Learn what skills and qualities interviewers are looking for from a solution architect, what questions you can expect, and how you should go about answering them.
List common solution architect interview questions
- What’s your favorite thing about being a solutions architect?
- How long have you been working as a solutions architect?
- What are your strengths as a solutions architect?
- What are your weaknesses when it comes to performing the duties of a solutions architect?
- What is the most innovative solution you’ve proposed, working as a solutions architect?
- What is AWS?
- How can you protect against an injection attack?
- Describe your protocol for ensuring security?
- What can a solutions architect do to support functional analysts?
- What goals would you set for yourself as a professional solutions architect?
- What projects will you start within three months of starting this job as a solutions architect?
- What is your desired salary range?Explain a recent professional achievement.
- What skills are required of a solutions architect?
- Tell me about a recent successful project as a solutions architect?
- In your experience, whats the major benefit of being a solutions architect?
- How does your educational background prepare you to be a solutions architect?
- Explain any solutions architect projects in your portfolio.
SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Interview Questions & Answers!
1. What Roles Does An IT SolutionsArchitect Perform?
Solution architecture bridges gaps between technology solutions and business problems. Here, the interviewer will assess if you understand the roles of solution architects.
Tip 1: Describe various roles performed by a solution architect
Tip 2: Be brief but don’t miss out on important points
Sample Answer
“An IT solution architect leads and makes efforts to integrate IT systems so that they can conform to the organization’s requirements. The architect carries out an evaluation of system architecture and collaborates with IT development and project management teams to enhance the architecture.
IT solution architects guide and supervise developers and fix technical issues as they occur. Moreover, they assess project constraints in search of alternatives, undertake process re-engineering when required, and alleviate risks.”
2. What Key Qualities Should IT Solution Architects Possess?
Here, the interviewer is interested in knowing if you are well-aware of the qualities that an IT solution architect should have.
Tip 1: Give several qualities a good IT solution architect ought to possess
Tip 2: Be brief with your response
Sample Answer
“The role of an IT solution architect requires excellent communication skills and good technical background. Solution architects should have extensive experience across different systems and their architecture. A solution architect ought to have the ability to describe the behavior, characteristics, structure, and other elements of applications.
Moreover, they should be able to analyze technology environments and enterprise specifics. They should also be influential, have good negotiation skills, and be able to work collaboratively.”
3. What Is CAP Theorem?
- Consistency (all nodes see the same data even at the same time with concurrent updates )
- Availability (a guarantee that every request receives a response about whether it was successful or failed)
- Partition tolerance (the system continues to operate despite arbitrary message loss or failure of part of the system)
The CAP acronym corresponds to these three guarantees. This theorem has created the base for modern distributed computing approaches. Worlds most high volume traffic companies (e.g. Amazon, Google, Facebook) use this as basis for deciding their application architecture. It’s important to understand that only two of these three conditions can be guaranteed to be met by a system.
4. How did you become a solution architect?
This question can help interviewers learn more about your background and how you became a solution architect. Use this opportunity to share any experiences that helped you develop the skills needed for this role, such as training or certifications.
Example: “I started out in IT support, where I learned many of the basics of being an IT professional. After working there for several years, I decided to pursue my bachelor’s degree in computer science. While completing my degree, I took on internships at two different companies, which gave me valuable experience and helped me decide what type of career I wanted.”
5. Why is documentation important for solutions architects?
Solution architects need to be able to communicate their ideas and plans with other members of a team. This question helps the interviewer assess your communication skills and ability to work as part of a team. In your answer, demonstrate that you understand how important it is to document your solutions so others can learn from them.
Example: “Documentation is an essential skill for any solution architect because it allows me to share my knowledge and experience with others on the team. I find that documentation also helps me remember complex details about projects more easily. When I write down what I’m learning or thinking about, it helps me retain information better. It’s also helpful when I have to revisit old projects.”
6. Explain the difference between Asynchronous and Parallel programming?
Take for example rendering frames of a 3D animation. To render the animation takes a long time so if you were to launch that render from within your animation editing software you would make sure it was running asynchronously so it didn’t lock up your UI and you could continue doing other things. Now, each frame of that animation can also be considered as an individual task. If we have multiple CPUs/Cores or multiple machines available, we can render multiple frames in parallel to speed up the overall workload.
7. Define ACID Properties
- Atomicity: It ensures all-or-none rule for database modifications.
- Consistency: Data values are consistent across the database.
- Isolation: Two transactions are said to be independent of one another.
- Durability: Data is not lost even at the time of server failure.
8. What Is ACID Property Of A System?
- Atomicity – This property guarantees that if one part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction will fail, and the database state will be left unchanged.
- Consistency – This property ensures that any transaction will bring the database from one valid state to another.
- Isolation – This property ensures that the concurrent execution of transactions results in a system state that would be obtained if transactions were executed serially.
- Durable – means that once a transaction has been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of power loss.
9. As An IT Solution Architect, Which Highly Innovative Solution Have You Ever Created?
Here, the interviewer will assess your innovativeness and creativity.
Tip 1: Provide an innovative idea or application you came up with
Tip 2: Make sure to explain complex aspects to facilitate understanding
Example: “Four years ago, I came up with an artificial intelligence calendar app that suggests dates and times based on your meetings. The app can be linked to the email and intelligently suggest meetings’ time.”
10. What software development environments are you comfortable using?
The interviewer may ask this question to learn about your experience with different software development environments. Use your answer to highlight the ones you’re most comfortable using and explain why you feel that way.
Example: “I’m most comfortable working in Java, C++ and Python because I’ve used these languages for years. In my last role as a solution architect, I worked on projects that required me to use all three of these languages. For example, I would write code in Java, test it in C++ and then deploy it in Python. This process helped me ensure that the code I was writing was correct before deploying it into production.”
11. What Are Some Key Differences Between a Solution Architect and a Technical Architect?
Solution architects and technical architects work with each other to effectively meet both organizational and user requirements. Here are some key differences between the two:
So while a solutions architect translates a problem into a solution, the technical architect works within a solution.
12. What Steps Can You Take To Communicate Solutions To Customers Who Can’t Understand Or Agree With Your Assessment?
Here, the interviewer will assess if you can communicate solutions effectively and deal with difficult customers.
Tip 1: Give a brief and precise answer
Tip 2: Provide steps that solution architects can follow to communicate with disagreeing customers
Sample Answer
“To communicate assessment results to clients who can’t understand or agree, I will use the following steps:
- Permit clients to speak out – I will allow the clients to express their views and express their understanding in relation to the assessment until they release their concerns and calm down.
- Demonstrate my care – then I will utilize empathy statements to demonstrate my understanding of the client’s views and frustrations.
- Provide facts – this last step will involve communicating facts clearly to help the customers understand the assessment. When customers understand the triggers and causes, they are likely to understand the assessment results.”
13. Describe The Daily Routine Of An IT Solutions Architect?
Here, the interviewer will assess if you understand what solutions architects do every day.
Tip 1: Describe what the day is like for an IT solutions architect
Tip 2: Provide several activities solutions architects undertake daily
Sample Answer
“The daily activities of IT solutions architects entail correcting technical issues that arise, supervising and guiding development teams, and updating stakeholders about the process, budgets, and costs of project development. An IT solutions architect builds and integrates systems to conform to the organization’s needs.
The architect assesses existing systems architecture and works with technical staff to propose better solutions. Moreover, these experts research emerging technologies and assess the impact of technical risks on the business.”
14. What Security Approach Do You Take In Your Solutions?
The development of IT solutions ought to be consistent with certain security principles. Here, the interviewer wants to know whether your technological solutions are secure.
Tip 1: Describe the method you apply to guarantee the security
Tip 2: To add weight to your answer, demonstrate that your solutions are secure.
Sample Answer
“I ensure security by guarding databases against SQL injections, encoding data before it is used, and validating input data prior to its storage or use. Moreover, I implement access control to prevent unauthorized access. This also involves protecting the privacy of data through encryption. Moreover, I use HTTPS domains, set strong passwords, and conceal web server information.”
15. How Do IT Solutions Architects Diagnose Performance Issues?
Poor performance translates to losses in terms of decreased productivity, poor customer relations, and lost revenue. Here, the interviewer evaluates whether you are knowledgeable about the diagnosis of performance problems.
Tip 1: Demonstrate that you know how to diagnose performance issues
Tip 2: State ways that are employed in performance diagnosis
Sample Answer
“IT solutions architects can diagnose performance problems in five ways:
- Figuring out the solution that should be achieved.
- Determining the current state of affairs.
- Analyzing whether objectives can be achieved.
- Creating a plan to achieve the objectives.
- Carrying out a project’s economic analysis.”
16. In What Ways Can Scalability Be Addressed?
Here, the interviewer will test your ability to ensure a system can handle an increasing amount of work.
Tip 1: Provide ways in which scalability can be ensured
Tip 2: Be brief and precise with your answer
Sample Answer
“IT solutions architects enhance scalability by investing time in developing great codes. These software codes follow acceptable and standardized design patterns. They also ensure that system architecture, which concerns how codes are deployed on hardware, is designed correctly. If not, a business will have scaling issues. These measures ensure that IT solutions that are designed have the ability to accommodate growth.”
17. What is the most innovative solution you’ve proposed, working as a solutions architect?
When an interviewer asks you about innovative solutions you’ve proposed, they may want to know what experience you have with new technology and how you can apply it to help their business. The most appropriate answer discusses a non-obvious solution and how it impacted business operations.
Example: “When I worked at Copy Company, I was presented with a problem having to do with a client that was a creditor. The company’s website was designed to encourage users to create an account and find the perfect credit card for their lifestyle.
They wanted to include a way that customers could return to a credit card they had previously viewed. I decided that the best solution would be to create a user interface that allows guests to favorite credit cards. This allowed consumers to mark cards they wanted to return to. As a result, the creditor increased their customer base.”
18. Describe your protocol for ensuring security
Security is a top priority for businesses looking to enlist the help of a solutions architect. These professionals may be responsible for providing innovative security solutions, so knowing how to ensure cybersecurity and data protection is a must. To answer this question, provide examples of how you ensure cybersecurity for a company.
Example: “To make sure cloud environments are the most secure, I backup data daily, ensure continuous monitoring, encrypt data and use virus protection. I would also enlist innovative cloud edge security services to protect the company from an attack where cloud platforms are most vulnerable.”
FAQ
What can I expect at a solution architect interview?
- What is the most innovative solution you have proposed so far in your experience as a solution architect? …
- What is AWS? …
- What is Domain Driven Design? …
- How do you ensure security in design and solution?
What are the top skills for solution architect?
- Computer and operating systems.
- Infrastructure and engineering design.
- DevOps.
- System security measures.
- Business analysis.
- Database management.
- Cloud development.
- Web platforms.
What are your strengths as a solutions architect?
What is the primary role of a solution architect?
