Interview Questions on Azure API Management (APIM)—Set-II

Here is the updated set of questions and answers that can be helpful for Azure API Management (APIM) developers:

Previous Questions and Answers—Set-I 👉https://biztalktechie.com/interview-questions-on-azure-api-management-apim/

Beginner Level

1. What is Azure API Management?
   • It is a platform for managing APIs by enabling their exposure, protection, and monetization in a secure and scalable manner.
2. What are the components of Azure API Management?
   • API Gateway, Developer Portal, Management Plane.
3. What is the purpose of the API Gateway?
   • The gateway processes API calls, applies security policies, and routes requests to the backend.
4. How does API Management secure APIs?
   • It uses authentication (OAuth, JWT, etc.), rate limiting, quotas, and IP restrictions to secure APIs.
5. Can you manage APIs across multiple regions with Azure API Management?
   • Yes, through multi-region deployments and Azure Traffic Manager for load balancing.
6. What is the role of the Developer Portal in API Management?
   • It enables developers to explore, test, and subscribe to APIs offered by the API Management service.
7. What are the different API products in API Management?
   • API products group multiple APIs under a single package, allowing for subscription and access control.
8. How can you version APIs in API Management?
   • You can version APIs by path, header, or query parameters to support different versions concurrently.
9. What is a policy in API Management?
   • A policy is a set of rules applied to incoming API requests or responses, such as rate limiting, transformation, or authentication.
10. Can you monitor API performance in Azure API Management?
    • Yes, you can use Azure Monitor or Application Insights to track and monitor API usage, errors, and performance.
11. What is API mocking in Azure API Management?
    • Mocking allows you to simulate API responses without calling the actual backend service, useful during development.

Intermediate Level

12. How do you transform API requests and responses in API Management?
    • By applying transformation policies, such as converting between formats (e.g., XML to JSON) or modifying headers.
13. What is the purpose of caching in API Management?
    • Caching improves performance by storing API responses, reducing the need for repeated backend calls for similar requests.
14. How do you secure API communication with OAuth 2.0 in API Management?
    • By configuring OAuth 2.0 authorization policies to require valid access tokens for API access.
15. How can you throttle API requests in API Management?
    • By configuring rate limiting and quota policies to control the number of API calls within a specific time frame.
16. What is a service-level agreement (SLA) for API Management?
    • An SLA defines the expected uptime, response time, and performance for API services.
17. What are backend services in API Management?
    • Backend services refer to the actual APIs or microservices that the API Gateway routes requests to.
18. What is the purpose of quotas in API Management?
    • Quotas control how many API requests a user can make within a given time frame to avoid overuse.
19. What is API mocking in Azure API Management?
    • API mocking allows developers to simulate the behavior of an API, providing sample responses without invoking the backend service.
20. How does Azure API Management handle API versioning?
    • Versioning is handled by routing requests to specific API versions based on path, query parameters, or headers.
21. What is the difference between a product and an API in API Management?
    • APIs are individual services, while products are collections of APIs grouped together for subscription and access purposes.
22. How can you automate API deployment in Azure API Management?
    • API deployment can be automated using ARM templates, CI/CD pipelines, or DevOps tools like Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions.

Advanced Level

23. How can you handle API throttling and request limits?
    • API Management supports setting quotas, limits, and rate-limiting policies to control how much traffic an API can handle within a specific period.
24. What are the advantages of integrating Azure API Management with Application Gateway?
    • Application Gateway provides Layer 7 load balancing, SSL termination, and WAF protection for APIs managed by API Management, improving security and scalability.
25. How do you use the Service Fabric with Azure API Management?
    • Service Fabric allows API Management to manage microservices-based backends, providing flexibility in scaling and managing APIs with distributed services.
26. How can you implement CI/CD with Azure API Management?
    • You can implement CI/CD by using DevOps pipelines with ARM templates, Git repositories, and automated deployments to manage API updates and configurations.
27. What is the role of OpenAPI in Azure API Management?
    • OpenAPI allows you to import/export API definitions, making it easy to integrate with other tools and maintain standard documentation.
28. How do you enforce different policies for different API consumers?
    • You can apply policies at the API, product, or even user subscription levels to customize how different consumers interact with APIs.
29. How can you monetize APIs using Azure API Management?
    • You can create subscription-based API access, defining pricing tiers and monetization strategies based on usage levels.
30. How can you handle API failures gracefully?
    • You can implement retry policies, circuit breakers, and fallback mechanisms to ensure resilience in case of API failures.
31. How can you manage large-scale APIs with multi-region deployment?
    • You can deploy API Management across multiple regions to ensure low latency and high availability for global users.
32. How does Azure API Management handle API versioning?
    • API versioning can be implemented by defining multiple versions of an API and routing requests to the appropriate version based on path, headers, or query strings.
33. How can you monetize APIs with Azure API Management?
    • You can create subscription-based models for API consumers, where API access is tied to different pricing tiers or usage plans.
34. How can you automate API deployment in Azure API Management?
    • API deployment can be automated using ARM templates, CI/CD pipelines, or through Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions.
35. What are OpenAPI and WSDL, and how are they supported in Azure API Management?
    • OpenAPI and WSDL are API description formats. API Management can import and export APIs using these formats for seamless integration with other tools.
36. What is API tracing, and how can it be enabled in API Management?
    • API tracing logs the entire lifecycle of an API request. It can be enabled via diagnostic settings to analyze request details and troubleshoot issues.
37. How do you manage API dependencies in Azure API Management?
    • You can manage dependencies using backend services and configuration settings that allow dynamic routing based on the environment (development, staging, production).
38. How does Azure API Management handle analytics and reporting?
    • Analytics in API Management is available through Azure Monitor or third-party tools. It provides insights into traffic patterns, errors, latency, and performance.
39. What is CORS, and how do you configure it in Azure API Management?
    • CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is a security feature in browsers that restricts web pages from making requests to a different domain. You can configure CORS in API Management by setting the appropriate headers in API policies.
40. How can you control user access to APIs in Azure API Management?
    • You can control user access through subscription keys, OAuth 2.0, and Azure Active Directory (AAD) integration to enforce authentication and authorization.
41. How can you protect APIs from DDoS attacks in Azure API Management?
    • You can use Azure DDoS Protection combined with throttling, rate limiting, and IP filtering policies in API Management to mitigate DDoS attacks.
42. What is mutual TLS, and how can it be configured in API Management?
    • Mutual TLS (mTLS) is a two-way authentication where both the client and server verify each other. It can be enabled in API Management by uploading a client certificate and configuring SSL settings in the API gateway.
43. How do you handle logging and diagnostics in Azure API Management?
    • You can configure logging and diagnostics through Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Diagnostic logs to capture details on API performance and request flows.
44. How can you implement API versioning strategies in Azure API Management?
    • API versioning can be done by using URL paths, query parameters, or HTTP headers to route requests to different versions of an API.
45. How do you use caching in Azure API Management?
    • You can enable caching policies in API Management to store API responses, reducing backend load and improving performance by returning cached data when appropriate.
46. What are API revisions, and how do they differ from API versions in Azure API Management?
    • API revisions allow you to make changes to an API without affecting the version number. It enables a safe way to make incremental updates and test them before they are public.
47. How can you secure backend services when using Azure API Management?
    • You can secure backend services by using IP restrictions, OAuth 2.0, mTLS, and API Management policies like authorization headers to protect your API endpoints.
48. How does Azure API Management integrate with Azure Active Directory B2C?
    • Azure API Management can integrate with Azure AD B2C to authenticate users from external identity providers (like Google or Facebook) and control access to APIs.
49. How do you monitor and optimize API performance in Azure API Management?
    • You can monitor API performance using metrics and logs in Azure Monitor, and optimize by tuning policies, implementing caching, and scaling API Management instances based on traffic.
50. How do you create a custom connector in Power Automate using Azure API Management?
    • You can create a custom connector by exporting the API definition from Azure API Management in OpenAPI format, then importing it into Power Automate as a custom connector for automation workflows.

See Also

• BizTalk Server: Roles and Responsibilities
• BizTalk Interview Questions
• Azure Interview Questions