Hello Reader, Not all System Designs are created equal! To make matters complicated, there are so many designs out there. As a former Principal Solutions Architect at AWS and Distinguished Cloud Architect at Verizon, I have taken over 300+ interviews, and I have seen three patterns coming over and over in interviews. In this newsletter edition, we will go through 3 System Design patterns that appear the MOST in cloud interviews and actual projects. If you nail these 3, you will be ahead of...
about 23 hours ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, Claude. ChatGPT. Gemini. Copilot. If you're not using at least one of these daily, you're the outlier. So here's the uncomfortable truth: walking into an interview and saying "I use Claude Code every day" is no longer impressive. It's table stakes. That's the average answer. And average doesn't get you hired. In today's edition, I'll show you what separates a forgettable Gen AI answer from one that makes the interviewer lean forward. The Average Answer (And Why It Fails) Here's...
4 days ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, Recruiters reaching out to you for interviews. That's the dream, right? And one of the best ways to make that happen is a badge most cloud professionals have never heard of - the AWS Community Builder. I've had multiple students get accepted into this program recently. Recruiters started finding them on LinkedIn. Interview calls went up. And the best part? You don't need to be a Principal Architect or a 10x AWS certified rockstar to qualify. In today's newsletter, I'll show you...
11 days ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, On March 31, 2026, one Anthropic engineer forgot to add a single line to a config file. That omission shipped a 59.8MB debug file alongside the Claude Code npm package, exposing 512,000 lines of TypeScript code across 1,900 files to the entire internet. Within hours, it was mirrored on GitHub and dissected by thousands of developers. Most coverage got lost in the drama of it. The real story is what the code reveals about how AI agent tools actually work, and where they are...
18 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, Almost every cloud and Gen AI interview right now includes this question. And almost every candidate gets it wrong. Not because they don't know Gen AI. But because they know too many terms and connect none of them. Let's fix that today. Question: What is an AI Agent? Common but average answer - "An agent can perform complex tasks without a prompt." Why is this average? It doesn't explain the superpower of an AI agent. It doesn't show how agents are different from a simple...
29 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Everyone's building AI agents. If you've been following our newsletters, on MCP, on agent memory, on getting hired, you know that agents are the next evolution. They connect to your tools, they take actions on your behalf, and they're moving from demos into production faster than most organizations are ready for. But the question almost nobody is asking: who is securing the AI itself and how? To answer that, we welcome Adam Bluhm, Principal AI Architect @HiddenLayer (Ex-AWS)....
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Hello Reader, Agents are everywhere. But there’s a big difference between using an agent and building one end-to-end. Let's face it - if you tell a recruiter that you played with Claude or ChatGPT, or even created a workflow using n8n, that won't impress them. Because when a company hires you, it expects you to know how to build agent using the infrastructure components. With that in mind, let's turn our attention to how to build an agent. Good Agent Let's take a look at building a good...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, If you listen to the loudest voices online, you’d think cloud careers are over. AI agents will design architectures. AGI will explain that to the executives. Coding agents will write everything. As per Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei - Software engineers will be obsolete in 6 - 12 months. And they are the brightest and smartest. If they are doomed, what chances do us, the mere mortals, have? If you look at open Solutions Architect positions, even at AWS, or Microsoft, or Google, it...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, In today’s post, let’s look at another correct but average answer and a great answer that gets you hired to common cloud interview questions. Question - How will you secure your application on AWS? Common but average answer(s) I will use KMS, IAM, and firewall for security I will use KMS for encryption, IAM for access, Security Group, Private subnet Why average? What the interviewer is looking for is you understand different attack vectors and how to mitigate them. Explain what...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, We all heard it - Gen AI is taking away your job. The reality is, it is for sure impacting your job functionalities. However, there is a bigger reason why many folks are failing interviews and not growing in their career, due to Gen AI, but NOT for the reasons you think! Let's dive deep. Moltbot/Clawdbot/OpenClaw is all over the internet. Everyone and their mother is installing it. It can delete spam emails, schedule meetings, monitor your flight confirmation, check you in, and...
2 months ago • 3 min read