Interview prep

Solutions Architect interview questions

13 questions solutions architects get asked, grouped by type. Under each one are the skills it is really testing, so you can pick a story from your own work that shows them.

Technical

  1. Walk me through how you would design a solution architecture for a system with a mix of legacy and new components.
    Tests: solution design, integration
  2. How do you evaluate a build-versus-buy decision for a piece of a solution?
    Tests: solution design, cost awareness
  3. How do you make sure availability and scalability requirements are actually reflected in a design, not just mentioned in a document?
    Tests: solution design, reliability
  4. How do you run an architecture review with engineers who will actually build the system?
    Tests: communication, solution design

Situational

  1. Business and engineering stakeholders want different architecture directions for the same project. How do you resolve it?
    Tests: stakeholder management, communication
  2. You're asked to propose an architecture before requirements are fully defined. How do you proceed?
    Tests: judgment, solution design
  3. How do you weigh the risk of vendor lock-in when recommending a platform?
    Tests: risk assessment, cost awareness
  4. You need to move a live system to a new architecture without a long outage. How do you plan that?
    Tests: solution design, risk assessment

Behavioral

  1. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker and how you handled it.
    Tests: conflict resolution, communication
  2. Describe a project or task that did not go well and what you did about it.
    Tests: ownership, reflection
  3. Give an example of persuading someone to adopt an idea they initially resisted.
    Tests: influence, communication
  4. Walk me through how you decided what to work on when you had more requests than time.
    Tests: prioritisation, judgment
  5. Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly to get a job done.
    Tests: learning agility, ownership
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Getting the resume right first? See resume guidance for Solutions Architects, or browse interview questions for every role.

Solutions Architect interview questions — Gurus Consulting