Azure Admin Interview Questions & Answers

1. What is Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), and how does it work?

Azure AD is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. It helps users sign in and access both internal and external resources, like Microsoft 365 and third-party applications. Azure AD offers single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and conditional access policies to enhance security. It also supports integration with on-premises AD using Azure AD Connect.

2. What is the difference between Azure App Service and Azure Functions?

Azure App Service is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that hosts web apps, RESTful APIs, and mobile backends. It offers built-in scaling, load balancing, and CI/CD integration.

Azure Functions, on the other hand, are event-driven, serverless compute services that execute code in response to triggers. They are ideal for microservices and background tasks without managing servers.

3. How do you secure data at rest and data in transit in Azure?

Data at rest can be secured using Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) and Azure Disk Encryption. Encryption keys can be managed through Azure Key Vault for better security.

For data in transit, use SSL/TLS protocols and configure HTTPS for web apps. VPNs and ExpressRoute can also ensure secure transmission of data between on-premises and Azure resources.

4. What are Azure VM Scale Sets, and why are they important?

Azure VM Scale Sets allow you to deploy and manage a set of identical VMs. They automatically scale the number of VMs up or down based on demand, ensuring high availability and resilience.

They integrate seamlessly with load balancers and auto-scaling policies, making them ideal for large-scale applications with unpredictable workloads.

5. What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM), and what are its benefits?

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the deployment and management service for Azure. It provides a unified way to manage resources through templates (ARM templates), REST APIs, and the Azure portal.

Benefits include resource grouping, declarative management through JSON templates, and role-based access control (RBAC) to secure resources.

6. What is the difference between Azure Blob Storage and Azure File Storage?

Azure Blob Storage is designed for storing unstructured data, such as images, videos, and logs. It supports block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs.

Azure File Storage, however, provides fully managed file shares accessible through the SMB protocol. It’s ideal for legacy applications requiring shared access.

7. How do you implement high availability for Azure SQL Database?

Azure SQL Database supports high availability through features like geo-replication and active geo-replication.

It uses built-in automated backups and point-in-time restore to ensure data continuity.

Failover groups and auto-failover policies can be configured to maintain availability during outages.

Elastic pools also distribute workloads across databases to optimize performance and availability.

8. What is the purpose of Azure Traffic Manager?

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer that distributes traffic to various services across global Azure regions.

It supports multiple routing methods, including priority, performance, geographic, and weighted.

Traffic Manager ensures high availability by automatically redirecting users to the next available endpoint when a failure occurs.

It helps reduce latency by directing users to the nearest data center.

9. What are Network Security Groups (NSGs) in Azure?

NSGs are used to filter network traffic to and from Azure resources in a virtual network.

They contain security rules that define whether traffic is allowed or denied based on source, destination, port, and protocol.

NSGs can be associated with subnets or individual VM network interfaces.

They play a crucial role in securing your Azure environment by controlling inbound and outbound traffic.

10. How does Azure Monitor help in managing resources?

Azure Monitor collects, analyzes, and acts on telemetry data from your Azure environment.

It provides insights through metrics, logs, and diagnostic settings to track resource health and performance.

Integration with Log Analytics allows you to perform complex queries and generate insights.

Azure Monitor also enables alerting, automated responses, and integration with ITSM tools for incident management.

11. What is Azure Policy, and how does it help in resource management?

Azure Policy is a service that helps you create, assign, and manage policies to enforce organizational standards and compliance. It evaluates resources for non-compliance both during deployment and continuously afterward. By applying policies, you can ensure that resources adhere to rules such as allowed locations or specific VM sizes. Policy compliance results are displayed in the Azure portal, allowing for easy tracking and remediation.

12. What is Azure Bastion, and why is it used?

Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS that provides secure RDP and SSH access to your VMs without exposing them to the public internet. It acts as a jump box and is deployed within your virtual network, allowing seamless and secure access. Bastion eliminates the need to configure a public IP on VMs, reducing the attack surface. It provides end-to-end encrypted connections using the Azure portal.

13. Explain Azure Availability Zones and their purpose.

Azure Availability Zones are physically separate data center locations within an Azure region. They offer high availability by distributing resources across different zones, protecting against data center failures. Each zone has its own power, cooling, and networking, ensuring fault isolation. By deploying resources across multiple zones, you achieve redundancy and minimize downtime.

14. What is Azure Site Recovery (ASR), and how does it work?

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a disaster recovery solution that replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines. It automates replication, failover, and recovery processes to keep applications operational during outages. ASR supports replication of Azure VMs, on-premises VMs, and physical servers to Azure. It ensures minimal downtime by orchestrating the failover process with customized recovery plans.

15. How do you implement load balancing in Azure?

Azure provides several load balancing options, including Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and Traffic Manager.

Azure Load Balancer works at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and is used for distributing incoming network traffic.
Application Gateway operates at Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) and provides features like URL-based routing and SSL termination.
Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to direct traffic to the most responsive endpoint across global regions.

16. What are Managed Identities in Azure, and why are they important?

Managed Identities in Azure are used to securely access Azure resources without requiring credentials. There are two types: System-assigned and User-assigned managed identities. They simplify identity and access management by automatically handling token acquisition and renewal. They are commonly used with Azure services like Key Vault, Azure Functions, and VMs to avoid hardcoding credentials.

17. What are Azure Blueprints, and how do they help with governance?

Azure Blueprints are templates that enable you to define and repeat sets of Azure resources. They help automate the deployment of environments that meet organizational compliance and standards. Blueprints include resource groups, policies, role assignments, and ARM templates. Once deployed, they ensure consistent, governed infrastructure across your Azure environment.

18. What is Azure Private Link, and how does it enhance security?

Azure Private Link allows you to access Azure services over a private endpoint within your virtual network. It eliminates exposure to the public internet, thus reducing the risk of data breaches. Private endpoints establish secure connectivity through Microsoft’s backbone network. It is ideal for securing services like Azure SQL Database, Azure Storage, and Azure Web Apps.

19. How can you automate VM creation and configuration in Azure?

Automation in Azure can be achieved using ARM templates, Azure CLI, PowerShell scripts, or Terraform.

ARM templates define the desired state of resources using JSON, allowing repeatable and automated deployments.
Azure CLI and PowerShell provide scripting capabilities to manage resources programmatically.
Terraform offers infrastructure-as-code (IaC) to provision and manage Azure resources using a declarative approach.

20. What are Azure Tags, and why are they useful?

Azure Tags are metadata elements that you assign to your Azure resources. They consist of key-value pairs and help categorize and organize resources logically. Tags enable efficient resource management, cost tracking, and automation based on metadata. By applying tags consistently, you can filter, group, and manage resources more effectively in the Azure portal.

21. How does Azure Monitor differ from Azure Log Analytics?

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your Azure resources. Azure Log Analytics, part of Azure Monitor, focuses on querying and analyzing log data using Kusto Query Language (KQL). Monitor provides insights through metrics, alerts, and diagnostics, while Log Analytics specializes in log analysis and reporting. Together, they help you gain real-time visibility and diagnose performance issues efficiently.

22. What is the purpose of Azure Key Vault?

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that securely stores and manages secrets, encryption keys, and certificates. It helps safeguard sensitive data by controlling access through role-based access control (RBAC) and policies. The vault supports automatic rotation of secrets and integrates seamlessly with other Azure services. Using Key Vault helps reduce the risk of accidental exposure of sensitive information.

23. Explain the concept of Azure Virtual Network (VNet) peering.

Azure VNet peering connects two VNets within the same or different Azure regions. It enables seamless, low-latency connectivity between the networks without routing traffic over the public internet. Peering supports both inbound and outbound communication, allowing resources to interact privately. It’s commonly used to link VNets for applications that span multiple regions or subscriptions.

24. What are Azure Availability Sets, and why are they important?

Availability Sets in Azure are used to ensure high availability of VMs by distributing them across multiple fault domains and update domains. Fault domains protect against physical hardware failures, while update domains minimize impact during maintenance. By configuring Availability Sets, you reduce the risk of simultaneous failures and enhance fault tolerance. They are essential for maintaining SLA guarantees of 99.95% uptime.

25. What is Azure Automation, and how does it benefit administrators?

Azure Automation is a service that automates repetitive tasks using runbooks and configurations. It helps reduce manual effort and minimizes errors by executing scripts on a scheduled basis. Runbooks can be created using PowerShell or Python to manage resources and services. Automation also supports configuration management with Desired State Configuration (DSC) to maintain consistency across environments.

26. What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM), and why is it important?

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the deployment and management service for Azure resources. It provides a consistent management layer to create, update, and delete resources in a unified way. ARM templates support declarative resource provisioning, enabling automation and efficient infrastructure management. It also ensures role-based access control (RBAC) and resource grouping.

27. Explain Azure Traffic Manager and its use cases.

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that routes traffic across multiple Azure regions. It enhances application availability and performance by directing users to the nearest endpoint. Use cases include geographic routing, failover management, and load distribution for global applications. It supports multiple routing methods, including priority and performance.

28. What is Azure Blob Storage, and how is it used?

Azure Blob Storage is a scalable, object-based storage solution for unstructured data like text, images, and videos. It is commonly used for data archiving, backups, data lakes, and streaming media content. Blob Storage supports hot, cool, and archive tiers to optimize cost and performance. It also integrates seamlessly with Azure Data Lake and analytics services.

29. How does Azure CDN enhance application performance?

Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) accelerates content delivery by caching data at strategically placed global edge locations. This reduces latency and improves load times for websites, apps, and media streaming. It supports dynamic content acceleration and content protection through secure token authentication. Ideal for high-traffic and media-rich applications.

30. What is Azure Service Fabric?

Azure Service Fabric is a platform for building and managing microservices and containerized applications. It supports stateful and stateless services with automatic scaling and self-healing capabilities. Service Fabric ensures high availability and fault tolerance, making it ideal for complex, scalable, and distributed systems. It also integrates with Azure DevOps for continuous delivery.

31. Explain Azure Storage Queues.

Azure Storage Queues are used to store large numbers of messages for asynchronous processing. They facilitate communication between components of distributed applications. Queues support reliable message delivery and scalable processing.

32. What are Azure Logic Apps?

Azure Logic Apps are cloud-based services for automating workflows and integrations. They enable connecting apps, data, and services through predefined templates. Logic Apps simplify building complex automation solutions.

33. What is Azure API Management?

Azure API Management is a fully managed service for publishing and managing APIs. It provides secure access, rate limiting, and analytics. Use it to expose backend services as APIs efficiently.

34. What are Azure Functions?

Azure Functions are serverless compute services for executing event-driven code. They auto-scale based on demand and reduce infrastructure management. Ideal for lightweight, triggered tasks.

35. What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) automates Kubernetes container orchestration. It simplifies deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. AKS integrates seamlessly with Azure DevOps and monitoring tools.

36. What is Azure Advisor?

Azure Advisor provides recommendations to optimize performance, security, and cost. It analyzes your resources and suggests improvements. Regularly reviewing Advisor insights helps maintain a well-managed environment.

37. What is Azure Virtual WAN?

Azure Virtual WAN is a networking service for interconnecting branches, VPNs, and Azure services. It simplifies large-scale connectivity and centralizes network management. Ideal for building global network architectures.

38. What are Azure Service Endpoints?

Azure Service Endpoints provide secure connectivity to Azure services within a virtual network. They enhance security by restricting public internet access. Use them to connect services like Azure Storage securely.

39. Explain Azure Active Directory (AAD) B2C.

Azure AD B2C is an identity management service for customer-facing applications. It allows secure authentication through social and enterprise accounts. Supports custom branding and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

40. What is Azure Cost Management?

Azure Cost Management helps monitor and control cloud spending. It provides insights into cost drivers and spending patterns. Use it to optimize resource usage and manage budgets effectively.

41. What are Azure Resource Locks?

Azure Resource Locks prevent accidental deletion or modification of critical resources. There are two types: CanNotDelete and ReadOnly. Applying locks enhances resource protection and governance.

42. What is Azure Event Grid?

Azure Event Grid is a serverless event routing service. It simplifies event-driven architectures by delivering events to subscribers. Supports integration with Azure services and external systems.

43. What is Azure Disk Encryption?

Azure Disk Encryption uses BitLocker and DM-Crypt to secure data on VMs. It protects managed disks and enhances data security. Integrates with Azure Key Vault for key management.

44. What is Azure Lighthouse?

Azure Lighthouse allows service providers to manage multiple customer tenants from a single portal. It improves cross-tenant visibility and management. Enables scalable and efficient multi-tenant operations.

45. What is Azure Firewall?

Azure Firewall is a managed network security service for protecting resources. It provides threat intelligence, policy management, and logging. Supports both inbound and outbound filtering.

46. What is Azure Application Insights?

Azure Application Insights monitors application performance and usage. It collects telemetry data to detect issues and improve performance. Supports integrating with development and DevOps workflows.

47. What is Azure Cosmos DB?

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database. It offers low-latency data access and automatic scaling. Supports multiple consistency models and APIs.

48. What is Azure Monitor Logs?

Azure Monitor Logs store and analyze log data from various sources. Use it to gain insights and monitor application health. It integrates with Log Analytics for querying and reporting.

49. What is Azure Bastion Host?

Azure Bastion Host provides secure RDP and SSH connectivity to VMs. It eliminates the need for public IP addresses, enhancing security. Accessible directly from the Azure portal.

50. What is Azure Site-to-Site VPN?

Azure Site-to-Site VPN establishes secure connectivity between on-premises networks and Azure VNet. It uses IPsec/IKE to encrypt data traffic. Enables seamless hybrid network integration.

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Azure Admin Interview Questions & Answers