TechnicalWhiteboarding/problem solving

What is the difference between scaling horizontally vs. vertically?

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Behavioral
  • What is the difference between scaling horizontally vs. vertically?
  • Can you explain how horizontal scaling differs from vertical scaling in cloud environments?
  • How would you describe the advantages and disadvantages of scaling horizontally versus scaling vertically?
  • In what scenarios would you recommend horizontal scaling over vertical scaling, and vice versa?
  • What are the technical challenges associated with horizontal scaling compared to vertical scaling?
  • How does horizontal scaling impact application performance differently than vertical scaling?
  • When designing a scalable cloud architecture, how do you decide between horizontal and vertical scaling?
  • What infrastructure considerations come into play when choosing horizontal vs. vertical scaling?
  • How does scaling horizontally affect load balancing and redundancy compared to vertical scaling?
  • Can you provide an example of when you had to implement horizontal or vertical scaling to optimize performance?
  • How do cost and resource management differ when scaling horizontally versus vertically?

Interview question asked to Technical Account Managers interviewing at Age of Learning, Mitto, Elastic and others: What is the difference between scaling horizontally vs. vertically?.