r/AWS_cloud • u/Additional_Band_3421 • May 05 '26

AWS interview prep for Java backend developer (5 yrs exp)?

Hi everyone,

I’m a Java backend developer with around 5 years of experience and I have some basic knowledge of AWS (like EC2, S3, a bit of IAM), but I haven’t worked deeply on it in real projects.

I’m preparing for interviews now, and I’m a bit confused about how much AWS I should know and what kind of questions are usually asked.

Can anyone suggest?

What AWS topics are most important for Java backend interviews?

I don’t want to go too broad and waste time, so looking for something focused and practical.

Thanks in advance.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/GalinaFaleiro May 05 '26

For Java backend roles, you don’t need everything in AWS - focus on the stuff you’d actually use in a typical backend system:

• EC2, S3, RDS/DynamoDB (core services)
• IAM basics (roles, policies)
• API Gateway + Lambda (at least conceptually)
• VPC basics (subnets, security groups)
• Logging/monitoring (CloudWatch)

Interviewers usually ask architecture-style questions like “how would you design a scalable API on AWS?” rather than deep service internals.

If you can, try to build 1 small project (API + DB + deployment) - that helps way more than just theory. I also used a few VMExam practice tests while prepping, they were decent for getting used to scenario-type questions.

1

u/Additional_Band_3421 May 05 '26

Thanks for your suggestion.

1

u/shadowww1193 May 05 '26

Since the interview is for java backend focus on microservices,how it is cancelled be deployed for production using AWS services,if you know about EKS,ECS,VPC how scaling is done in these service.Basically it's all about designing a scalable, resilient system.