This article is targeted towards providing one-stop guidance for your interview preparation. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, you can glance through these Azure interview questions just before your interview to enhance and refresh your learning on the go!
In this article, you will find important Azure interview questions to help you get ready for your next job interview. We will cover specific topics like Azure data engineer interview questions and Azure Databricks interview questions so you can feel confident during technical tests. You’ll also see helpful Azure interview questions and answers for experienced candidates, along with some Azure architect interview questions to improve your knowledge of Azure’s systems and services.
What is Azure?
Azure is a cloud platform developed by Microsoft that can be used for building, deploying, and managing services and applications to or for a global audience. It helps add cloud capabilities to your existing network or entrust Microsoft with all your computing and network needs, providing secure and reliable access to your cloud-hosted data built on Microsoft’s proven architecture. Azure provides Virtual Machines, SQL Databases, Azure Active Directory Domain Service, Application Services, Visual Studio Teams Services, and Storage facilities – everything required to build a virtual network and deliver services or applications to a global audience.
Below are a few questions that will help broaden the knowledge and understanding of Microsoft Azure. The questions are categorized into levels of expertise, so feel free to skip to any part per your expertise on the subject. A complete read-through would help polish your memory for good!
Interview Questions for Microsoft Azure
1. What are the various models that are available for cloud deployment?
There exist three different models for cloud deployment. They are as follows-
- Public Cloud: In this model the cloud infrasturcture is owned publicly by the cloud provider and the server resources could be share among multiple users.
- Private Cloud: Here the infrasturcture is exclusively owned by the user. The cloud provider provides services like hosting user’s application on their on-premise server or hosting the application on a dedicated server provided by the cloud provider.
- Hybrid Cloud: This mode is a combination of public and private cloud infrastructure. The user in this case can use on-premise server for hosting confidential data and at the same time can use public cloud features for hosting the mass appliactions.
2. What is meant by role instance in Azure?
A role instance is a Virtual Machine where the application code runs with the help of running role configurations. There can exist multiple instances of a role as per the definition in cloud service configuration files.
3. What is NSG?
NSG stands for National Security Group and contains a list of ACL (Access Control List) rules that allow or deny network traffic to subnets, NICs (Network Interference Cards) connected to subnets, or both. If NSG is associated with a subnet, ACL rules will apply to all virtual machines on that subnet. Traffic limits for individual IDs can be created by associating an NSG directly with a NIC.
4. Why do we need Azure Diagnostics API?
The Azure Diagnostics API helps you collect diagnostic data such as performance monitoring and system event logs from applications running in Azure. It also allows for verbose tracking of the data in detail. The diagnostic data can also create visual chart representations, and performance metric alerts to improve monitoring.
5. You can use Azure Resource Manager to create VMs in virtual networks created in traditional deployments. True or False?
False.
6. What do you understand by Azure Redis Cache?
It is an open-source in-memory Redis caching system provided and managed by Azure. It helps improve the performance of your web application by fetching data from a back-end database, storing it in the Redis cache on the first request, and fetching data from the Redis cache on all subsequent requests.
Azure Redis Cache provides a robust and secure caching mechanism using the Azure cloud.
7. What are the different “Deployment Environments” available in Azure?
The two Deployment Environments are as follows:
- Staging Environment: This environment validates application changes before running the immediate environment. Here, the application is identified by an Azure GUID (Globally Unique Identifier).
- Production Environment: This serves as the primary environment where the application is running, is accessible to the audience, and can be accessed via a DNS-enabled URL.
8. What steps need to be performed when drive failure occurs?
Once drive failure occurs, the priority would be to ensure that Azure storage works without fail, and for that, we need to ensure that the drive is not mounted. Then, we need to replace the drive, so it gets remounted and formatted.
9. Define Azure Storage Key.
Azure storage keys are used to authenticate access to Azure storage services to control access to data based on project needs. Two types of storage keys are provided for authentication: primary and secondary access keys.
10. What would happen when maximum failed attempts are reached during the process of Azure ID Authentication?
With the maximum number of failed attempts gets exceeded, the Azure account is locked, and the method of locking depends on the password entered and the protocol that parses the IP address of the login request.
11. Mention the difference between Azure Table Storage and Azure SQL Services.
| Table Storage Service | Azure SQL Table |
| It follows the No SQL type of storage | It follows a relational storage structure |
| Data is stored in key-value format | Data is stored in rows and columns in the SQL table |
| No relationship exists between tables | Relationships between tables are defined by utilizing foreign keys |
| Unique partition and row-key combination exists for each key-value format | Users can express uniqueness by using a primary key or unique key |
| It is mainly used to store log information or diagnostics data | It is used for storing transaction-based applications |
12. Mention the differences between the Azure Storage Queue and the Azure Service Bus Queue?
| Azure Storage Queue | Azure Service Bus Queue |
| Here, First-In-First-Out (FIFO) ordering is uncertain | First-In-First-Out (FIFO) is guaranteed because of the existence of sessions |
| Sessions are not supported here | Messaging level sessions are supported here |
| Only the “At least Once” delivery model is supported | “At least Once,” “Almost Once,” and “Exactly Once” all three delivery models are supported here |
| No automatic detection duplicates are possible here | Copies can be detected automatically here |
| It does not support dead lettering | Supports dead lettering |
| The message size is 64kB | The message size is 256 kB |
| Only One-to-One message delivery is supported | One-to-One, One-to-Many message delivery systems are supported |
| Only batch receive is supported | Bothe batch send and batch receive are supported here |
| The behavior of receiving the message is non-blocking | The behavior of receiving messages can be blocking or non-blocking. |
13. What do you understand by following terms: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS?
- IaaS: IaaS stands for “Infrastructure as a Service” and provides a set of functions that exist in the infrastructure layer, such as operating system and network connectivity, and are provided as a pay-as-you-go policy. Infrastructure is used to host the application. Examples include- Azure VMs, VNets, and so on.
- PaaS: PaaS stands for “Platform as a Service” and is primarily intended to abstract the underlying infrastructure of developers so that they can develop applications faster without having to worry about hosting management increases. Examples include- Azure web apps, storage services, and cloud services.
- SaaS: SaaS stands for “Software as a Service” and is an application provided using a service delivery model in which the application is consumed and used by the organization. These applications typically pay organizations to use them or are mobilized through advertising. Examples include- applications such as Office 365, Gmail, and SharePoint Online.
14. What do we use Azure Scheduler for?
You can use the Azure Scheduler to call specific background-triggered events or activities, such as calling HTTPS endpoints or displaying messages in queues on any schedule.
Using Azure schedule, jobs in the cloud can call existing jobs inside and outside Azure to run jobs regularly on-demand or at future dates. It also helps in scheduling those jobs on a set date.
15. What feature of Azure can be used to prevent issues of application high load in case of no-man support on the flow?
This issue can be stopped using the VM scale set by defining the appropriate configurations and conditions for provisioning new VMs when the load on the application increases.
- Azure virtual machine scale sets allow developers to create and manage a group of load-balanced VMs. Scale sets can be configured to automatically increase or decrease the number of VMs based on application demand or a predefined schedule.
- Scale sets ensure the high availability of applications and allow developers to manage, update, and configure large VMs centrally. It can also support the development of big data, large workloads, and significant applications that support workloads.
- The Azure scale set can support up to 1,000 VMs. If you create and upload a custom VM image, the limit is 600 VM.
16. What deployment environments does Azure offer?
Azure offers two environments for deployment:
Staging Environment:
- It provides a platform for validating your application’s modifications before it is live in the production environment.
- At this point, the app may be recognized using the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) in URL form provided by Azure (GUID.cloudapp.net)
Production Environment:
- This environment contains active applications.
- It may be distinguished from the staging environment through a DNS-friendly URL (servicename.cloudapp.net).
17. Define IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
- IaaS abbreviates Infrastructure as a Service. It provides various infrastructure-level features, such as an operating system and network connection. It adheres to a pay-per-use model. It serves as an application host. Azure VM and VNET are examples of IaaS.
- PaaS abbreviates Platform as a Service. It consists mostly of infrastructure abstraction that enables speedier application development without the bother of hosting administration. PaaS includes Azure online applications, cloud services, storage services, etc.
- SaaS abbreviates for Software as a Service. These apps are offered via a service delivery approach in which an organization just utilizes applications. Subscription-based charges or advertisements follow SaaS. SaaS examples include Gmail, Office 365, SharePoint Online, and others.
18. What is Azure Blob Storage?
Azure Blob (binary huge object) storage is the cloud’s object storage service. It can store vast amounts of unstructured data in text or binary format and is appropriate for sending documents, media, or text straight to browsers. From any geographical location, data can be accessed. Blobs are organized into containers and associated with user accounts. This service has three elements:
- Storage account: This can be either a standard storage account or a blob storage account registered in Microsoft Azure.
- Container: The purpose of containers is to group blobs. Each container has a limitless capacity for blob storage. The container’s name should be in lowercase.
- Blob: A blob is any type and size of file or document. Azure supports the following sorts of blobs:
- Block blobs: Text and binary files up to 195GB, 50,000 maximum 4 MB blocks
- Append blobs: Adds operations such as data logging to log files.
- Page Blob: For frequent read or write operations.
19. What are the benefits of Azure Scaling?
Autoscaling is a feature of Azure that allows automatic scaling. Autoscaling aids in the management of fluctuating demand in Cloud Services, Mobile Services, Virtual Machines, and Websites. Some benefits are listed below:
- Enhances application performance
- Depending on demand, scale up or down.
- Scaling the schedule to certain periods
- Extremely cost-effective
20. Explain Azure Fabric.
Azure Fabric is the primary fundamental notion. It provides the Azure Fabric Controller service. It is known as the Azure operating system because it manages/oversees:
- All functions (processing) and assets
- Delivery and activation of services
- Monitoring the condition of every service
- Allocation and release of resources
- Provisioning virtual machines, terminating, etc.
- Patches for the installed OS are updated in the most automatic manner on VM.
21 . Explain Azure Backup. Mention some of its merits.
Microsoft’s Azure Backup is a cloud-based solution for backing up Azure Windows VMs, Azure Managed Disks, Azure File shares, SQL Server databases, SAP HANA databases, Azure PostgreSQL databases, and more.Among the key advantages of Azure Backup are:
- Azure Backup provides a practical method for backing up on-premises data to the cloud. Without constructing significant on-premises backup systems, you may have a backup for both the short and long term.
- Azure Backup offers independent backups to safeguard original data from unanticipated harm. The backups are kept in a Recovery Services storage with built-in recovery point management.
- Azure Backup provides high availability with minimal maintenance and monitoring costs by exploiting the cloud’s basic capabilities and endless storage space.
22 . What is the table notion in Windows Azure?
A table is a kind of Azure Storage where you may store data. BLOBs are placed in a compartment, and entities are placed on a table. The following are the central ideas in a table:
- Tables enable the storing of structured data.
- A storage account can include from 0 to n tables.
- Tables hold data as a collection of elements.
- An element has an essential key and attributes in the form of a key-value pair
23. What are the two kinds of Azure Web Service roles?
A cloud service role is a collection of managed and load-balanced virtual machines collaborating to complete tasks. There are two varieties of Azure Web Service roles:
- Web Roles: It is a cloud service role used to execute web applications developed in programming languages supported by IIS (Internet Information Services) like ASP.NET, PHP, etc. It deploys and hosts programs automatically via the user IIS
- Worker Role: It executes apps and other operations that are not dependent on IIS. It conducts background operations in addition to web roles. It does not require IIS and operates user programs independently.
24. What are the advantages of Azure Queue Storage?
Queue storage facilitates message queueing for huge workloads in a simple, cost-effective, and durable manner. Some of its benefits are:
- Provides extensive client libraries for Java, Android, C++, PHP, Ruby, and others.
- Enables users to create adaptable applications and distinct features for improved durability.
- Guarantees that user applications are scalable and less susceptible to component failure.
- Permits the monitoring of queues to ensure abrupt traffic spikes do not overload servers.
25. How has hybrid cloud integration benefited Azure?
The Hybrid Cloud increases productivity by using Azure and the Azure stack to develop and deploy cloud-based and on-premises applications. The following are some of the ways that Azure has profited from hybrid cloud integration:
- It achieves increased productivity by combining Azure services and DevOps procedures and technologies.
- This permits the creation of applications at a faster rate.
- Users can utilize continuously updated Azure services and other Azure Marketplace apps.
- It enables deployment regardless of location, whether in the cloud or on-premises.
Conclusion
We hope this helped you quickly brush up and reiterate your learnings for your upcoming interview. In this article, you have seen questions across all levels frequently asked in Data Science interviews requiring the knowledge of Azure.
Hope you like this article! Microsoft Azure interviews often include a variety of topics, such as Azure interview questions, Azure data engineer interview questions, and Azure Databricks interview questions. Candidates should prepare for both basic and advanced Azure interview questions and answers tailored for their experience level. Experienced professionals might face more complex scenarios, including Azure architect interview questions, to assess their deep understanding of Azure’s architecture and services.
Neil is a research professional currently working on the development of AI agents. He has successfully contributed to various AI projects across different domains, with his works published in several high-impact, peer-reviewed journals. His research focuses on advancing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, and he is deeply committed to sharing knowledge through writing. Through his blogs, Neil strives to make complex AI concepts more accessible to professionals and enthusiasts alike.
