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Interview Question
Explain the differences between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and provide one example of each.
Key Points to Cover
- IaaS: infra resources (AWS EC2, Azure VM)
- PaaS: managed platforms (Heroku, GCP App Engine)
- SaaS: hosted applications (Gmail, Salesforce)
Evaluation Rubric
Explains IaaS with examples33% weight
Explains PaaS with examples33% weight
Explains SaaS with examples34% weight
Hints
- 💡Think ownership of infrastructure vs service.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Confusing which layers of the IT stack each model manages (e.g., user vs. provider responsibility).
- ⚠️Providing incorrect or non-standard examples for each service model.
- ⚠️Failing to articulate the fundamental benefit or use case for each model.
- ⚠️Not clearly explaining the 'as a Service' aspect (i.e., the consumption model difference).
- ⚠️Overcomplicating the explanation with overly technical jargon for a beginner-level question.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓What about FaaS?
- ❓How does PaaS simplify scaling?
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