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Security and Compliance Architecture Questions

Architecting systems to meet security requirements and regulatory and compliance obligations. Candidates should understand how to embed data classification, data governance, encryption, least privilege access, audit trails and logging, secure design patterns, and threat modeling into architectures. Expect discussion of how architectural choices affect obligations under common regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and System and Organization Controls frameworks. Topics include documenting architecture for compliance reviewers, retention and data residency considerations, denial of service mitigation and web application firewall strategies, and balancing security controls with usability and operational cost. Candidates should be able to describe when to engage legal and compliance teams and how to design for auditability and evidence capture.

EasyTechnical
0 practiced
Explain symmetric and asymmetric encryption and when you would use each within cloud architectures for data at rest and data in transit. Describe envelope encryption and briefly explain the role of HSMs (hardware security modules) for high-assurance key storage.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Propose an approach to design compliance controls into a greenfield SaaS where performance and scale are critical and customers expect proof of security and privacy maturity. Include architecture patterns for scalable controls, automated evidence capture, developer enablement (secure-by-default libraries), and a cost model showing incremental operational expense of controls.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Design a third-party risk management program for cloud-native dependencies (SaaS vendors, managed services, open-source libraries). Cover onboarding assessments, continuous monitoring, contract clauses (SLAs, security obligations), incident escalation, and automated evidence collection to reduce supply-chain risk.
MediumSystem Design
0 practiced
Design a DDoS mitigation plan for a globally distributed e-commerce platform that must remain available during sale spikes while protecting backend stateful services. Include CDN/edge defenses, autoscaling policies, scrubbing or scrubbing partners, network ACL strategies, and mechanisms to preserve session integrity or rehydrate state.
MediumSystem Design
0 practiced
Design an auditability-first architecture to support GDPR obligations: maintain a record of processing activities (Article 30) and support timely responses to Data Subject Requests (access, rectification, erasure). Include data flow diagrams, logging strategy, retention rules, and workflow automation for responding to DSRs.

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