Serverless Computing

Question 1

Q: What is serverless computing?

Answer 1

A: A cloud computing model where the cloud provider dynamically manages server resources, enabling developers to focus on writing code without managing infrastructure.

Question 2

Q: What are the key benefits of serverless computing?

Answer 2

A: Reduced operational overhead, automatic scaling, cost efficiency (pay-as-you-go), and faster development cycles.

Question 3

Q: What is AWS Lambda?

Answer 3

A: A compute service that runs code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources.

Question 4

Q: What are some common triggers for AWS Lambda?

Answer 4

A: S3 events, DynamoDB streams, API Gateway, CloudWatch Events, and SQS messages.

Question 5

Q: What runtimes does AWS Lambda support?

Answer 5

A: Examples include Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and custom runtimes via Lambda Layers.

Question 6

Q: What is the execution environment for AWS Lambda?

Answer 6

A: A secure, isolated runtime environment with pre-configured memory, CPU, and ephemeral storage.

Question 7

Q: What are some key limits of AWS Lambda?

Answer 7

A: Maximum memory: 10 GB, max timeout: 15 minutes, and max payload size: 6 MB (synchronous) or 256 KB (asynchronous).

Question 8

Q: How is AWS Lambda priced?

Answer 8

A: Based on the number of requests and the duration (execution time multiplied by allocated memory).

Question 9

Q: What is Amazon API Gateway?

Answer 9

A: A service for creating, deploying, and managing APIs as a gateway for Lambda functions or other backend services.

Question 10

Q: What is event-driven architecture in serverless computing?

Answer 10

A: A design paradigm where services react to events, enabling asynchronous and loosely coupled systems.

Question 11

Q: What are AWS Step Functions?

Answer 11

A: A serverless workflow service that coordinates the execution of multiple AWS services using a visual workflow.

Question 12

Q: Why is DynamoDB commonly used in serverless applications?

Answer 12

A: DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database with auto-scaling and high availability, ideal for event-driven use cases.

Question 13

Q: How is Amazon S3 used in serverless computing?

Answer 13

A: As a trigger for Lambda functions, a static website host, or a scalable storage solution.

Question 14

Q: What is the AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)?

Answer 14

A: A framework for building serverless applications using templates to define resources and configurations.

Question 15

Q: How does CloudFormation support serverless applications?

Answer 15

A: By defining infrastructure as code, including Lambda functions, API Gateway, and DynamoDB resources.

Question 16

Q: What is AWS Amplify?

Answer 16

A: A serverless platform for building and deploying scalable web and mobile applications with features like authentication and analytics.

Question 17

Q: What is AWS Fargate?

Answer 17

A: A serverless compute engine for containers that eliminates the need to manage EC2 instances for ECS or EKS.

Question 18

Q: What are Lambda Layers?

Answer 18

A: A feature that allows you to share common code or dependencies across multiple Lambda functions.

Question 19

Q: What is Lambda@Edge?

Answer 19

A: A feature that allows you to run Lambda functions at AWS CloudFront edge locations to handle content delivery closer to users.

Question 20

Q: What is AWS App Runner?

Answer 20

A: A fully managed service that makes it easy to build and deploy web applications and APIs using containers.

Question 21

Q: How is Amazon Kinesis used in serverless architectures?

Answer 21

A: For real-time data streaming and triggering Lambda functions for analytics or processing.

Question 22

Q: What is Amazon EventBridge?

Answer 22

A: A serverless event bus service for routing events between AWS services, SaaS apps, and custom applications.

Question 23

Q: How is CI/CD implemented in serverless applications?

Answer 23

A: Using CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and SAM CLI to automate deployment and testing of serverless apps.

Question 24

Q: What are best practices for securing serverless applications?

Answer 24

A: Use least privilege in IAM roles, enable VPC access, use encryption, and monitor with CloudWatch.

Question 25

Q: What is a cold start in AWS Lambda?

Answer 25

A: A delay when a function is invoked for the first time or after being idle, as the runtime environment is initialized.

Question 26

Q: What is a warm start in AWS Lambda?

Answer 26

A: When a Lambda function is invoked and an already initialized runtime environment is reused, reducing latency.

Question 27

Q: What is the Serverless Framework?

Answer 27

A: An open-source framework for building and deploying serverless applications across multiple cloud providers.

Question 28

Q: How do you monitor serverless applications?

Answer 28

A: Using CloudWatch for metrics and logs, X-Ray for tracing, and third-party tools like Datadog.

Question 29

Q: Why would you connect a Lambda function to a VPC?

Answer 29

A: To access private resources like RDS or Elasticache in a VPC.

Question 30

Q: What are common use cases for serverless computing?

Answer 30

A: Real-time data processing, REST APIs, IoT backends, chatbots, and static website hosting.

Question 31

Q: What are some disadvantages of serverless computing?

Answer 31

A: Cold starts, vendor lock-in, limited execution time (e.g., Lambda’s 15-minute limit), and debugging challenges.

Question 32

Q: How is CodePipeline used in serverless computing?

Answer 32

A: To automate the deployment and testing of serverless applications.

Question 33

Q: How is SQS used in serverless applications?

Answer 33

A: As a message queue for decoupling and triggering Lambda functions asynchronously.