Tech Fundamentals (pre-GTM Academy)

Question 1

What is a Consumption-Based Business

Answer 1

Usage Based model, allowing customer to access a product and pay for what they use.

Question 2

What is a Database

Answer 2

Databases store data and make it accessible and secure.

A database is an organized collection of data, designed to allow efficient storage, retrieval, and manipulation of information, for consistent and reliable access.

Every application needs a Database.

Question 3

What is a Computer

Answer 3

An electronic device that processes, stores, and retrieves data.

Every computer has
*Storage (permanent storage)
*Memory (temporary storage),
*Processors.

Question 4

What is Storage

Answer 4

Physical disk (HDD) or solid state (SSD), retains data at all times, and is the slowest part of a computer.

Question 5

Memory

Answer 5

Memory (RAM) is a computer component that is a medium (i.e. intermediary that transfers data and instructions) between storage and CPU.

It temporarily stores data, and is used to load applications.

It allows rapid switching between applications and tasks.

It’s fast and expensive. Faster than permanent storage.

If Storage is like a library shelve holding vast amounts of information, Memory (RAM is like the desk (a temporary workspace) where you can keep the books (data and programs) you’re currently using, open them up, and work with them quickly.

Question 6

Compute (CPU)

Answer 6

The processing power of a computer, driven by the CPU, to execute instructions, perform calculations, and handle tasks.

The Central Processing Unit is the computer’s brain. A bigger CPU means faster processing of instructions.

There’s CPU’s, GPU’s, and other specialized processors

Question 7

Operating System

Answer 7

exist between hardware and apps. Makes software accessible.

OS: software that manages hardware, resources (computer components, such as cpu, memory, storage, network, I/O devices), and provides services for applications to run (macOS, Windows, Linux)

Question 8

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

P.D.B.T

Answer 8

This is an iterative framework to develop software:

plan, design, build, test,

planning, creating, testing, deploying, and maintaining software

planning, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate, monitor

Question 9

What is a Programming Language, and what are some examples (legacy, and modern)?

Answer 9

Programming Languages is a formal structured language used to communicate with Computers. It has vocabular, grammer (syntax), semantics (rules)

Legacy: Fortran (mainframes), .NET (windows)

modern coding languages: Python, JavaScript, C++, PHP, R, Java, Go, MATLAB, etc.

Question 10

Monolithic Application

Answer 10

A monolithic application is like building that entire house – the kitchen, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the living room, the plumbing, the electricity – all as one single, giant structure

Everything is connected, one big deployment, and scaling is all or nothing.

Software Application where all components (UI, business logic, data access) are all tightly integrated and run as a single unit.

big and predetermined, large teams (highly sequenced and orderly), development is very slow, with large and infrequent changes. UI, Business Logic, Data Access Layer all bundled together.

Question 11

Microservices Architecture

Answer 11

Microservices Architecture (MSA): modern apps with modern coding languages split individual functionality into individual pieces.

Separate functions built individually.
Large app is composed of smaller apps.
Communicate via API’s.
Language independent.
Independent scaling.

Benefits: Iterate Quickly, Independent Scaling, and Less Risk to the Application

Question 12

Application Programming Interface (API’s)

Answer 12

set of rules and tools that allow software applications to communicate with each other by exchanging data or performing functions. It’s an interface.

Question 13

IaaS

Answer 13

IaaS: virtualized computing resources like servers, storage, networking, managed by the provider, allowing users to build/manage their own systems (e.g. AWS EC2)

Question 14

PaaS

Answer 14

PaaS offers a platform with tools, framework, runtime environments for developing/deploying applications without managing underlying infrastructure (e.g. Google App Engine)

Question 15

SaaS

Answer 15

delivers fully managed software application over internet, accessible via subscription, with no need for users to handle installation or maintenance (e.g. Gmail).

Question 16

Benefits of Cloud Computing

(SNREC)

Answer 16

On-demand self service (simple interface for customer to provision whatever is needed. Typically no human intervention needed)

broad network access (services accessible through any physical location that has internet connection)

resource pooling - cloud provider has large pool of resources, allocates resources to customer, benefits of economies of scale

rapid elasticity - easily scale resources up and down very quickly.

consumption based pricing - pay only for what you use / reserve.

Question 17

Cloud Regions & Availability Zones

Answer 17

Region is a geographic area where cloud providers data centers are located, containing multiple isolated facilities to host cloud services and resources (e.g. AWS US East-1 in Virginia)

Availability Zone (AZ) is an isolacted location within a cloud region, consisting of one or. more data centers with independent power, cooling, and networking to ensure HA and fault tolerance (e.g. US East 1a, US East 1b)

AZ are a subset of Cloud Regions. Cloud Region encompasses multiple availability Zones.

Question 18

What is RDBMS / Relational Database

Answer 18

Relational database that stores data in tables and uses SQL to access the data.

The tables contain rows and columns that form highly “structured” data.

Question 19

Schema

Answer 19

Schema defines the structure of a database.

It is a structured plan that defines how the data will be stored and accessed by the application and/or services.

For example, outlining the Tables (e.g. Customers) and their columns (Order Date), and the Rules (e.g. which columns are required, how tables connect) to keep the data consistent and accessible.

Question 20

Examples of RDBMS

Answer 20

Oracle, Postgres, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL

Question 21

What is a Row, Column, and Table

Answer 21

Rows are a record of something

Columns are a specific attribute (e.g. “data about the data”) (it’s what describes what is contained in the rows)

Table is a structured collection of data organized into rows and columns

Question 22

What is Data Validity

Answer 22

Assurance that data is accurate, consistent, and confirms to defined rules, constraints, and formats. Enforcement thorugh data types, primary/foreign key constraints, and validation rules in the schema.

Question 23

What is Data Normalization?

Answer 23

Process of Breaking down data into different tables

Question 24

What are Joins

Answer 24

They bridge information between tables.

Question 25

What is Data Modeling

Answer 25

Creating conceptual, logical, or physical representation of the data structure and relationships with a database, defining how data is organized and related. It is building Schemas, relationships between tables.

Question 26

Entity Relationship Diagram

Answer 26

visually defines a schema, a representation of how entities in a db relate to each other. Specialized flowchart that convey the relationship type between different entities within a system

Question 27

CRUD

Answer 27

Four basic operations for interacting with persistent data in a database: Create - creating a new record or document Read: Reading information from a record or document that already exists Update: Making a change to an existing record, modifies it in some way Delete: deleting a record or document

Question 28

Indexing for a Core Database

Answer 28

Indexes make it easier and faster to find key concepts. Indexes speed up "read" operations" in a db, but they slow down "write operations"

Question 29

Latency

Answer 29

measure of time between making a request, and receiving a response. Latency is impacted by throughput.

Question 30

Throughput

Answer 30

Measure of how many concurrent requests a system can handle.

Question 31

Backup Copy

Answer 31

Creating a backup means you've made a copy of your data

Question 32

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Answer 32

Amount of time it takes for an organization to restore data from a backup

Question 33

Recovery Point Objective. (RPO)

Answer 33

Amount of data an organization is willing to tolerate losing

Question 34

JSON

Answer 34

JavaScript Object Notation - the standard for data exchange All services, apps, websites are converting data into JSON to share amongst each other.

Question 35

BSON *Think: S.E.A, and the anology of the Letter*

Answer 35

Binary JSON - addresses some of the deficiencies with JSON (better storage, more efficient, can use advanced data types) JSON is like writing a letter in plain text. It's easy for anyone to read. BSON is like encoding that letter into a specific binary code. It's harder for a human to read directly, but it can be transmitted and processed by machines much more quickly and efficiently. Plus, the binary code might have special symbols to represent things that plain text can't easily convey (like a specific date format or a file).

Question 36

High Availability

Answer 36

system's likelihood to remain continuously up and functioning. Measured in 9's (e.g. 99.9%, or 99.99%).

Question 37

Backups

Answer 37

Ensures that a good copy of the data exists somewhere not in the replica sets

Question 38

Replica Sets

Answer 38

Exact copies of database, always in sync. Three is the minimum.

Question 39

Containers *Portable Lunchbox in Shared Kitchen, with the Kitchen Appliances, Lunchbox, and Chef

Answer 39

Lightweight portable unit that packages an application and its dependencies to run consistently across different environments (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes) Example: Portable Lunchbox in a shared kitchen Kitchen (computer or server, with shared resources (CPU, memory, storage), like a stove, fridge, and pantry Lunchbox (container), holds a specific meal (an application, webserver, or database), with its ingredients (code, libraries, dependencies) packed inside. The lunchbox is lightweight, self contained, and can be moved to any kitchen (server or cloud) without needing to reconfigure the kitchen's setup. The Chef (Kubernetes) - organizes multiple lunchboxes, ensuring they share the kitchen efficiently, don't spill into each other, can be scaled (more lunchboxes for busy times).

Question 40

Virtual Machine (Anology: Apartment Complex)

Answer 40

Think of a virtualized machine like having multiple separate apartments within one large building. The Host Machine is the large building, and the Individual Apartments are the VM's. Each apartment has their own plumbing, electrical (e.g. they act like their own computer in a computer) Emulated Computer System that runs an OS and Applications on virtualized hardware, isolated from the host system (e.g. Vmware, Parallels)