Wednesday, 21 February 2018

SA Questions


Core Enterprise Architecture     
Q0: What's the most innovative solution you've ever come up with?
A: The answer will vary, but a candidate should discuss a solution that is non-obvious. The candidate should be able to describe using something that works perfectly (or nearly perfectly) for the problem. The question is trying to assess how imaginative and innovative the candidate will be.

Q1: How do you approach security in your solutions?

A: A candidate's answer should refer to at least authentication as well as authorization. If forms are mentioned, the candidate should include solutions for password management. Although answers will vary, having a clear approach to security is crucial for a solutions architect. The need for a security design and architecture is a fact of today's world.

Q2: How do you protect against injection attacks?

A: There are multiple different ways of approaching this question, but a candidate should include discussions of SQL injection and cross site scripting (XSS). Any mentioned approaches should include cleaning and screening the input. SQL injection conversations should include a conversation about parameterized queries and stored procedures.

Q3: How do you diagnose performance issues?

A: The candidate's answer should include a discussion about latencies, as well as the capacities/bottlenecks of CPU, memory, disk, and network. Solutions architects are often confronted with the most difficult problems, and an understanding of isolating bottlenecks and resolving them is vital.

Q4: What tools do you use for communicating architecture?

A: A candidate's answer should include mechanisms for creating and distributing pictures of the solution with an appropriate number of boxes and arrows. Any solutions architect will recognize the need for both written communication and pictures. Lots of solution architects can draw pictures, but they're often not enough to convey a complete understanding.

Q5: How do you support the functional analysts (FA)?

A: The answer to this question should explain how the candidate would work with the FA and answer their questions—as well as reflect clarifying questions. A successful solution architect is happy to help the FA however they can, and should show a readiness to co-operate. Ultimately, the solutions architect is the technical leader of the team and needs to support teamwork.

Q6: How do you support the development leads?

A: Similar to supporting the functional analysts, solution architects are resources for the development leads to help them solve the problems that are occurring while development is actually taking place. A good candidate will recognize their importance in helping the development leads find solutions to their problems.

Q7: How do you address cache coherency?

A: A candidate's answer will vary, but should at least mention the use of multi-server, in-memory caches, and caches that may be quasi-memory, such as a SQL server database. They should understand that a SQL server database is where the data gets maintained in memory by the SQL server predictive caching. The candidate should be aware of problems with cached objects not being in-sync across multiple servers, and the need to clear cached objects when cache coherency is critical.

Q8: How do you address scalability?

A: Scalability can be addressed vertically (increasing the resources on the same server) or horizontally (across multiple servers). Scalability is limited by single-threaded operations, so a candidate should know to give them special consideration when considering how to scale an application.

Q9: How do you address fault tolerance?

A: The candidate should recognize the need to eliminate single points of failure as much as is possible. It's also important for candidates to be aware of the ability to ensure that sessions can be switched to a new server at any point—even if there's a performance impact to this switch. Modeling failures—and testing with simulated failures—are important for any solutions architect.

Difference between SOA and Microsoervices        
Microservices are an evolution of SOA. Microservices don’t have a centralised service management. Microservices only perform one business fuction. Microservices usually go around lightway HTTP REST. SOA could be defined a superset of Microservices.Containers are more suitable for Microservices. SOA Srvices share data storage.Microservices use cloud platforms. SOA uses ESB to comunicate(enterprise service bus)
1. What is Enterprise Architecture?   
Microservices are an evolution of SOA. Microservices don’t have a centralised service management. Microservices only perform one business fuction. Microservices usually go around lightway HTTP REST. SOA could be defined a superset of Microservices.Containers are more suitable for Microservices. SOA Srvices share data storage.Microservices use cloud platforms. SOA uses ESB to comunicate(enterprise service bus)
           
3. What is an architectural pattern?  
An architectural pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software architecture within a given context.[1] Architectural patterns are similar to software design pattern but have a broader scope. The architectural patterns address various issues in software engineering, such as computer hardware performance limitations, high availability and minimization of a business risk. Some architectural patterns have been implemented within software frameworks.

·         Blackboard system
·         Broker pattern
·         Event-driven architecture
·         Implicit invocation
·         Layers
·         Microservices
·         Entity–component–system
·         Multitier architecture (often three-tier or n-tier)
·         Naked objects
·         Operational Data Store (ODS)
·         Peer-to-peer
·         Pipe and filter architecture
·         Service-oriented architecture
·         Space-based architecture
·         Artificial Intelligence

4. How do you manage changes to the Enterprise Architecture in      
a turbulent environment?        
           
5. What recent technology trends are important to Enterprise Architecture? 
Instead, they often combine with other trends to generate an even greater impact. Newer digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, are adding to the Nexus of Forces (the combined effect of cloud, mobile, social, big data and analytics) to create an exponentially bigger impact. This is resulting in new trends. For example, data generated from IoT is feeding advanced analytics and machine learning. This is producing more intelligent applications and agents that can suggest the best response in a given situation. The combined effect of all three has resulted in the digital twin, a digital representation of a real-world entity or system.
6. What are the most important artifacts of an Enterprise Architecture?     
http://www.bcs.org/upload/img/six-general-types-of-ea-artifacts.jpg
7. Walk me through a time when you led Enterprise change.   
           
8. What personal qualities make for a good Enterprise Architect?     
           
9. How do you sell the benefits of SOA to executives?   
           
10. How does Enterprise Architecture support business goals and strategy?          
           
11. How can you tell if an Enterprise Architecture is comprehensive?          
           
12. Is it possible to calculate ROI for SOA?  
It is but we will be putting a finger in the air. SOA is usaually calculated overtime. Reducing integration expense.Increase Asset Reuse. Increase Business Agility    
13. How do you go about identifying the key business activities in an organization’s value-chain?           
           
14. Can you give an example where you created a architectural roadmap? How did you align project solutions with the roadmap?  
           
15. Can you give an example where you championed a project? How did you justify the project to the business? 
           
16. What was the most complex project in which you assumed a leadership role? What challenges did you face?            
            Betfred, build  Gambling platfotm in 6 months with premier league deadline deadline. High performance dtabases and Microservices.
17. How would you go about appraising an Enterprise Architecture in terms of completeness of scope? 
           
18. What metrics can be used to validate conformance of a solution to an architecture?            
           
19. Can you give an example where you helped establish a IT governance process?        
            Security/Encription.
20. Can you provide an example in which you provided break-through architectural thinking?     
           
21. Can you give an example where you applied strategic architectural thinking to impact business results?  
           
22. Can you give an example where you championed a business stakeholders’ requirements?      
           
23. Is it possible to calculate ROI for Enterprise Architecture? 
           
24. Can you give an example in which you evangelized architectures and strategies to executives? 
            Cloud
25. Can you give me an example in which you allocated architectural activities to multiple architects?  
I work in team, we have always shared, for instance, sharing the encryption strategy of the firm. I assign data arquitects to study data encryption.    
26. Can you give an example where you guided an organization’s strategy?          
           
27. Can you give an example where you pointed out weak links in technical plans?        
           
28. Can you give an example where you drove a business initiative by promoting cross-organizational participation?   
           
29. Can you provide examples where you applied different data modeling techniques for different purposes?        
           
30. Can you provide me an example where you proposed a solution that satisfied business requirements? What architectural alternatives did you consider?     
           
31. Have you ever introduced a new standard into an organization? What was it? How did you ensure adoption of the standard?          
           
32. Give me an example where someone challenged your architectural decisions.          
           
33. What was the most difficult architectural question anyone ever asked you? How did you answer it?       
           
34. Give me an example where you defined and executed a strategy.          
           
35. What IT industry trends are you most interested in at the moment?      
            Machine learning and block chain
36. How do you maintain your skills and stay current with IT trends?           
            I always keep projects aside. I tryied with be with the devs as much as I can
37. Have you ever helped to mediate opposing architectural viewpoints?  
            Yes
38. What tools have you used to create and manage Architectural artifacts?        
           
39. Can you describe a situation where a key decision you made was wrong? How did you correct the situation?     
            Encription was not FIPS compliance, THANKS TO PREVIUS design with interfaces, we only have to change the concrete class. It is important tfor me being challenged
40. Can you describe a document you created that demonstrated your ability to effectively communicate architectural decisions? Did the document generate two-way communication?   
           
Enterprise Architecture Frameworks  
41. What is your favorite Enterprise Architecture framework? Why?            
            TOGAF
The Open Group Architecture Framework – a widely used framework including an architectural Development Method and standards for describing various types of architecture
42. Do you have experience with any TOGAF Certified Tools? 
            I am studing it at the moment
43. What four architecture domains does TOGAF deal with?    
           
44. What is the TOGAF Enterprise Continuum?     
            The Architecture Continuum shows the relationships among foundational frameworks (such as TOGAF), common system architectures (such as the III-RM), industry architectures, and enterprise architectures. The Architecture Continuum is a useful tool to discover commonality and eliminate unnecessary redundancy.
45. Can you describe the TOGAF Architecture Compliance Review Process?           
            No
SOA Architecture
A service-oriented architecture is a style of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network       
46. Can you give me a recent example of your SOA projects? How did you handle security?            
OWASP/FOCUS
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is an infrastructure component for integrating applications and services. ESBs facilitate the connectivity of business logic, where this business logic is represented as a service
Routing messages between services 2. Converting transport protocols between requestor and services 3. Transformation of message formats between requestor and services 4. Handling of business events from disparate sources
           
47. What is a SOA service contract and why is it important?    
            img
48. What is the difference between services and components?          
           

9
down voteaccepted
A service can be made up of several components. Usually a service provides one complete feature that is made up by combining different components.
The service's user don't need to know anything about the underlying components. User will deal only directly with the service while service internally will be interacting with the components

49. What SOA design patterns have you used in the past?        
·         Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) ...
·         Authentication Broker.
·         Service Façade. ...
·         Multiple Service Contracts. ...
·         Agnostic Services. ...
·         Agnostic Service Declaration. ...
·         Atomic Service Transaction. ...
·         Service Callback. ...
·         Multiple Service Contracts. ...

50. What design principles do you use when architecting SOA services?      
·               Standardized service contract
·         Service loose coupling
·         Service abstraction
·         Service reusability
·         Service autonomy
·         Service statelessness
·         Service discoverability
·         Service composability

51. How can you achieve loose coupling of services?      
            By using events
52. How do you define a successful SOA?    
            When the design principles are confomed
53. What works better top-down or bottom-up service identification?        
            There are several project delivery approaches that can be employed to build services. The bottom-up strategy, for example, is tactically focused in that it makes the fulfillment of immediate business requirements a priority and the prime objective of the project. On the other side of the spectrum is the top-down strategy, which advocates the completion of an inventory analysis prior to the physical design, development, and delivery of services.
54. How can services supporting long running processes be scaled effectively?     By saving the states
           
55. How can a SOA avoid redundant service logic?          
            Like data normalization, the Service Normalization pattern is intent on reducing redundancy and waste in order to avoid the governance burden associated with having to maintain and synchronize similar or duplicate bodies of service logic.

Methodologies      
56. What is the difference between agile and scrum?     
            Agile and Scrum are terms used in project management. The Agile methodology employs incremental and iterative work beats that are also called sprints. Scrum, on the other hand is the type of agile approach that is used in software development.
57. Give me an example where you worked with stakeholders to document functional and non-functional requirements. How did you prioritize the requirements?    
           
58. Can you give an example where you worked with a project manager to identify elements of a project plan that put the project plan at risk?     
           
59. What is a project communication plan? 
           
60. What is a project charter? What essential elements should be captured in a project charter?       
           
IT service management   
61. How would you migrate a traditional application to cloud infrastructure?             Rehosting
 ReplatformingI sometimes call this “lift-tinker-and-shift.”
RepurchasingMoving to a different product.
Refactoring / Re-architecting
Retire
Retain
           
62. How might IT service management processes differ between a small-scale and large-scale enterprise?  
           
63. Can you give an example where you prepared a Risk Assessment for IT Services?    
           
64. Can you name 3 kinds of SLA?      
           
65. What is Network Policy Enforcement?  
           
66. What is a Operational Level Agreement?         
           
67. What is ITIL?   
           
68. What is the difference between Incident Management and Problem Management?            
           
69. What is the difference between Change and Release management?      
            There is often confusion between the goals, authorities and roles of Change and Release Management. In fact, the objectives of each of process are very, very different. ... It is also a planning process. If Change Management is a governance process, Release Management is an action process

70. What are the key activities associated with Capacity Management?      
           
Security        
71. What is Cross Site Scripting?           
Cross-site scripting is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in web applications. XSS enables attackers to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users
72. Can you give me an architectural overview of public-key cryptography? 
            Blockchain
73. From a security perspective, what is more important to focus on: threats or vulnerabilities?      
            Threats are more important.
74. What is the goal of enterprise information security?  
            Enterprise information security architecture (EISA) is a part of enterprise architecture focusing on information security throughout the enterprise. The name implies a difference that may not exist between small/medium-sized businesses and larger organizations.
75. What is Federated Identity Management?         
            federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems.[1]
Related to federated identity is single sign-on (SSO), in which a user's single authentication ticket, or token, is trusted across multiple IT systems or even organizations.[2][3][4] SSO is a subset of federated identity management, as it relates only to authentication and is understood on the level of technical interoperability and it would not be possible without some sort of federation.[5]

Solution Architecture       
80. What innovative solutions have you created?   
           
81. How do you version a service inventory?           
            Service inventories are typically created through top-down delivery processes that result in the definition of service inventory blueprints. The subsequent application of service-orientation design principles and custom design standards throughout a service inventory is of paramount importance so as to establish a high degree of native inter-service interoperability. This supports the repeated creation of effective service compositions in response to new and changing business requirements.

When carrying out the service-oriented analysis process repeatedly for a set of related business processes or for a particular business domain within an organization, a collection of service candidates is produced. While still in the conceptual stage, these services comprise a blueprint of a service inventory that can be further analyzed and refined as necessary before committing to the actual creation of a physical service inventory.
This specification is referred to as a service inventory blueprint and it is the primary target deliverable of repeated iterations through the service-oriented analysis process as part of the overarching service inventory analysis (as explained in the Mainstream SOA Methodology).
img

82. If you had to both compress and encrypt data for transmission, which would you do first? Why? 
1- ENCRYPT
2- COMPRESS
            Compression before encryption is surely more space efficient but in the same time less secure. That's why I would disagree with other answers.
Most compression algorithms use "magic" file headers and that could be used for statistical attacks.

83. Can you explain the bridge pattern?        
           
84. What is a design pattern?    
            In software engineering, a software design pattern is a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. It is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into source or machine code
85. What is the difference between Object Oriented and Aspect Oriented design? 
            Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) helps to provide a solution to the previous problem. Instead of objectsAOP deals with aspects. An aspect is a behavior that cuts through multiple objects. One of the drawbacks to OOP is that certain things will crosscut objects and methods.
Cross cutting pieces like security, loging will be part of the objects. You can enable and disable them
86. In Java, when should you use an interface and when an abstract class?   
            If you want to provide common, implemented functionality among all implementations of your component, use an abstract classAbstract classesallow you to partially implement your class, whereas interfaces contain no implementation for any members.26 Jan 2009

87. What is the difference between an Abstract Factory and a Factory? (Design Patterns)            
            One difference between the two is that with theAbstract Factory pattern, a class delegates the responsibility of object instantiation to another object via composition whereas the Factory Method pattern uses inheritance and relies on a subclass to handle the desired object instantiation.21 Apr 2011
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88. What is a UML deployment diagram?      
            Deployment diagram is a structure diagram which shows architecture of the system as deployment(distribution) of software artifacts to deploymenttargets. Artifacts represent concrete elements in the physical world that are the result of a development process.
89. What factors impact project success?     
           
90. Can you describe the role of a solution architect during the different phases of the SDLC?            
            For many developers perhaps the most sought after role is the role of the Solution Architect. The Solution Architect is the person who organizes the development effort. They are responsible for the vision that underlies the solution and the execution of that vision into the solution. The Solution Architect becomes involved with a project at the time the Functional Analyst (FA) is developing requirements. They then remain involved throughout the balance of the project.
Click here to see how the SA fits within the full organizational chart.

What is a Solution Architect?

The essence of the Solution Architect (SA) role is the conversion of the requirements into an architecture and design that will become the blueprint for the solution being created. This conversion is based largely upon the previous design patterns that the SA has been involved with in the past through reading and staying abreast of the latest techniques, or through personal experience.

General        
91. Are you a Big Picture thinker? Can you give me an example?           
            Yes long term
92. What do you know about our company?            
           
93. What do you do to build and manage your professional network? 
            Attend events, good relationhip with providers
94. Have you ever worked within an organization that has a siloed structure? How did you deal with it?            
           
95. What was the best project you ever worked on? How did you contribute?          Betgred machine learning
           
96. How do you deal with difficult people?   
1.                       Be calm. ...
2.     Understand the person's intentions. ...
3.     Get some perspective from others. ...
4.     Let the person know where you are coming from. ...
5.     Build a rapport. ...
6.     Treat the person with respect. ...
7.     Focus on what can be actioned upon. ...
8.     Ignore.

97. What are the three tools you need most to do your job?      
           
98. Can you describe your leadership style? 
·         Lead by delegating and making others better: “I’m great at delegating and finding the strengths of other team members. I try to give each person a chance to do what they’re best at and create a team effort that delivers a result that’s greater than the sum of its parts”

99. Have you ever mentored someone?        
All the time 
100. Where do you see your career 5 years from now?    
The most important thing is accomplish my objectives and be sure that my team and myself are the best into it.
101. What is your experience in the area of IT financial management?           

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