Essential Work Samples for Evaluating Cloud Architect Candidates

Cloud Architects serve as the cornerstone of an organization's digital transformation journey. They bridge the gap between business objectives and technical implementation, designing resilient, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructures that power modern enterprises. Hiring the right Cloud Architect is a critical decision that will influence your technology direction for years to come.

Traditional interviews often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in this complex role. While candidates may articulate cloud concepts eloquently, their ability to apply these concepts to real-world scenarios remains untested in conventional interview formats. This disconnect can lead to costly hiring mistakes, with organizations discovering too late that their new Cloud Architect lacks practical skills or problem-solving abilities.

Work samples provide a window into how candidates approach actual challenges they'll face on the job. By observing candidates as they design architectures, evaluate migration strategies, address security concerns, and optimize costs, you gain invaluable insights into their technical proficiency, thought processes, and communication skills.

The following four activities are designed to evaluate the essential competencies of a Cloud Architect. These exercises simulate real-world scenarios that Cloud Architects encounter regularly, allowing you to assess candidates based on performance rather than self-reported experience. By incorporating these work samples into your interview process, you'll significantly improve your ability to identify candidates who can truly excel in this pivotal role.

Activity #1: Cloud Architecture Design Challenge

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to design a scalable, resilient cloud architecture that meets specific business requirements. Cloud Architects must regularly translate business needs into technical solutions, balancing performance, security, cost, and operational considerations. This activity reveals how candidates approach complex design problems and communicate their solutions to stakeholders.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a business case scenario describing a fictional company with specific requirements (e.g., an e-commerce platform expecting seasonal traffic spikes, a healthcare application with strict compliance needs, or a media streaming service requiring global availability).
• Provide constraints such as budget limitations, compliance requirements, or existing technology investments.
• Allow candidates 45-60 minutes to complete the design.
• Provide access to a whiteboard tool (physical or digital) for creating architecture diagrams.
• Have a technical interviewer available to answer clarifying questions about the requirements.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the business requirements and constraints provided.
• Design a cloud architecture that addresses the requirements, including:
• Selection of appropriate cloud services
• High-level architecture diagram
• Explanation of key design decisions
• Consideration of scalability, reliability, security, and cost
• Prepare to present and explain your design to the interview panel in 15 minutes.
• Be ready to discuss trade-offs and alternative approaches you considered.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide specific feedback on one aspect the candidate handled well (e.g., "Your approach to data encryption was comprehensive and well-thought-out").
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., "Consider how you might enhance the disaster recovery strategy").
• Give the candidate 10 minutes to revise their approach based on the feedback, focusing specifically on the improvement area.
• Observe how receptive they are to feedback and how effectively they incorporate it into their revised solution.

Activity #2: Cloud Migration Planning

This exercise assesses a candidate's ability to develop a strategic migration plan for moving on-premises workloads to the cloud. Migration planning requires technical knowledge, risk assessment, and project management skills. This activity reveals how candidates balance technical considerations with business continuity requirements.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario describing a fictional company's current on-premises infrastructure (include details about applications, databases, network topology, and dependencies).
• Outline business constraints such as maximum acceptable downtime, budget limitations, and timeline requirements.
• Provide a template for the migration plan or allow candidates to use their preferred format.
• Allow 45-60 minutes for this exercise.
• Have technical details about the current environment available if candidates ask clarifying questions.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the current infrastructure details and business constraints.
• Develop a phased migration plan that includes:
• Assessment of applications for cloud readiness
• Recommended migration strategies for different workloads (rehost, refactor, rearchitect, etc.)
• Sequence and timeline for migration activities
• Risk mitigation strategies
• Success metrics and validation approach
• Document your plan in a format that could be presented to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Be prepared to explain your rationale for key decisions.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide positive feedback on one aspect of their migration strategy (e.g., "Your approach to database migration minimizes risk effectively").
• Offer constructive feedback on one area that could be improved (e.g., "Consider how you might address the legacy application dependencies more effectively").
• Allow the candidate 10 minutes to revise the specific portion of their plan based on your feedback.
• Evaluate their ability to incorporate feedback and improve their approach.

Activity #3: Security Assessment and Remediation

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to identify security vulnerabilities in cloud architectures and develop remediation plans. Cloud security requires both technical knowledge and risk management skills. This activity reveals how candidates approach security challenges and prioritize remediation efforts.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a diagram of an existing cloud architecture with intentional security flaws (e.g., overly permissive IAM policies, unencrypted data stores, public-facing management interfaces).
• Include a brief description of the business context and compliance requirements.
• Provide access to relevant cloud provider security best practices documentation if requested.
• Allow 45 minutes for the assessment and remediation planning.
• Have a security-focused interviewer available to answer questions.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the provided cloud architecture diagram and identify potential security vulnerabilities.
• Categorize the identified issues by severity (critical, high, medium, low).
• Develop a remediation plan that includes:
• Specific changes to address each vulnerability
• Implementation priority based on risk assessment
• Potential impact of remediation actions on system functionality
• Recommendations for ongoing security monitoring
• Document your findings and recommendations in a format suitable for presentation to a CISO or security team.
• Be prepared to explain your risk assessment methodology and prioritization decisions.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Highlight one security insight that was particularly valuable or thorough (e.g., "Your identification of the privilege escalation risk was excellent").
• Provide feedback on one area where the security assessment could be enhanced (e.g., "Consider how you might address the data exfiltration risks more comprehensively").
• Give the candidate 10 minutes to revise their approach to the specific security concern you highlighted.
• Assess their ability to deepen their analysis and refine their remediation strategy based on feedback.

Activity #4: Cloud Cost Optimization Challenge

This exercise assesses a candidate's ability to analyze cloud spending and recommend optimization strategies. Cost management is a critical skill for Cloud Architects, requiring both technical knowledge and business acumen. This activity reveals how candidates balance performance requirements with financial considerations.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a fictional cloud billing report showing spending across various services (compute, storage, database, networking, etc.).
• Include usage patterns that suggest inefficiencies (e.g., over-provisioned resources, unused reserved instances, spiky usage patterns).
• Provide a brief description of the workloads and their performance requirements.
• Allow 45 minutes for analysis and recommendation development.
• Have information available about pricing models and discount options if requested.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Analyze the provided cloud billing data to identify potential cost optimization opportunities.
• Develop recommendations that include:
• Specific actions to reduce costs without compromising performance
• Estimated cost savings for each recommendation
• Implementation complexity assessment
• Potential risks or trade-offs associated with each recommendation
• Prioritize your recommendations based on potential savings and implementation effort.
• Create a brief presentation explaining your findings and recommendations.
• Be prepared to discuss how you would implement a continuous cost optimization process.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide positive feedback on one aspect of their cost optimization strategy (e.g., "Your approach to right-sizing compute resources was data-driven and practical").
• Offer constructive feedback on one area that could be enhanced (e.g., "Consider how you might leverage spot instances more effectively for batch workloads").
• Allow the candidate 10 minutes to refine their approach to the specific cost optimization opportunity you highlighted.
• Evaluate their ability to develop more detailed implementation steps or alternative approaches based on your feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these work sample exercises?

Each exercise is designed to take 45-60 minutes for the candidate to complete, plus 15-20 minutes for presentation and feedback. We recommend scheduling them as separate interview sessions or selecting the 2-3 most relevant exercises for your specific needs if time is limited.

Should we provide these exercises to candidates in advance?

For the Cloud Architecture Design and Migration Planning exercises, providing the business scenario 24 hours in advance allows candidates to think more deeply about the problem. The Security Assessment and Cost Optimization exercises are better conducted during the interview to assess real-time problem-solving abilities.

How technical should the interviewer be for these exercises?

The interviewer should have sufficient cloud knowledge to evaluate the technical merit of solutions and provide meaningful feedback. For the architecture and security exercises, having a senior cloud engineer or architect present is highly recommended.

Can we adapt these exercises for specific cloud providers?

Absolutely. While these exercises are designed to be cloud-agnostic, you can modify them to focus on your organization's preferred cloud provider(s). This is particularly valuable if you're looking for expertise in specific cloud services or multi-cloud strategies.

How should we evaluate candidates who propose unconventional solutions?

Innovative approaches should be evaluated on their technical merit, not their conformity to expected answers. The key is whether the candidate can clearly explain their rationale and address potential drawbacks of their approach. This often reveals valuable creative thinking that can benefit your organization.

Should we share our evaluation criteria with candidates?

Providing high-level evaluation criteria (e.g., "We're looking at technical accuracy, communication skills, and consideration of business requirements") helps candidates understand your expectations. However, detailed rubrics are best kept internal to avoid overly scripted responses.

The right Cloud Architect can transform your organization's technology capabilities, enabling innovation while maintaining security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. By incorporating these work samples into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' practical abilities and thought processes than traditional interviews alone can provide.

For more resources to enhance your hiring process, explore Yardstick's comprehensive tools for creating AI-powered job descriptions, generating effective interview questions, and developing complete interview guides.

Ready to build a complete interview guide for your Cloud Architect role? Sign up for a free Yardstick account today!