Comment by w8rbt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by w8rbt | Hacker News Reader

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I could not tell you the names of many of the AWS services, but I have lambda functions running in AWS (written in Go). They monitor my DB loads in RDS. I get email and text alerts when things are not as expected via SNS, but I can't recall the name of the AWS service that I used to schedule that alert... CloudWatch maybe. For sure it was CloudSomething ;)

I'm not AWS certified, but I've been a technologist for many years and I majored in CS, so it all just sort of makes sense. Some names such as ELB, RDS and Lambda are intuitive. But some are overloaded, for example Alexa. They have Alexa for business and Alexa Top Sites (domain name research). BTW, has anyone else used Alexa Top Sites in AWS, it seems way overpriced to me.

I'd be leery of someone who knew all these names, but didn't have much actual experience as a technologist, but in an interview, they'd probably sound better than I would.

Your response is exactly the right kind for an interview.

"I don't use those AWS services, but let me tell you what I have used". I agree, most people won't know one of: Sumarian or Sagemaker, but chances are you can easily know most features that matter for your job interests. Most new AWS services over the last few years are niche markets. A good company to work for would not expect you to know this stuff without experience. I personally don't expect someone without certifications to answer AWS questions, so it's always a plus when they can. But if they have certifications and can't answer any questions? That's a big red X. I can't speak for everyone, buy I usually have 2-3 different questions on different areas, and if you're certified and have used AWS, you should be able to get 2 of them.

Ex: what is the difference between EC2 server types M, R, and C.. my previous lambda question, and usually a question on ECS or CloudFront

I have used Alexa Top Sites but have never paid for it. There is already a free csv you can download daily that contains the top million sites. For more granular lists, Builtwith often satisfies my needs.

Lots of questions about this. Some say it is old, stale data. I don't believe it is current. They charge 25 cents per 1,000 queries in AWS. Why give that away for free?

See thread here: https://gist.github.com/chilts/7229605

It is good enough for my needs even if its stale. I just want the top 100k sites and dont care about trends, and precise rank. I can see how someone else would want to pay for it though.

I maintain they bought that service just for the name (and toolbar installs).

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