Azure Interview Questions
34 questions
Azure interview questions covering identity and networking (managed identities, RBAC, Key Vault, private connectivity), compute (App Service, Azure Functions), storage (Blob Storage access, security, and recovery), and AKS — scenario-driven, matching the same depth as this site's AWS and GCP coverage.
How does the Kubernetes cluster autoscaler decide which node pool to scale when multiple pools could satisfy a pending pod?
AdvancedAzureKubernetesAKS7 min
Your AKS cluster is under CPU pressure and pods are stuck Pending, but the cluster autoscaler isn't adding nodes. How would you troubleshoot it?
AdvancedAzureKubernetesAKS10 min
Should a new AKS cluster use native Kubernetes RBAC or Azure RBAC for Kubernetes Authorization to control kubectl-level access, and what does the Azure option actually change?
IntermediateAzureKubernetesAKS6 min
You're standing up a new AKS cluster and need to choose a network plugin: Azure CNI or kubenet. What's the actual trade-off, and why can this decision be hard to reverse later?
IntermediateAzureKubernetesAKS7 min
How would Karpenter-style node provisioning change the troubleshooting process compared to the traditional Kubernetes cluster autoscaler?
AdvancedKubernetes7 min
A new LoadBalancer-type Service in AKS has been stuck in 'Pending' with no external IP for twenty minutes. How do you actually diagnose this in Azure specifically?
IntermediateAzureKubernetesAKS6 min
A team converted their AKS cluster to a private cluster for security reasons. The next day, several engineers and a CI/CD pipeline can no longer run kubectl commands at all. How do you diagnose this?
AdvancedAzureKubernetesAKS7 min
During a live incident, how would you distinguish a genuinely slow autoscaler scale-up from one that's actually stuck and won't complete on its own?
IntermediateAzureKubernetesAKS7 min
How would you let a pod in AKS call a Key Vault or Storage API using its own Azure identity, without mounting any credential file or secret into the pod at all?
AdvancedAzureKubernetesAKS7 min
A just-deployed App Service release is causing production errors and needs an immediate rollback. Is swapping back to the previous slot genuinely faster than redeploying the old package?
IntermediateAzureApp Service6 min
An App Service using Managed Identity to call a storage account worked fine for months. After a Private Endpoint was added to that storage account, the App Service started failing to reach it. Why?
AdvancedAzureApp ServiceBlob Storage7 min
How would you decide between App Service, Azure Functions, and AKS for a new event-driven workload, beyond just 'Functions is for small things'?
IntermediateAzureApp ServiceAzure Functions7 min
A Consumption-plan Azure Function triggered by new Blob Storage uploads is intermittently missing events during bursty upload periods — why, and how do you fix it?
AdvancedAzureAzure FunctionsBlob Storage7 min
How would you design a zero-downtime, safely-rollback-able release process for an App Service using deployment slots?
AdvancedAzureApp Service8 min
An App Service deployment tested perfectly in staging, but broke immediately in production right after a slot swap. What's the most likely cause, and how do you investigate it?
IntermediateAzureApp Service6 min
An Azure Function on the Consumption plan is getting cold-start complaints, and someone suggests 'just move it to Premium.' When does that actually pay for itself, versus just adding cost?
IntermediateAzureAzure Functions6 min
Right after scaling an App Service plan from one instance to several, users started randomly getting logged out and losing cart contents. What changed, and how would you fix it properly?
IntermediateAzureApp Service6 min
A CI/CD pipeline that's authenticated successfully for months suddenly starts failing with an authentication error, right after the security team enabled a new Conditional Access policy. What's happening?
AdvancedAzure7 min
A new Key Vault needs a permission model — should you use Azure RBAC or the older vault access policies, and why does Key Vault even have two separate systems for this?
IntermediateAzureKey Vault6 min
How would you design secret rotation for a live, high-traffic application backed by Key Vault, so rotating a credential never causes a production outage?
ExpertAzureKey Vault8 min
A Function App using Managed Identity to read a Key Vault secret works most of the time, but intermittently fails on startup with an authorization error. How do you actually diagnose this?
AdvancedAzureKey Vault7 min
An Azure DevOps pipeline currently authenticates to Azure using a service principal with a stored client secret. Why would you migrate to a managed identity instead, and what are the actual limits of doing so?
IntermediateAzure7 min
You need to control outbound traffic from a VNet, including blocking access to specific malicious domains and inspecting traffic content. Are Network Security Groups sufficient, or do you need Azure Firewall?
IntermediateAzure7 min
An app needs to reach an Azure Storage account without traffic crossing the public internet. Should you use a Service Endpoint or a Private Endpoint, and what's the actual security difference?
IntermediateAzure7 min