Question 1

What is Amazon EC2?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service that provides resizable virtual servers (instances) in the cloud. You can launch, stop, and terminate instances on demand, paying only for what you use.

Question 2

What is an EC2 instance type?

Accepted Answer

An instance type defines the CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity of an EC2 instance. Types are grouped into families such as General Purpose (t3, m6), Compute Optimized (c6), and Memory Optimized (r6).

Question 3

What is an AMI?

Accepted Answer

An AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is a pre-configured template used to launch EC2 instances. It includes the OS, application server, and any additional software. You can use AWS-provided AMIs or create your own.

Question 4

What is AWS Lambda?

Accepted Answer

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that runs your code in response to events without provisioning or managing servers. You are billed only for the compute time your code actually consumes, in milliseconds.

Question 5

What is Amazon ECS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) is a fully managed container orchestration service that lets you run, stop, and manage Docker containers on a cluster of EC2 instances or using AWS Fargate (serverless).

Question 6

What is the difference between EC2 and Lambda?

Accepted Answer

EC2 provides persistent virtual machines you manage (OS, runtime, scaling). Lambda is event-driven and serverless you only provide the function code, and AWS handles everything else. Lambda suits short-lived tasks; EC2 suits long-running workloads.

Question 7

What is Amazon S3?

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is an object storage service offering industry-leading scalability, availability, and durability. Objects are stored in buckets and can be accessed via HTTP(S). It is commonly used for backups, static websites, and data lakes.

Question 8

What is an S3 bucket?

Accepted Answer

An S3 bucket is a container for storing objects (files and their metadata) in Amazon S3. Bucket names must be globally unique. Access is controlled via bucket policies and IAM.

Question 9

What is Amazon EBS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides persistent block storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. Unlike instance storage, EBS volumes persist independently of the instance lifecycle and can be attached and detached.

Question 10

What is the difference between S3 and EBS?

Accepted Answer

S3 is object storage accessed over the internet, ideal for unstructured data, backups, and static files. EBS is block storage attached directly to an EC2 instance like a hard drive, suited for databases and OS volumes.

Question 11

What is Amazon EFS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is a scalable, fully managed NFS file system that can be mounted simultaneously by multiple EC2 instances. It grows and shrinks automatically as you add and remove files.

Question 12

What is a VPC?

Accepted Answer

A VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) is a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch resources in a virtual network that you define. You control IP ranges, subnets, route tables, and gateways.

Question 13

What is the difference between a public and private subnet?

Accepted Answer

A public subnet has a route to an Internet Gateway, allowing resources in it to communicate with the internet. A private subnet has no direct internet route resources there access the internet only through a NAT Gateway or NAT instance.

Question 14

What is an Internet Gateway?

Accepted Answer

An Internet Gateway (IGW) is a horizontally scaled, redundant VPC component that allows communication between your VPC and the internet. It enables resources in public subnets to send and receive internet traffic.

Question 15

What is Amazon Route 53?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 is a scalable DNS (Domain Name System) web service. It translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses and supports routing policies like simple, weighted, latency-based, and failover.

Question 16

What is Amazon CloudFront?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service. It caches content at global edge locations close to users, reducing latency for websites, APIs, and media streams.

Question 17

What is a Security Group?

Accepted Answer

A Security Group acts as a virtual firewall for EC2 instances, controlling inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level using allow rules. Security Groups are stateful return traffic is automatically allowed.

Question 18

What is a NAT Gateway?

Accepted Answer

A NAT Gateway allows instances in a private subnet to initiate outbound internet traffic (e.g., for software updates) while preventing the internet from initiating connections to those instances.

Question 19

What is Amazon RDS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale relational databases in the cloud. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and SQL Server.

Question 20

What is Amazon DynamoDB?

Accepted Answer

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed, serverless NoSQL key-value and document database. It delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale and automatically handles replication and scaling.

Question 21

What is the difference between RDS and DynamoDB?

Accepted Answer

RDS is a managed relational (SQL) database suited for structured data with complex queries and joins. DynamoDB is a NoSQL database suited for high-speed, large-scale workloads with simple key-based access patterns.

Question 22

What is Amazon ElastiCache?

Accepted Answer

Amazon ElastiCache is a fully managed in-memory caching service compatible with Redis and Memcached. It speeds up applications by storing frequently accessed data in memory, reducing load on databases.

Question 23

What is AWS IAM?

Accepted Answer

AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) lets you manage access to AWS services and resources securely. You create users, groups, and roles, then attach policies that define what actions are allowed or denied.

Question 24

What is an IAM Policy?

Accepted Answer

An IAM Policy is a JSON document that defines permissions. It specifies which AWS actions are allowed or denied on which resources, and can be attached to users, groups, or roles.

Question 25

What is the principle of least privilege?

Accepted Answer

The principle of least privilege means granting only the minimum permissions needed to perform a task. It reduces the attack surface by ensuring users and services cannot access resources beyond what their job requires.

Question 26

What is an IAM Role?

Accepted Answer

An IAM Role is an identity with permission policies that can be assumed by AWS services, applications, or users from other accounts. Unlike users, roles do not have long-term credentials they issue temporary security tokens.

Question 27

What is the AWS root account?

Accepted Answer

The root account is the account created when you first sign up for AWS. It has unrestricted access to all resources. AWS strongly recommends not using the root account for daily tasks and instead creating IAM users with limited permissions.

Question 28

What is MFA in AWS?

Accepted Answer

MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification (such as a code from an authenticator app) in addition to a password. AWS recommends enabling MFA on the root account and all privileged IAM users.

Question 29

What is Amazon API Gateway?

Accepted Answer

Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service for creating, publishing, and securing REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs at any scale. It is commonly used as the front door for Lambda-based serverless applications.

Question 30

What is Amazon SQS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) is a fully managed message queuing service that decouples components of distributed systems. Producers send messages to a queue; consumers poll and process them independently.

Question 31

What is Amazon SNS?

Accepted Answer

Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) is a fully managed pub/sub messaging service. A publisher sends a message to a topic, and SNS fans it out to all subscribed endpoints such as Lambda, SQS, email, or HTTP.

Question 32

What is the difference between SQS and SNS?

Accepted Answer

SQS is a pull-based queue where one consumer processes each message. SNS is a push-based pub/sub system that broadcasts messages to multiple subscribers simultaneously. They are often combined SNS fans out to multiple SQS queues.

Question 33

What is Amazon CloudWatch?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service for AWS resources. It collects metrics, logs, and events, and allows you to set alarms, create dashboards, and trigger automated actions based on thresholds.

Question 34

What is a CloudWatch Alarm?

Accepted Answer

A CloudWatch Alarm watches a single metric over a time period and performs one or more actions when the metric crosses a defined threshold. Actions can include sending an SNS notification or triggering an Auto Scaling policy.

Question 35

What is AWS CloudTrail?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail records API calls and user activity across your AWS account. It provides an audit trail of who did what, when, and from where essential for security analysis, compliance, and troubleshooting.

Question 36

What is AWS CodePipeline?

Accepted Answer

AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed CI/CD service that automates the build, test, and deploy phases of your release process. It integrates with CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, GitHub, and other tools.

Question 37

What is AWS CodeBuild?

Accepted Answer

AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces deployment-ready artifacts. You pay only for the build minutes consumed.

Question 38

What is an Availability Zone (AZ)?

Accepted Answer

An Availability Zone is one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity within an AWS Region. Distributing resources across multiple AZs protects applications from data center failures.

Question 39

What is an AWS Region?

Accepted Answer

An AWS Region is a physical geographic area containing multiple, isolated Availability Zones. Each Region is completely independent, allowing you to deploy globally and meet data residency requirements.

Question 40

What is Auto Scaling?

Accepted Answer

AWS Auto Scaling automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances (or other resources) in response to demand. It can scale out (add instances) during traffic spikes and scale in (remove instances) when demand drops, optimizing cost and availability.

Question 41

What is an Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)?

Accepted Answer

An Elastic Load Balancer automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets (EC2 instances, containers, IPs) in one or more Availability Zones. It improves fault tolerance and prevents any single instance from being overwhelmed.

Question 42

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal scaling?

Accepted Answer

Vertical scaling (scale up) means increasing the size of an existing instance (more CPU, RAM). Horizontal scaling (scale out) means adding more instances to distribute load. AWS favors horizontal scaling for better availability and cost efficiency.

Question 43

What is an RDS Multi-AZ deployment?

Accepted Answer

In a Multi-AZ deployment, RDS automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone. If the primary instance fails, RDS automatically fails over to the standby with minimal downtime.

AWS Beginner Flashcards

You might also enjoy

AWS Cloud Practitioner Flashcards (CLF-C02)

AWS Solutions Architect Associate Flashcards (SAA-C03)

AWS Certified Developer Associate Flashcards (DVA-C02)

AWS SysOps Administrator Associate Flashcards (SOA-C02)

Red Hat System Administration I Flashcards (RH124)

LPIC-2 Linux Engineer Flashcards