Azure Interview Questions & Answers

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform offering a wide range of cloud services for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft's global network of data centers.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provides virtualized computing resources, PaaS (Platform as a Service) offers development and deployment environments, and SaaS (Software as a Service) delivers complete software applications over the internet.

Benefits include scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, global reach, advanced security, hybrid cloud capabilities, and integration with Microsoft technologies.

Azure has multiple regions worldwide, with each region containing multiple data centers. Availability zones are unique physical locations within a region, providing high availability and fault tolerance.

Azure Resource Manager is a management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in an Azure account. It provides a consistent management interface for organizing and controlling Azure resources.

An Azure subscription is a logical container for resources, while management groups allow hierarchical organization of subscriptions for centralized governance and policy management.

Azure Marketplace is an online platform where users can discover, try, and purchase cloud software solutions and services from Microsoft and third-party vendors.

Azure offers pay-as-you-go, reserved instances, spot pricing, and enterprise agreement pricing models, allowing flexibility in cost management.

Azure tags are key-value pairs used to categorize and organize resources for cost management, access control, and organizational purposes.

Azure Public is the standard commercial cloud, Azure Government is designed for US government agencies with enhanced security, and Azure China is operated by 21Vianet, serving the Chinese market with local compliance.

Azure VMs are scalable, on-demand computing resources that provide virtualized infrastructure, allowing users to run Windows and Linux servers in the cloud with full control over the computing environment.

Azure offers various VM series optimized for different workloads: General Purpose (B, D series), Compute Optimized (F series), Memory Optimized (E, M series), Storage Optimized (L series), and GPU-enabled (N series).

Azure App Service is a fully managed web hosting platform that enables developers to build and host web apps, mobile back ends, and RESTful APIs without managing infrastructure.

Azure Containers provide lightweight, portable environments for applications, while Azure Kubernetes Service offers managed Kubernetes clusters for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications.

Azure Functions are serverless compute services that allow developers to run code without managing servers, supporting event-driven, scalable applications with consumption-based pricing.

Azure provides vertical scaling (changing VM size) and horizontal scaling (adding/removing VM instances), with options like virtual machine scale sets for automatic scaling based on performance metrics.

Azure Batch is a cloud-based job scheduling and compute management service that enables running large-scale parallel and high-performance computing applications efficiently.

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow you to create and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale in or out based on demand or defined metrics.

Azure Cloud Services is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering for hosting and running scalable web applications and background services, supporting both web and worker roles.

Azure Container Instances provide a fast and simple way to run containers in the cloud without managing servers or orchestration, offering per-second billing and rapid deployment.

Azure offers Blob Storage (unstructured data), File Storage (managed file shares), Queue Storage (message queuing), Table Storage (NoSQL), and Disk Storage for virtual machine disks.

Azure Blob Storage is object storage for unstructured data like images, videos, and backups, supporting three access tiers: Hot, Cool, and Archive, optimized for different access frequencies.

Azure Data Lake Storage is a scalable data lake solution for big data analytics, offering hierarchical namespace, enterprise-grade security, and integration with Azure services.

Azure File Storage provides fully managed cloud file shares accessible via Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, supporting hybrid cloud scenarios and easy migration of on-premises file shares.

Azure Managed Disks provide block-level storage volumes for Azure VMs, offering simplified disk management, enhanced security, and options like Ultra Disks for high-performance workloads.

Azure offers Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS), and Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage (GZRS) to ensure data durability and availability.

Azure Storage Explorer is a free, cross-platform tool for managing Azure storage resources, allowing users to upload, download, and manage blobs, files, queues, and tables.

Azure StorSimple is a hybrid cloud storage solution that integrates on-premises storage with cloud storage, providing automatic tiering, data deduplication, and backup capabilities.

Azure Storage offers Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers for blob storage, with varying storage costs and access latencies to optimize storage expenses based on usage patterns.

Azure Disk Encryption provides volume encryption for OS and data disks using BitLocker for Windows and dm-crypt for Linux, helping protect data at rest and meet compliance requirements.

Azure Virtual Network is a logically isolated network environment in Azure, allowing you to create private networks, subnet them, and connect to on-premises datacenters using VPN or ExpressRoute.

Network Security Groups are security rules that filter network traffic to and from Azure resources, allowing or denying inbound and outbound traffic based on source, destination, port, and protocol.

Azure ExpressRoute provides private, dedicated network connections between on-premises networks and Azure, offering more reliability, faster speeds, and lower latency compared to internet-based connections.

Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure high availability and reliability, supporting both internal and external load balancing scenarios.

VNet Peering connects virtual networks within the same region, while Global VNet Peering enables connectivity between virtual networks across different Azure regions.

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that provides advanced request routing, SSL termination, web application firewall, and session affinity capabilities.

Azure Network Watcher provides network monitoring, diagnostic, and visualization tools to help troubleshoot and optimize network performance and configuration in Azure.

Azure Virtual WAN is a networking service that provides optimized and automated branch connectivity to Azure, integrating various networking components like VPN, ExpressRoute, and connectivity.

Azure VPN Gateway enables secure communication between Azure virtual networks and on-premises networks, supporting Site-to-Site VPN for connecting entire networks and Point-to-Site VPN for individual client connections.

Azure DNS provides domain name resolution services, while Private DNS Zones enable name resolution within virtual networks without modifying DNS configuration or adding custom DNS servers.

Azure Active Directory is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, providing authentication, authorization, and user management across Azure and other Microsoft services.

Azure RBAC allows fine-grained access management by assigning roles with specific permissions to users, groups, and applications, controlling who can access and manage Azure resources.

Managed Identities provide automatic identity management for Azure resources, eliminating the need to manage credentials by providing automatically generated service principals for authentication.

Azure Conditional Access is a feature that allows organizations to implement access controls based on conditions like user location, device health, risk level, and application sensitivity.

Azure MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring additional verification methods beyond passwords, such as phone calls, mobile app notifications, or verification codes.

Azure B2B (Business-to-Business) enables secure collaboration with external users, while Azure B2C provides customer identity and access management for consumer-facing applications.

Azure PIM provides time-based, approved access to privileged roles, enabling just-in-time and just-enough access management with comprehensive access reviews and auditing.

Azure Identity Protection uses machine learning to detect and remediate identity-based risks, providing risk detection, user and sign-in risk policies, and automated protection mechanisms.

Azure AD Connect synchronizes user identities between on-premises Active Directory and Azure Active Directory, enabling hybrid identity management and single sign-on capabilities.

Azure AD uses token-based authentication like OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, allowing secure authorization and authentication across applications without sharing credentials.

Azure DevOps is a comprehensive DevOps platform providing tools for source control, project management, continuous integration, delivery, and collaboration across development teams.

Azure Pipelines is a cloud-based continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) service supporting multiple languages and platforms, enabling automated build, test, and deployment processes.

Azure Repos provides Git repositories for source code management, offering unlimited private repositories with advanced collaboration features and integrations.

Azure Artifacts is a package management system that enables teams to create, host, and share packages, supporting multiple package types like Maven, npm, NuGet, and Python.

Deployment slots are live apps with separate hostnames, allowing staging and production environments to be swapped seamlessly, reducing application downtime during deployments.

Azure Resource Manager templates enable declarative deployment and management of infrastructure resources using JSON, allowing consistent and repeatable infrastructure provisioning.

Azure Boards is an agile project management tool providing work item tracking, Kanban boards, sprint planning, and reporting capabilities for teams using various development methodologies.

Azure Test Plans offers comprehensive manual and exploratory testing capabilities, enabling test case management, test execution tracking, and integration with Azure DevOps workflows.

Azure Release Pipelines automate application deployment across multiple stages and environments, supporting complex release workflows with approvals, gates, and deployment conditions.

Azure DevTest Labs provides developers and testers with self-service environments for creating, managing, and monitoring test resources, optimizing cost and resource utilization.

Azure Security Center is a unified security management and threat protection platform that provides continuous security assessment, recommendations, and advanced threat detection across Azure and hybrid environments.

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service for securely storing and managing cryptographic keys, secrets, and certificates, providing centralized key management and access control.

Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM solution offering intelligent security analytics, threat detection, and automated incident response across enterprise environments.

Azure Information Protection helps organizations classify, label, and protect sensitive documents and emails, providing data protection and compliance capabilities.

Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service that protects Azure Virtual Network resources with high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.

Azure Advanced Threat Protection uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to detect and investigate advanced security threats targeting identity systems and user credentials.

Azure provides comprehensive compliance offerings including ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and FedRAMP, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements across various industries.

Azure DDoS Protection defends against distributed denial-of-service attacks by automatically filtering malicious traffic, protecting web applications and infrastructure from volumetric and protocol attacks.

Azure Private Link enables private access to Azure services over a private network, enhancing security by eliminating public internet exposure and reducing potential attack surfaces.

Azure Policy provides governance and compliance capabilities, allowing organizations to define, assign, and audit policies that enforce standards and assess resource compliance.

Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database service providing automated upgrades, patching, backups, and intelligent performance optimization for SQL Server databases.

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service supporting multiple APIs like SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and providing low-latency, high-availability data access.

Azure Database Migration Service enables seamless migration of databases from multiple sources to Azure with minimal downtime, supporting various database platforms and migration scenarios.

Azure offers fully managed MySQL and PostgreSQL database services with automatic backups, high availability, security features, and seamless scaling capabilities.

Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that enables creating, scheduling, and orchestrating data pipelines for transforming and moving data between different systems.

Azure Synapse Analytics is an enterprise analytics service combining SQL databases, big data analytics, and data integration, providing a unified experience for processing and analyzing large datasets.

Azure SQL Managed Instance provides near-100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server, offering a fully managed database service with minimal migration effort.

Azure Redis Cache is a fully managed in-memory data structure store providing high-performance caching, session state management, and message broker capabilities.

Azure Database for MariaDB is a fully managed relational database service based on the open-source MariaDB community edition, offering high availability and automatic backups.

Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-value store for semi-structured data, providing scalable and cost-effective storage for applications requiring flexible schema and high performance.

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution providing full-stack observability across applications, infrastructure, and networks, collecting and analyzing telemetry data from various sources.

Azure Log Analytics is a feature of Azure Monitor that enables querying and analyzing log data from multiple sources, providing powerful insights into system performance and behavior.

Application Insights is an Application Performance Management (APM) service that helps developers detect, diagnose, and understand performance issues in web applications and services.

Azure Diagnostics Extension enables collecting diagnostic data from Azure compute instances, providing detailed performance metrics, logs, and system information for monitoring and troubleshooting.

Azure Performance Insights helps identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in Azure SQL Database by providing query performance analysis, resource consumption tracking, and recommendations.

Azure Event Hubs is a big data streaming platform and event ingestion service capable of receiving and processing millions of events per second with low latency.

Azure Metrics provide performance measurements and statistics, while Azure Alerts enable proactive notification and automated responses to performance thresholds and potential issues.

Azure Advisor provides personalized recommendations for optimizing Azure resources, focusing on cost, performance, reliability, security, and operational excellence.

Azure Site Recovery enables business continuity by providing disaster recovery, replication, and failover capabilities for virtual machines and physical servers across different locations.

Azure Service Health provides personalized guidance and support during service incidents, offering real-time information about current and potential Azure service issues affecting your resources.