Microsoft Mock Interview
Practice 35 Microsoft interview questions covering technical skills, product thinking, and cultural fit.
Question 19 of 35
How would you explain the cloud to someone with zero internet knowledge?
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Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Technical terms and methods can be confusing to anyone outside of the industry. Some say that if you cannot quickly explain what you do in layman's terms, then you do not understand it well enough. You should be able to explain everything that you do on a level that would make sense to a 12-year-old. Your interviewer is testing to see if you can do this with this question. As you answer, keep your reply brief and try to keep all words that you use easily understandable. If you are in a field where knowledge of cloud computing isn't necessary, your interviewer will still be hoping that you can easily explain it as a staff member representing Microsoft.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"If I were to explain cloud computing to someone outside of the industry, I would say that cloud computing is a way to deliver services over the internet. For instance, we use cloud computing when we store photos online, and even when we use different apps on our phone."
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Like outsourcing. Take your car to the shop. Wedding, rent chairs, only what I need. I don't need to buy 500 chairs and store them in my garage.
Amanda's Feedback
You've provided several examples. However, it would be more impactful to choose one example and expand on it so that a person with little or no IT knowledge would understand the concept of the cloud. Explaining that it's similar to renting an off-site storage unit used to store your physical belongings may be helpful here because the cloud also allows users to buy the amount of space they need based on a monthly rate.
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