameterization). In an interview, you might be asked how to manage and version infrastructure definitions or about using tools like Azure CLI/PowerShell vs. IaC for automation. • DevOps Tools and Repositories – Understand the components of Azure’s DevOps toolchain: source control with Azure Repos (Git) or GitHub, package management with Azure Artifacts, project tracking with Boards, etc.[11]. While not a developer role per se, an architect should know how these tools integrate into delivering software on Azure. Also, knowledge of setting up Git branching strategies for environments and using GitHub Actions Marketplace or Azure DevOps extensions can be useful to mention. • Release Management & Deployment Strategies – Be prepared to discuss strategies for zero-downtime deployments and rollback. For example, how to implement blue-green deployments or canary releases on Azure (using App Service slots or traffic routing techniques). Also, managing configuration and secrets between dev/test/prod (perhaps via Azure App Configuration or Key Vault references) is a relevant topic at the intersection of DevOps and architecture. • Continuous Monitoring and Feedback – Tie DevOps to production operations by describing how you’d monitor applications post-deployment. This could include integrating automated alerts (Azure Monitor alerts) when deploying, or using Application Insights data to drive improvements. An architect should promote a feedback loop: for instance, using failure telemetry from App Insights to create work items for the dev team automatically (DevOps ethos of continuous improvement). .NET Architecture (Clean Architecture, Microservices, API Design) • Clean Architecture & SOLID Principles – Know how to design .NET applications with clean separation of concerns. Topics include layering (UI, business, data access layers) and the principles of Clean Architecture (as popularized by Robert C. Martin) or Onion/Hexagonal Architecture for achieving a decoupled design. You should be fluent in SOLID principles (e.g. single responsibility, dependency inversion) and how they manifest in .NET through patterns like Dependency Injection (e.g. using ASP.NET Core’s built-in DI container). Be prepared to discuss how clean architecture makes testing and maintenance easier, and maybe give examples of implementing an interface-driven domain layer with EF Core as an infrastructure concern, etc. • Microservices Architecture with .NET – Understand how to design and implement microservices in the .NET ecosystem. This includes defining service boundaries (bounded contexts) often using Domain-Driven Design concepts, and how microservices communicate (RESTful APIs, gRPC, messaging). Discuss the pros/cons of microservices vs monolith: why and when you would recommend breaking a system into microservices. Key practical aspects include using ASP.NET Core for building lightweight services, containerizing .NET apps with Docker, and orchestrating with Kubernetes/AKS. Also mention patterns like an API Gateway or Service Mesh (e.g. using YARP or Azure API Management, or Dapr) for managing cross-cutting concerns like auth, routing between services. • Web API Design – Best practices for designing robust and user-friendly APIs. Topics include RESTful design principles (resources, correct use of HTTP verbs/status codes), API versioning strategies, documentation via OpenAPI/Swagger, and security of APIs (OAuth 2.0 with JWTs issued by Azure AD, throttling, input validation). You should also consider idempotency and concurrency handling in APIs, error handling approaches, and maybe touch on alternative architectures like GraphQL with .NET if relevant. In interviews, you might be asked how to design an API for a given feature or to critique an existing API design for improvements. • Performance and Optimization in .NET – (Implicitly part of architecture) Be ready to discuss how to design .NET applications for high performance: using asynchronous programming (async/await), managing memory (garbage collection impacts), using caching (MemoryCache or Azure Cache for Redis for distributed cache) to reduce load on databases, and profiling/troubleshooting performance issues (using tools like Application Insights, dotTrace, etc.). Architectural decisions like using a NoSQL DB for certain data, or splitting read/write workloads (CQRS pattern) can come up here as ways .NET architects ensure scalable performance. Integration Strategies (Azure Functions, Service Bus, Event Grid) • Serverless Integration with Azure Functions – Leverage Azure Functions for integrating systems in an event-driven or scheduled manner. Understand common use cases: processing messages from a queue, running on a timer (cron jobs), reacting to blob uploads, etc.[12][13]. In an architecture interview, you should know how Functions can connect disparate systems (e.g. an HTTP-triggered function that glues a webhook to an internal API) and the benefits (scalability, only pay for runtime) versus limitations (cold start, execution time limits). Also mention Durable Functions for orchestrating complex workflows, if relevant, to show knowledge of stateful serverless patterns. • Messaging with Azure Service Bus – Understand how to use Azure Service Bus for decoupling components via async messaging. Key concepts: queues (point-to-point communication), topics/subscriptions (publish-subscribe pattern). Be able to discuss when to use a message queue (for load leveling, retry, temporal decoupling of services) and how Service Bus ensures reliability (durable storage of messages, dead-lettering). Also know the basics of competing consumer pattern and how scaling out consumers can improve throughput. An interviewer may pose a scenario like “how to integrate two systems with eventual consistency” – using a queue with retries is a common solution. • Event Publishing with Event Grid (and Event Hubs) – Differentiate Event Grid from Service Bus: Event Grid is a lightweight pub/sub for reactive eventing (push model, great for integrating Azure services or building event-driven architectures), whereas Event Hubs is a big data event ingestion service (for high throughput streaming scenarios). For Event Grid, know that it can route events from sources (like storage blob created events or custom events) to handlers (Functions, Logic Apps, etc.) with a fan-out model. Be ready to give examples of using Event Grid for reactive programming (e.g. automatically run a function when a resource state changes). For Event Hubs, if your role might touch data streaming, mention its use for telemetry ingestion at scale (e.g. IoT scenarios). • Orchestration and Workflows – Be aware of Azure Logic Apps as a service for visually orchestrating integration workflows without code (using connectors for various SaaS and on-prem systems). While similar to Functions in triggering, Logic Apps are better for long-running workflows or when leveraging many built-in connectors (e.g. connecting to Dynamics 365, SAP, etc.). Also, mention Azure API Management as an integration component – it can publish your .NET APIs for external consumption, apply policies (security, caching, transformation), and enable a managed API gateway. An architect should know how API Management can front microservices or functions to provide a unified interface to external consumers. Security (Azure AD, Key Vault, RBAC, Network Security) • Identity and Access Management – Master how Azure AD integrates into application architectures for authentication and authorization[14]. For example, using Azure AD OAuth/OpenID Connect flows to secure a .NET web API or enabling Azure AD login for an Azure App Service. Understand the role of service principals/App registrations and Managed Identities (for Azure services to access other resources without secrets). In an interview, you might be asked to design an authN/Z solution for an application – you should lean on Azure AD (or AD B2C for customer-facing apps) rather than custom auth. Additionally, understand Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) on Azure: how built-in roles or custom roles are assigned to users/groups/service principals to control Azure resource permissions[15]. Be prepared to discuss implementing least privilege and how RBAC differs from application-level authorization. • Secrets Management with Key Vault – Know how to securely store and access sensitive information using Azure Key Vault. Topics include storing secrets, encryption keys, certificates, and how applications retrieve them (managed identity or service principal auth to Key Vault). Mention Azure Key Vault firewall and private link (to restrict access) and the integration of Key Vault with other services (like automatically pulling certificates to Azure App Service). An interviewer may ask how you’d manage connection strings, API keys, etc. – using Key Vault and not storing secrets in code is the expected answer[16]. • Network Security – Explain how to secure network traffic in Azure deployments. This includes using Network Security Groups (NSGs) to restrict ingress/egress at the subnet or NIC level, setting up Azure Firewall or App Gateway WAF for centralized traffic inspection, and using Azure Private Endpoints to close inbound internet access to PaaS services (allowing access via Azure backbone only). Also discuss isolating resources in different VNets or subnets (e.g. putting backend services in a private subnet, with only a DMZ exposed via a public load balancer or App Gateway). Knowledge of VPN/ExpressRoute security aspects (IPsec encryption, etc.) and using Azure Firewall Manager or Azure DDoS Protection can be a bonus for advanced candidates. • Security Monitoring and Compliance – Architects should leverage Azure’s tools to maintain security posture. Be familiar with Azure Security Center (Defender for Cloud) which continuously assesses resource configurations and provides hardening recommendations[17]. Understand Azure Policy for enforcing governance rules (e.g. ensuring all storage accounts have encryption or specific SKU) and how it differs from RBAC[18]. If the role is very security-focused, expect questions on Azure Sentinel (SIEM) for threat detection across logs, and strategies like enabling Azure Monitor logs and alerts for security events. Emphasize designing with security in mind from the start (network isolation, least privilege, encryption of data at rest and in transit, auditing and monitoring enabled). Monitoring and Observability (Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, App Insights) • Azure Monitor Fundamentals – Azure Monitor is the umbrella for monitoring in Azure[19]. Know that it collects metrics and logs from Azure resources and allows you to set up alerts and dashboards. Be ready to explain how Azure Monitor can proactively alert on thresholds (e.g. CPU high, or queue length growing) to catch issues early. Also, understand the role of Azure Log Analytics workspaces as the centralized store/query engine for log data (using Kusto Query Language to filter and analyze logs). • Application Insights (APM) – Know how to use Azure Application Insights to instrument .NET applications for detailed telemetry[20]. This includes capturing request traces, dependency calls, exceptions, and custom events/metrics from your code. Discuss how App Insights enables distributed tracing (correlating transactions across microservices or between an API and a backend service) and can provide an application map of component interactions. In an interview, you might be asked how you’d diagnose a performance issue – using App Insights to find a slow database query or an exception trace is a good answer. • Logging and Log Analytics – Understand designing a logging strategy: using App Insights or Serilog/NLog to emit structured logs, aggregating them in Azure Monitor Logs. Be comfortable with the idea of writing KQL queries to generate reports (for example, to find how many errors occurred in the last 24 hours broken down by type). Also mention setting up Log Analytics alerts or workbooks for visualization. Since observability is key for architects, emphasize centralized logging and monitoring even in distributed systems (e.g. consolidating logs from VMs, AKS, functions into Log Analytics). • End-to-End Monitoring Solutions – Be aware of other monitoring aspects like Azure Monitor for containers (for AKS metrics), Azure Monitor Application Insights for live metrics stream, and integrating monitoring into CI/CD (for example, smoke tests or alerting on deployment failures). You should also mention using Azure Service Health for awareness of Azure platform issues and perhaps integrating with external monitoring or ITSM systems. The focus is on demonstrating a holistic observability mindset: logging, metrics, and tracing together to quickly pinpoint issues in complex Azure deployments[21]. Cost Management and Optimization on Azure • Azure Pricing Model – Understand Azure’s pricing fundamentals: most services are pay-as-you-go (consumption-based), meaning you pay for what you use[22]. Be ready to discuss pricing options like reserved instances or savings plans (for VMs, SQL databases, etc. to get discounts for committed use), spot instances for low-priority workloads, and the free tiers/trial credits Azure offers. An architect should design systems with cost in mind – for instance, choosing a PaaS service that auto-scales down at night to save money, or using Azure Functions consumption plan to only pay per execution. • Cost Monitoring Tools – Know the Azure tools available for cost management: Azure Cost Management + Billing (budgeting, cost analysis), Azure Pricing Calculator (to estimate solution costs upfront), and Azure Advisor cost recommendations[23]. You should be able to describe setting up cost budgets/alerts to monitor spend and using tags to categorize costs by project or environment. In an interview scenario, you might be asked how to investigate an unexpected billing spike – you’d mention analyzing cost reports in the portal or setting up alerts on spending anomalies. • Designing for Cost Efficiency – Demonstrate strategies to optimize cost at the architecture level. Examples: choosing PaaS over IaaS when it reduces operational overhead and costs (e.g. Azure SQL DB might be cheaper than running SQL Server on a VM when you consider patching and high availability costs), using Auto-scaling to match capacity to demand (avoiding over-provisioning), turning off or scaling down non-production environments after hours, and using Azure Storage access tiers (hot/cool/archive) or Azure Blob Lifecycle Management to reduce storage costs for infrequently accessed data. The ability to discuss trade-offs like performance vs. cost (e.g. an E-series memory-optimized VM might be costly but needed for performance, how do you ensure it’s utilized fully) is a plus. • License Optimization – (If relevant) Mention using existing licenses to save cost, e.g. Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server or SQL Server if the candidate’s experience includes it. This shows awareness of enterprise cost considerations. Also, knowing dev/test pricing options (Azure Dev/Test subscriptions with discounted rates) or using Azure DevTest Labs for spin-up/spin-down of VMs can be useful in demonstrating a comprehensive cost optimization knowledge. Common Architecture Design Patterns in Azure and .NET • Cloud Design Patterns – Be well-versed in the common cloud architecture patterns and their purpose. Key examples include the Circuit Breaker pattern (to gracefully handle external service failures and avoid cascading outages)[6], Retry Pattern (with exponential backoff for transient faults), Bulkhead (isolating components to prevent failures from spilling over), and Queue-Based Load Leveling (using queues to buffer bursts of load and smooth out processing). You should not only name these patterns but also describe a scenario of applying each in Azure (e.g. using Polly in .NET to implement retries/circuit breaker when calling an external API, or using Azure Queue + Function for load leveling). • Enterprise Integration Patterns – Discuss patterns relevant to integrating multiple systems, such as Publisher/Subscriber (used with Event Grid or Service Bus Topics), Competing Consumers (multiple listeners on a queue to increase throughput)[24], and Saga (for multi-step transactions across services, which can be implemented via orchestration or a workflow). For instance, how would you ensure data consistency across microservices without two-phase commit? You might describe an approach using a Saga with compensating actions, possibly implemented with a durable function or a logic app orchestrator. • Data and Performance Patterns – Include patterns like CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) to separate read vs write workloads (e.g. a scenario with heavy reads might use CQRS with a read replica or denormalized view)[25], and Event Sourcing to record system state changes as a series of events for audit or rebuild purposes[26]. Also mention Caching patterns, especially Cache-Aside (loading data into a cache on demand) to improve performance and reduce load on databases[27]. For example, using Azure Cache for Redis to cache frequent queries is an application of this pattern. • Architecture Styles & Best Practices – Be prepared to talk about high-level architecture choices and patterns: N-tier layered architecture vs. microservices vs. event-driven architectures, and where each is appropriate[28]. An interviewer may ask something like “what architecture style would you use for a given scenario and why?” – you should reason about requirements (e.g. need for agility and independent deployment -> microservices; need for simple maintainability -> layered monolith; need to handle streams of events -> event-driven). Additionally, mention Design for Evolution – that you plan for incremental changes (for instance, designing modules or services such that they can be modified or replaced with minimal impact)[29]. Demonstrating knowledge of the Azure Well-Architected Framework (the five pillars: Reliability, Security, Performance, Cost Optimization, Operational Excellence) and aligning patterns to those pillars will show that you think in terms of best practices.
[1] [5] [7] [8] [9] [10] [12] [13] [14] [15] [20] [22] [23] 30 Azure Interview Questions: From Entry-Level to Advanced | DataCamp https://www.datacamp.com/blog/azure-interview-questions [2] What is the different between Azure Fundamentals and Azure Data Fundamentals ? : r/AzureCertification https://www.reddit.com/r/AzureCertification/comments/12tf4yl/what_is_the_different_between_azure_fundamentals/ [3] [4] [29] Design principles for Azure applications - Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/guide/design-principles/ [6] [24] [25] [26] [27] Cloud Design Patterns - Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/patterns/ [11] [16] [17] [18] [19] [21] Top 50 Azure Solution Architect Interview Questions https://www.scholarhat.com/tutorial/azure/azure-solution-architect-interview-questions [28] Architecture styles - Azure Architecture Center - Microsoft Learn https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/guide/architecture-styles/