What is Azure, and why is it important for developers?

Azure is a cloud computing platform and service provided by Microsoft. It offers a wide range of services,
tools, and frameworks for developers to build, deploy, and manage applications. Azure is important for
developers because it enables them to create scalable, reliable, and cost-effective applications without
worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

2. Can you explain the difference between Azure Web Apps, Azure Functions, and Azure Logic Apps?

Azure Web Apps is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering for hosting web applications, REST APIs, and
mobile app backends. They provide a fully managed environment with built-in support for various
programming languages and frameworks.

Azure Functions is a serverless computing service that allows developers to run small code (functions) in
response to events or triggers without managing the underlying infrastructure.

Azure Logic Apps is an Azure service for creating and running workflows that integrate with various
services and data sources. They provide a visual designer to create workflows using pre-built connectors
and actions.

3. What are the key components of the Azure Resource Manager (ARM)?

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is an Azure resources deployment and management service. The key
components of ARM include:

Resource groups: A logical container for resources that are deployed within an Azure subscription.

ARM templates: JSON files that define the resources, configurations, and dependencies for an Azure
deployment.

ARM API: A RESTful API for managing Azure resources programmatically.

Role-based access control (RBAC): A mechanism for controlling access to Azure resources based on user
roles and permissions.

Key components of Azure Resource Manager (ARM): Azure engineer interview questions

4. How do you assess the readiness of an application for migration to Azure?

This is one of the common Azure migration interview questions. Assessing the readiness of an
application for migration to Azure involves evaluating various factors to ensure a smooth transition and
optimal performance in the cloud. Here are some key steps to follow:
Compatibility analysis: Review the application's architecture, technology stack, and dependencies to
ensure they are compatible with Azure services and platforms. Check for any deprecated or unsupported
components that may need to be replaced or updated.

Performance and scalability: Analyze the application's performance requirements, such as response
times, throughput, and resource utilization. Determine if the application can benefit from Azure's auto-
scaling, load balancing, and other performance optimization features.

Data migration: Assess the data storage requirements, including the type and size of the data, and
choose the appropriate Azure storage service, such as Azure SQL Database, Cosmos DB, or Blob Storage.
Plan for data migration, including data transfer methods, data transformation, and data synchronization.

Security and compliance: Review the application's security requirements, such as authentication,
authorization, encryption, and data protection. Ensure that the chosen Azure services and configurations
meet these requirements and comply with relevant industry regulations and standards.

Networking and connectivity: Evaluate the application's networking requirements, including bandwidth,
latency, and connectivity to on-premises or other cloud resources. Plan for the appropriate Azure
networking services, such as Virtual Networks, ExpressRoute, or VPN Gateway.

Cost estimation: Estimate the costs of running the application in Azure, considering factors such as
compute, storage, networking, and data transfer. Use the Azure pricing calculator and consider cost
optimization strategies, such as reserved instances, spot instances, or Azure Hybrid Benefit.

Application modernization: Identify opportunities to modernize the application by leveraging Azure's

PaaS and serverless offerings, such as Azure App Service, Azure Functions, or Azure Logic Apps. This can
help improve the application's scalability, maintainability, and cost-efficiency.

Migration strategy: Based on the assessment, choose the appropriate migration strategy, such as
rehosting (lift-and-shift), refactoring (re-architecting), or rebuilding (re-platforming). Develop a detailed
migration plan, including timelines, resources, and testing procedures.

By thoroughly assessing the application's readiness for migration to Azure, you can ensure a successful
transition and maximize the benefits of the Azure cloud platform.

5. Can you explain the difference between Azure Service Bus, Event Hubs, and Event Grid?

Azure Service Bus is a fully managed enterprise integration message broker that supports both point-to-
point and publish-subscribe communication patterns. It is designed for high-throughput, low-latency
messaging scenarios.

Azure Event Hubs is a big data streaming platform and event ingestion service that can process millions
of events per second. It is designed for real-time data processing and analytics.

Azure Event Grid is a fully managed event routing service that enables event-driven, reactive
programming. It connects event sources with event handlers using a publish-subscribe model and
supports filtering and routing based on event types and data.

6. What is Azure Active Directory (AAD), and how does it differ from an on-premises active directory?

Azure Active Directory (AAD), now Microsoft Entra ID, is a cloud-based identity and access management
service that provides single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication, and identity protection for
applications and services.

AAD differs from an on-premises active directory in several ways:

AAD is a cloud-based service, while an on-premises active directory is hosted on your infrastructure.

AAD supports modern authentication protocols like OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, while an on-
premises active directory primarily uses Kerberos and NTLM.

AAD provides built-in integration with other Azure services and third-party applications, while an on-
premises active directory requires additional configuration and integration.

7. What are Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), and how do they differ from other computing options in
Azure?

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings that provide on-demand,
scalable compute resources in the cloud. VMs differ from other compute options in Azure, such as Web
Apps and Functions, in that they provide more control over the underlying infrastructure, including the
operating system, networking, and storage. This makes VMs suitable for workloads that require custom
configurations or need to run specific software that is not supported by other Azure compute services.

Azure compute options: Azure questions and answers

8. What is Azure Blob Storage, and what are its key features?

Azure Blob Storage is a scalable, cost-effective object storage service for unstructured data, such as text,
images, videos, and binary files. Key features of Azure Blob Storage include:
High availability and durability through data replication across multiple data centers.

Support for hot, cool, and archive access tiers to optimize storage costs based on data access patterns.

Integration with Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) for global content distribution.

Fine-grained access control and data encryption for security and compliance.

9. What is Azure DevOps, and how does it help developers?

Azure DevOps is a suite of services and tools for automating the software development lifecycle,
including planning, coding, building, testing, deploying, and monitoring applications.

Azure DevOps helps developers by providing:

A centralized platform for managing work items, source code, builds, releases, and test plans.

Integration with popular development tools and frameworks, such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Jenkins.

Built-in support for continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipelines.

Collaboration features for teams, such as Git repositories, pull requests, and Kanban boards.

10. What are the best practices for monitoring, logging, and alerting in Azure?

Best practices for monitoring, logging, and alerting in Azure are to:

Use Azure Monitor: Leverage Azure Monitor to collect, analyze, and visualize performance metrics, logs,
and custom events from Azure resources and applications.

Enable diagnostic settings: Configure diagnostic settings for Azure resources to collect resource logs,
metrics, and activity data.

Utilize log analytics: Store and query log data in a Log Analytics workspace, create custom queries, and
visualize data using Azure Dashboards.

Implement application insights: Integrate Application Insights for application performance monitoring,
exception tracking, and distributed tracing.

Set up alerts: Create alerts and action groups based on specific metrics, log queries, or events, and
configure notifications or automated actions.
Monitor security: Use Azure Security Center (now called Microsoft Defender for Cloud) for continuous
security monitoring, threat detection, and compliance assessment.

Establish custom metrics and events: Track custom metrics and events relevant to your application using
custom code or third-party tools.

Regularly review and optimize: Periodically review monitoring data, identify trends, and optimize
resource performance, cost, and reliability.

11. What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and what are its benefits?

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed container orchestration service based on the Kubernetes
platform. AKS simplifies the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications by
providing:

A fully managed Kubernetes control plane, with automatic upgrades and patching.

Integration with Azure services, such as Azure Active Directory, Azure Monitor, and Azure Policy.

Support for advanced networking, storage, and security features.

Tools and utilities for cluster management, such as the Kubernetes dashboard and the kubectl
command-line interface.

12. What is Azure Cosmos DB, and what are its key features?

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service designed for low-latency, high-
throughput, and scalable applications. Key features of Azure Cosmos DB include:

Support for multiple data models, such as document, key-value, graph, and column-family.

Global distribution with automatic data replication across multiple Azure regions.

Tunable consistency levels for balancing data consistency and performance.

Built-in support for partitioning, indexing, and querying data.

13. What is Azure Data Factory, and how does it help with data integration and transformation?

Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that enables you to create, schedule, and
manage data workflows for moving and transforming data from various sources to various destinations.
Azure Data Factory helps with data integration and transformation by providing:
A visual interface for designing and monitoring data pipelines.

Support for a wide range of data sources and destinations, such as databases, file systems, and cloud
storage services.

Built-in data transformation activities, such as data movement, data flow, and data lake analytics.

Integration with Azure Machine Learning and Azure Databricks for advanced data processing and
analytics.