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Fast Track To Cloud

Free Cloud Interview Guide to crush your next interview. Plus, real-world answers for cloud interviews, and system design from a top Solutions Architect at AWS.

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Interview Question - CI Vs CD Vs CD

Hello Reader, One of the very common interview questions is, "What does CICD stand for in DevOps?". Sounds pretty simple, right? But I can't tell you how many people have gotten this wrong when I ask this question in interviews. So, let's understand this once and for all, using the below diagram: Make sure to memorize the phases (Author, Source, Build, Test, Deploy, Monitor) and what they are (e.g., the Author phase is where developers write code, in the Source phase code is checked-in,...

Hello Reader, In the previous newsletter edition, we took a look at top Gen AI tools, and how can you benefit from the trend. The matter of the fast is, even in general SA interviews, you have to expect Gen AI questions. This is similar to how you expect fundamental containerization and DevOps questions. Gen AI is becoming quite popular, and this is no exception. In today's edition, let's go over AWS Gen AI landsacape, that I am following: The image illustrates the AWS Generative AI (Gen AI)...

Hello Reader, Agentic AI is the new buzzword. Every YouTube video, LinkedIn article, and blog is about Agentic AI. In today's edition, we will go over what is Agentic AI, and why is it becoming so popular. To understand this, we have to see the evolution of LLMs, let's find out: In the beginning, there was a single LLM, and we were doing prompting. This was significant first step, but it had the following challenges: Static, pre-trained information Not able to integrate project-specific data...

Hello Reader, The landscape of generative AI (Gen AI) consumer applications is evolving rapidly, with new players emerging and established ones innovating at an unprecedented pace. In today's newsletter, we will take a look at the top Gen AI apps and, more importantly, how YOU can use this for your career growth and get more money. Generative AI Consumer Apps: The Top Performers ChatGPT's Resurgence: After an initial plateau, ChatGPT has surged to 400 million weekly active users, driven by...

mlops-diagram

Hello Reader, MLOps is gaining quite the buzz these days, given the rise of Gen AI. In today's newsletter, let's find out what MLOps is and why it is becoming so popular. This edition of the newsletter is written by Vijay Kodam, Principal Engineer at Nokia, and AWS Community Builder. MLOps is set of practices that streamline and automate machine learning workflows. It integrates DevOps practices into machine learning workflows to streamline machine learning operations. Why do we need MLOps?...

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Hello Reader, I have interviewed hundreds of candidates as Principal Solution Architect at AWS. I see some common mistakes candidates make that cost them the offer. But I wanted to validate my findings. So I asked some of my peers at Amazon, who have collectively taken thousands of interviews! In today's newsletter, I will share all of our top findings: 1/ Don't commit to an interview yetYou never thought you'd get that interview call in your dream company. But getting an interview call...

Hello Reader, I have been a Cloud Solutions Architect for 10 years now - 4 years at Verizon, 6+ years at AWS. I was an Application Cloud Architect at Verizon, and then I joined AWS, where I have had two different SA roles - first a General SA (Enterprise Architect) and then a Specialist SA, which is my current role. In this post, I will review my responsibilities as an SA in all these companies, including the hardest parts of the job (in my humble opinion). Let's get started: Solutions...

Hello Reader, A common system design interview question for Media and Entertainment domain is designing high scale live streaming applications. We just had Super Bowl in USA, which is the highest watched event in the USA (126 Million). How do high-scale sporting events like Super Bowl, Olympics, Soccer finals, and Cricket matches get streamed to millions of viewers? And how are personalized dynamic advertisements shown to you? Here's how: Live cameras in the stadium capture the action AWS...

Hello Reader, The dreaded review season is here. In this post, let me share a few things (that I found the hard way) that can help you get a better performance review: Impactful is better than shiny projects 🔨 I told my manager that I created a project involving the newest AWS Gen AI service features, mixed with Serverless and Kubernetes. And he asked me, "What was the impact?". That's when I realized my mistake. Doing shiny projects was cool in my mind, but unless it achieved the goal of the...

Hello Reader, This week DeepSeek shook the tech world. In this edition, we will learn why it crashed the market, why the market recovered, considerations of using it, and, importantly, the impact of DeepSeek on your job. Let's get started: How It Started DeepSeek R1 is a cutting-edge artificial intelligence model developed by the Chinese AI company DeepSeek. Launched on January 20, 2025, it has quickly gained attention for its impressive capabilities and cost-effectiveness. This is very...

Hello Reader, When I became a Cloud Architect a decade back, I always pursued perfect architecture. I'd search for AWS service which is THE best! However, after designing and deploying many critical systems, I came to the conclusion that no system design is perfect. Every service, tool, and design has trade-offs. In today's edition, let's discuss some of the main ones: Serverless Vs Kubernetes: Let's start with the most contentious one. I have been in countless meetings when person A thinks...