My interview experience was quite interesting and educational. The process began with a communication round, followed by a technical interview focusing mainly on networking and cloud-related concepts.
In the communication round, the interviewer asked me to introduce myself. I confidently spoke about my background, academic details, technical interests, and future goals. I mentioned my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification and my project on the Feedback Collection System using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and S3. Then, I shared a bit about my school days, saying how they helped me develop discipline and teamwork. I also spoke about my supportive friends, my college staff who guided me in technical learning, and my school teachers who encouraged curiosity and confidence. The interviewer appreciated my communication and clarity.
Next came the technical round, which focused on core networking topics. The interviewer started by asking me the difference between TCP and UDP. I explained that TCP is connection-oriented and reliable, while UDP is connectionless and faster. Then I was asked about the routing table and how routers use it to decide the path of packets. Questions about NAT and its types followed — I explained Static, Dynamic, and PAT with examples.
The interviewer then moved on to DHCP and asked how IP addresses are assigned automatically. I clearly described the DHCP process of Discover, Offer, Request, and Acknowledge. After that, questions on SMTP and DNS were asked, where I explained how emails are sent using SMTP and how DNS converts domain names into IP addresses.
He also tested my knowledge of socket programming and port numbers, asking me to recall a few common ports like 22, 80, 443, 25, and 53. Then he asked about NAT Gateways in AWS, and I explained how they allow private subnet instances to connect to the internet securely.
Finally, he gave a troubleshooting scenario — if a user cannot access a website, how would I start diagnosing? I answered step-by-step: first checking network connectivity using ping, verifying IP configuration with ifconfig, testing DNS with nslookup, and finally checking firewall or router configurations.
The interviewer also asked some quick questions about routers, switches, and DNS protocols, and I explained their roles clearly. Overall, the discussion went smoothly.
In the end, the interviewer appreciated my clear understanding of networking fundamentals and my confidence in explaining cloud concepts. It was a great learning experience, and I felt more confident about handling both communication and technical rounds in future interviews.