In this AWS CloudWatch Interview Questions blog we will offer answers to frequently asked questions if you are prepping for an AWS interview.

CloudWatch, Amazon Web Services’ flagship monitoring and management tool which gives companies deep visibility into their cloud infrastructure, is one of the main offerings provided to companies by AWS.

Let’s jump right in, so that we can begin your journey toward becoming an AWS CloudWatch specialist!

Let’s do this together.

1. What is CloudWatch?

CloudWatch is a monitoring tool provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows for continuous monitoring and alerting.

2. What are some features of CloudWatch?

CloudWatch collects data from running servers and pushes it into metrics for analysis.

It collects logs and stores, collects built-in metrics, and monitors for any increase or changes.

It can also act on data, such as auto scaling and automated responses.

3. What are dimensions in CloudWatch?

Dimensions are part of the identity of the metric and can be used to filter or group data.

4. What is metric retention in CloudWatch?

Metric retention is proportional to the retention period, with data retention being proportional to the time period.

5. What is monitoring?

Monitoring is the process of observing and following a process over time to gather data.

6. Why is monitoring important?

Monitoring helps in ensuring application functionality and preventing errors from affecting users.

It also helps in better utilization of hardware and infrastructure, reducing the need for multiple servers.

7. What are metrics in monitoring?

Metrics are used to gather information about the performance of an organization’s applications.

8. How does CloudWatch work?

CloudWatch creates cloudwatch alarms and statistics using metric data.

9. How is the CloudWatch dashboard created and used?

To create a new dashboard, users can provide a name and choose a widget or add a widget.

The dashboard displays metrics such as CPU utilization, network packets, and billing metrics.

Users can also set up alarms to receive notifications when certain conditions are met.

10. What is a namespace in CloudWatch?

A namespace is a container for CloudWatch metrics that contains multiple metrics under a specific service.

11. What are dimension combinations?

A way to create separate metrics using specific dimensions.

12. What is the purpose of statistics?

To aggregate metric data over a specified period of time

13. What is the purpose of CloudWatch agents?

CloudWatch agents can be installed on EC2 instances, sending monitoring data about the instance to CloudWatch.

This allows monitoring HTMTP response codes in Apache or counting exceptions in application logs. Alarms can be set to warn based on resource usage, such as when CPU utilization is too high. CloudWatch can also auto scale instances to take care of some load if CPU.

14. What are the essential components of metrics?

Units, periods, and aggregations.

15. What are percentiles used for?

To indicate the relative standing of a value in a data set.

16. What are the two types of actions available in CloudWatch?

The two types of actions available in CloudWatch are Amazon Simple Notification Service, which sends notifications over four channels, and Mobile Notification Service, which sends notifications to custom mobile notifications.

17. What is the purpose of alarms in CloudWatch?

To trigger specific actions based on metric data.

18. How can building alarms be done using billing alarms?

By creating an alarm when spending goes above a certain amount.

19. What is the threshold for the alarm?

The value at which the alarm is triggered.

20. What is the purpose of Amazon CloudWatch?

To monitor Amazon’s services and gain insights into infrastructure behavior and resource usage.

21. What are some of the features of Amazon CloudWatch?

Graphs and statistics, alarms, CloudWatch events.

22. How CloudWatch does alarms work?

CloudWatch alarms help users take actions based on certain metrics whenever they cross limits. For instance, when the state is alarm, users can set notifications to be sent via email or automatically terminate the instance.

Users can also set up easy-to-actions, such as stopping, starting, or terminating the instance.

23. What is the purpose of the CloudWatch data repository?

To store and analyze metric data for Amazon services.

24. What are some of the metrics available in CloudWatch?

CPU utilization, discrete operations, and discrete operations for each service.

25. What is CloudWatch alarms?

CloudWatch alarms are a feature of CloudWatch that allows users to configure actions for monitoring, such as taking actions when CPU utilization is above or below a certain threshold.

26. What is the purpose of Amazon Auto Scaling?

To automatically scale up or down based on metric data and resource usage.

27. How does CloudWatch play a role in auto scaling?

By enabling scaling up or down based on events, thresholds, and notifications.

28. What are some benefits of using CloudWatch?

Some benefits of using CloudWatch include its CloudWatch alarm feature, which can be configured to send alerts when a metric’s usage exceeds a certain threshold, and allows for configuration of actions for monitoring, such as taking actions when CPU utilization is above or below a certain threshold.

29. What type of data does CloudWatch collect?

CloudWatch collects data in specific formats, such as metrics, which can include CPU usage, memory usage, disk space, network activity, and more.

30. How does CloudWatch monitor Amazon resources?

CloudWatch primarily monitors Amazon resources by collecting data on their performance and usage, and can be configured to send alerts when a metric’s usage exceeds a certain threshold.

31. What is CloudWatch’s primary function?

CloudWatch’s primary function is to monitor Amazon resources.

32. Is CloudWatch a monitoring service?

Yes, CloudWatch is a monitoring service offered by Amazon that monitors all Amazon resources and services, including Amazon EC2, EBS, RS3, RDS, and more.

33. Can CloudWatch monitor custom data?

Yes, CloudWatch also supports custom data monitoring.

34. What is a metric in CloudWatch?

In CloudWatch, a metric is a data point that represents a specific aspect of a system or resource.

35. What is the difference between basic and detailed monitoring in CloudWatch?

The difference between basic and detailed monitoring in CloudWatch is the frequency of polling and the cost per instance per month.

Basic monitoring is included free of charge and polls every five minutes, while detailed monitoring costs more per instance per month but polls every minute.

36. How can CloudWatch be used to monitor resources in an AWS account?

CloudWatch can be used to monitor various resources in an AWS account, such as EBS, EC2, Elastic Load Balancer, and Amazon S3.

Metrics can be added to dashboards to provide visual or text-based notifications of what’s going on. Metrics are at the hypervisor level, meaning they cannot show memory usage. As more resources are added to an AWS account, metrics appear as they increase.

To help you be ready for your next job interview, check out our section on multiple choice questions (MCQs). It has a thorough list of possible interview questions and answers.

1. In terms of AWS CloudWatch, what duration of monitoring is included in the free tier?

a) Continuous monitoring with real-time data

b) Basic monitoring with sixty-second intervals

c) Detailed monitoring that polls every three minutes

d) Basic monitoring that polls every five minutes

2. Which AWS service does NOT have integrated metrics available in CloudWatch?

a) Amazon S3

b) Amazon EC2

c) Amazon Machine Learning

d) Amazon EBS

3. What allows users to monitor and receive notifications based on changes in their AWS resource usage?

a) CloudWatch Events

b) Amazon Resource Groups

c) CloudWatch Logs Insights

d) Amazon CloudFront Reports

4. AWS metrics in CloudWatch have multiple components to define them. Which one is NOT a component?

a) Action strategies

b) Statistics

c) Namespaces

d) Dimensions

5. Which is provided by AWS by default for detailed monitoring?

a) One minute CPU utilization view

b) Fifteen-minute CPU utilization view

c) Automated SNS notifications for alarms

d) Instantaneous memory statistics

6. How are detailed monitoring alerts configured on AWS?

a) Scheduled through AWS EC2 instances

b) Setting thresholds in CloudWatch Alarms

c) Using AWS SNS alerts

d) Via email or SMS directly from the monitoring dashboard

Anyone seeking employment in the cloud computing sector should prepare themselves for an AWS CloudWatch interview.

In order to help prepare and ace this process, this blog offers up some of the most frequently requested AWS CloudWatch interview questions with detailed explanations from experts in order to maximize chances for success in landing their ideal job in this competitive job market.

As part of this blog get a solid grasp of AWS CloudWatch as your go-to solution for cloud computing success, I wish you great success and wish for your continued success! Here’s hoping!