Build vs. Buy vs. Cloud vs. On Premise Trade Offs Questions

Understanding key trade-offs in technology decision-making: (1) Build vs. Buy - custom development flexibility vs. packaged software speed/cost, (2) Cloud vs. On-Premise - operational burden, control, scalability, security, cost, (3) SaaS vs. Licensed - flexibility, upgrade frequency, customization options. Understanding implications for cost, time-to-value, flexibility, control, and ongoing support.

HardTechnical

46 practiced

As a Solutions Architect supporting sales, how do you balance technical honesty versus commercial pressure to commit to features, timelines, or costs? Describe a real or well-structured hypothetical approach including how you document commitments (contract language, caveats), protect engineering from unrealistic scope, and maintain customer trust while keeping the deal moving.

MediumBehavioral

37 practiced

Tell me about a time you had to convince a customer or internal stakeholder to choose an architecture you believed in that was more costly short-term but delivered better long-term outcomes. Use the STAR format: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Be specific about evidence, PoCs, pilots, metrics used, and final outcome.

HardTechnical

70 practiced

You have the following 3-year cost estimates for an application: Cloud option: $1.2M annual compute+storage, $200k annual managed services, average egress $100k/year, and 3 FTE ops at $140k/year each. On-prem option: Initial hardware $800k, datacenter/colo $200k/year, software licenses $300k one-time, and 6 FTE ops at $130k/year each. Calculate the 3-year total cost of ownership (TCO) for both options, state assumptions about depreciation and benefits, and identify which option is cheaper. Show your assumptions.

MediumSystem Design

49 practiced

Design a high-level architecture for a customer that runs large-scale batch analytics on sensitive data requiring strong data residency controls. Compare two options: (A) On-premise Hadoop/Spark cluster and (B) Cloud-based managed data platform. Address ingestion, processing, security controls (encryption, access), autoscaling for peaks, disaster recovery, and trade-offs in operational effort, cost, and compliance.

HardTechnical

64 practiced

Describe a staged migration strategy from an on-prem monolith to a cloud-native microservices architecture. Cover cutover approaches (strangler pattern vs big-bang vs parallel run), data migration techniques (dual writes, change data capture), testing strategies, rollback mechanisms, and change management risks. Recommend an approach for an e-commerce application with high availability and low-latency requirements.

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