Alibaba Cloud, a leading global cloud service provider, has gained prominence in the technology landscape. Aspiring candidates preparing for Alibaba Cloud interviews should be well-versed in key concepts and technologies. To help you navigate the interview process, here are some top Alibaba Cloud interview questions and answers. These questions cover a range of topics, including cloud computing, specific Alibaba Cloud services, and general technical expertise.
Familiarizing yourself with these questions and responses can enhance your preparation and boost your confidence for a successful Alibaba Cloud interview.
Let’s dive in!
Top 20+ Alibaba Cloud Interview Questions and Answers
Here are some top Alibaba Cloud Interview Questions and Answers for experienced and freshers:
1. What is Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud offers a diverse array of cloud computing services including storage, networking, databases, analytics, and artificial intelligence. These services are tailored to assist businesses of varying scales, from startups to large enterprises, in constructing, deploying, and overseeing their applications and data within the cloud.
Alibaba Cloud provides an array of tools and services dedicated to data management, security, and compliance.
2. What is Elastic Compute Service (ECS)?
Elastic Compute Service is a Cloud Computing Service that offers on-demand and scalable computing resources. It permits the users to launch on-demand virtual instances and pay only for what they use.
The instances of the ECS can be tailored with the varied CPU configurations, storage, and memory and can be implemented in the varied availability regions and zones. The ECS instances can be employed for a wide range of applications such as big data processing, web hosting, and enterprise applications.
Furthermore, Alibaba Cloud also offers additional services such as load balancers, auto-scaling, and cloud monitoring.
3. What are the cloud disk types available in Alibaba Cloud?
In Alibaba Cloud, there are three disk types available and they are:
- Ultra Disk: Cloud disks characterized by high cost-effectiveness, medium random IOPS performance, and high data reliability.
- Standard SSD: High-performance disks known for their consistent and high random IOPS performance, coupled with high data reliability.
- Enhanced SSD: It represents ultra-high-performance disks built on the next-generation distributed block storage architecture. Each ESSD can achieve up to 1 million random IOPS and boasts low latency.
4. What is Alibaba Cloud Batch Compute?
Alibaba Batch Compute cloud service helps to carry out massive batch processing. The system can automatically manage the resources, task scheduling, loading data, and usage billing.
Batch computing has been used in varied scientific applications such as genetic data analysis, CGI rendering, transcoding media data, and analysis of financial data.
Also Read : Working with Big Data on Alibaba Cloud
5. Define Alibaba Cloud Container Registry.
Alibaba Cloud Container Registry is a service designed for the efficient management and distribution of cloud-native artifacts adhering to the standards of the Open Container Initiative (OCI). These artifacts include container images and Helm charts.
The Enterprise Edition of Container Registry offers comprehensive acceleration features, facilitating global image replication, the scalable distribution of large images, and image building from diverse code sources.
This service seamlessly integrates with Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK), streamlining delivery processes for enterprises and offering a unified solution for cloud-native applications.
6. What is Alibaba Cloud Function Compute?
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute is a fully managed event-based computing service. It allows you to focus on scripting and uploading code without the need to manage infrastructure servers. It also offers computing resources to run the code flexibly and reliably.
Function Compute finds primary usage in the following application scenarios:
- Web Applications: These applications, written in various languages, can either be newly developed programs using serverless frameworks or existing applications. Examples include serving as the backend for a Mini Program or a web API.
- Highly Scalable Computing Applications: Function Compute is well-suited for applications requiring extensive computing power, such as AI inference, audio and video processing, and image-to-text conversion.
- Event-Driven Applications: Examples of these applications include webhooks and scheduled tasks within scenarios driven by other Alibaba Cloud products.
Function Compute is seamlessly integrated with more than a dozen products, including Object Storage Service (OSS), Table Store, Timer, CDN, Log Service, and CloudMonitor. This integration enables the swift assembly of business logic.
7. What is an object storage service in Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) refers to encrypted, secure, cost-effective, and easy-to-use object storage service that helps you to store, back up, and archive massive amounts of data in the cloud, with a durability of 99.9999999999%(12 9s).
Customers across various sizes and industries can utilize it to store and safeguard any volume of data for a range of use cases. These include backup and restore, content distribution, data lakes, websites, mobile applications, data archiving, and IoT devices.
8. What is a Simple Application Server and its uses?
Simple Application Server uses the computing, storage, and networking resources of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) along with Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images and public images.
It helps you to deploy applications with a few clicks and it is suitable for Cloud computing services new users, developers, or small or medium-sized enterprises who want to implement simple applications on servers.
Simple Application Server provides the key benefits such as:
- No need for on-premises physical hosts, which eliminates hardware requirements.
- User-friendly operation experience with rapid delivery and deployment within minutes.
- Cloud computing resources are available through cost-effective plans for robust performance.
- Security protection features include firewalls, HTTPS access, internal network isolation, and data backup.
- Operational and maintenance (O&M) features such as resource monitoring, self-diagnostics, and operation logs.
- Support for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images, public images (OS images), and application image management.
- Industry-standard API enhances ease of use and compatibility.
9. What are the features of Alibaba Cloud?
Some of the features of Alibaba Cloud such as:
- Access Controls/Permissions
- API
- Alerts/Escalation
- Alerts/Notifications
- Anti-Virus
- Applications Management
- Audit Management
- Authentication
- Automatic Backup
- Certification & Licensing
- Cloud Computing
- Configurable Workflow
- Data Migration
- Data Security
- Data Storage Management
- Data Visualization
- Database Support
- File Management
- Task Scheduling
- Third-Party Integrations
- User Defined Attributes
10. What are the benefits of Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud provides the following advantages:
- Cutting-edge features
- Technical advantages
- Competitive pricing strategies
- Expansive ecosystem services
- Service support
11. What are the services offered by Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud provides cloud services that operate on a pay-as-you-go model, which includes elastic computing, data storage, relational databases, big data processing, anti-DDoS protection, and content delivery networks (CDN).
12. What is the function of the Alibaba Cloud Security Center?
Security Center issues real-time alerts upon detecting risks. Within the Security Center console, you can oversee security alerts, conduct vulnerability scans and remediation, analyze attacks, and perform configuration assessments. Security Center is equipped to analyze alerts and track attacks, thereby enhancing the security posture of your assets.
13. What is a Server Load Balancer (SLB)?
Server Load Balancer (SLB) offers high-performance load balancing services with robust 24/7 processing capabilities. Network Load Balancer (NLB) provides powerful processing capabilities at Layer 7, with a single NLB instance supporting up to 100 million concurrent connections.
The recently introduced Application Load Balancer (ALB) service, built on Alibaba Cloud Apsara Network 2.0, supports a high throughput of up to 1,000,000 queries per second (QPS).
SLB instances are designed for high performance and support auto-scaling. They can dynamically adjust resources based on your business requirements, simplifying operations and maintenance (O&M).
14. What is Alibaba Cloud DNS PrivateZone?
Alibaba Cloud DNS PrivateZone is a user-friendly DNS resolution service tailored for corporate intranets. It facilitates the resolution of both internal and external domain names within corporate environments, including Alibaba Cloud Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and on-premises data centers.
This service enables the definition of private authoritative domain names in corporate intranets, offering features such as cache management, cache clearing, forwarding DNS requests, sending recursive queries to the Internet, and analyzing traffic for DNS requests. These capabilities contribute to faster and more secure internal DNS resolution.
15. What is Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN)?
Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) is a robust network infrastructure established on Alibaba Cloud’s global private network. CEN utilizes transit routers to create inter-region connections among Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs).
In simpler terms, it is a high-availability network service that facilitates seamless and secure communication between different VPCs within the Alibaba Cloud ecosystem. This allows organizations to build a well-connected and scalable network architecture across various regions, enhancing the efficiency and flexibility of their cloud-based operations.
16. What is Smart Access Gateway (SAG)?
The Smart Access Gateway (SAG) is a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) solution offered by Alibaba Cloud. It enables the secure, intelligent, and reliable connection of private networks to Alibaba Cloud. SAG serves as a technology solution for organizations seeking to establish and manage their network connections flexibly and efficiently within the Alibaba Cloud environment.
17. What is Alibaba Cloud DNS?
Alibaba Cloud DNS is a secure, fast, stable, and reliable authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) service. It assists enterprises and developers in converting human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses.
By doing so, Alibaba Cloud DNS efficiently routes user requests to the necessary website or application servers, facilitating seamless and reliable Internet communication.
18. What is Alibaba Cloud’s Electronic Shelf Label (ESL)?
Alibaba Cloud’s Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) stands at the forefront of innovation, integrating advanced technologies to elevate the retail experience. CloudESL incorporates a smart display that dynamically updates prices in real-time, adjusting templates based on various scenarios. The system provides a dynamic showcase of real-time inventory, product details, order status, and other pertinent information.
CloudESL goes beyond traditional boundaries by bridging the gap between online and offline retail. It empowers offline customers to access online resources and services through QR code scanning, enriching the shopping experience and contributing to higher customer conversion rates.
19. Which database is used by Alibaba?
Alibaba Cloud primarily uses ApsaraDB for MySQL as its relational database management service. ApsaraDB for MySQL is a cloud-based database service that supports MySQL, a popular open-source relational database management system. It provides scalable, secure, and high-performance MySQL database solutions for businesses hosted on Alibaba Cloud.
20. What is Alibaba Cloud CDN?
Alibaba Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a global network infrastructure consisting of points of presence (POPs) distributed around the world. The purpose of Alibaba Cloud CDN is to optimize the delivery of content over the internet by reducing the need for back-and-forth traffic to the origin server.
21. What is a Dedicated Host (DDH)?
The Dedicated Host (DDH) is a specialized solution offered by Alibaba Cloud designed specifically for enterprise customers. This service provides highly cost-effective features, including dedicated physical resources, flexible deployment options, and rich configurations.
22. Define Alibaba Cloud vs AWS.
Both Alibaba Cloud and AWS provide a range of storage services, encompassing block, object, and file storage. Alibaba Cloud’s storage offerings consist of Object Storage Service (OSS), Elastic Block Storage (EBS), and Network Attached Storage (NAS). In comparison, AWS offers similar services with S3 for object storage, Elastic Block Store (EBS) for block storage, and Elastic File System (EFS) for file storage.
23. Define Alibaba Cloud VMware Service.
Alibaba Cloud VMware Service (ACVS) is a collaborative enterprise-level VMware Cloud solution developed by Alibaba Cloud and VMware. Alibaba Cloud handles sales, operations, and post-sales support.
ACVS automatically establishes exclusive VMware environments, known as PrivateCloud instances, utilizing VMware Cloud software on dedicated physical servers.
24. What is Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch?
Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch is a cloud-based service that provides built-in integrations like Kibana, commercial features, and compatibility with Alibaba Cloud VPC, Cloud Monitor, and Resource Access Management.
Utilizing a Pay-As-You-Go billing model, Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch offers a cost savings of 30% compared to self-built solutions. This approach not only reduces expenses but also eliminates the challenges associated with maintaining and scaling your platform.
25. What is Alibaba Cloud Secure DCDN?
Alibaba Cloud Secure DCDN (Dynamic Route for CDN) is an acceleration service designed to enhance Content Delivery Network (CDN) performance for both dynamic and static content. It incorporates computing capabilities and security services deployed at the edge, incurring no additional costs.
Alibaba Cloud DCDN prioritizes content security, employing globally recognized security products endorsed by industry leaders such as Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.
These security features include WAF (Web Application Firewall), bot management, and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection. The service operates on a global edge network, reducing latency by 50% and ensuring rapid scalability with high capacity.
Know More : List of Alibaba Cloud Big Data Certifications
Conclusion
Hope this article provides commonly asked Alibaba Cloud interview questions and answers to assist both mid-level experienced professionals and freshers in preparing for their interviews.
By going through these Alibaba Cloud interview questions, you can solidify your understanding of the platform’s services and gain confidence in tackling real-world scenarios.
Furthermore, practicing these questions will not only help you in acing the interview but also enhance your hands-on experience, ensuring you are well-prepared to navigate the complexities of Alibaba Cloud in professional settings.
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