The 15 Most Commonly Asked VMware Interview Questions
What is VMWare?
VMware provides virtualization and cloud-computing software services to businesses. So, how does VMware work? Its virtualization technology uses a bare-metal hypervisor. VMware's hypervisors are the VMware ESX/VMware ESXi in x86 architecture. It installs the hypervisor on the physical server so that many Virtual Machines (VMs) can run on it. The Virtual Machines (VMs) can then do the following:
- Optimize hardware resources
- Improve scalability
- Increase flexibility in deploying
- Manage software applications
Some of its popular products are as follows:
- VMware vSphere
- VMware cloud foundation
- VMware horizon
- VMware
- vCenter
Read this blog to get better prepared for VMware interview questions. As part of this preparation, you should also know how their different products work. Let's see how the following concepts emerge during the VMware interview process.
Arrays
You can use arrays in VMware automation to manage data. This data relates to VMs and their configuration. Arrays streamline repetitive tasks and workflows. You can use each element of the array to represent a VM, so these elements can store properties like the following:
- Name
- Status
- Resource allocation
- Networking details
Try solving these problems related to arrays:
Determine if the sum of three integers is equal to the given value
Problem Statement
Given an array of integers and a value, determine if there are any three integers in the array whose sum equals the given value.
Find the missing number in the array
Problem Statement
We are given an array containing ‘n’ distinct numbers taken from the range 0 to ‘n’. Since the array has only ‘n’ numbers out of the total ‘n+1’ numbers, find the missing number.
Linked Lists
A knowledge of VMkernel development is important when applying to certain positions. This is because VMware develops virtualization software. You can apply linked lists to manage various kernel data structures.
Questions related to kernel design and implementation may involve linked lists. See if you can solve these linked lists problems:
Add two integers
Problem Statement
Given the head pointers of two linked lists where each linked list represents an integer number (each node is a digit), add them and return the resulting linked list.
Copy linked list with arbitrary pointer
Problem Statement
Make a deep copy of the given linked list where each node has two pointers: 'next' and 'arbitrary_pointer'.
Trees
Trees can be relevant for virtualization interview questions. In virtualized environments, you can use trees for the following operations:
- Resource management
- Scheduling
- Memorization
Tree-based data structures are often employed in resource allocation algorithms.. Test your knowledge of trees with these questions:
Connect all siblings
Problem Statement
Given the root to a binary tree where each node has an additional pointer called sibling (or next), connect the sibling pointer to the next node in the same level.
Determine if a binary tree is a binary search tree
Problem Statement
Given a Binary Tree, figure out whether it’s a Binary Search Tree. In a binary search tree, each node’s key value is smaller than the key value of all nodes in the right subtree, and are greater than the key values of all nodes in the left subtree i.e. L < N < R..
Strings
Strings protocol is vital to parse and manipulate protocol headers, messages, or payloads. This is because VMware products involve networking and protocol analysis capabilities. You should study the following topics:
- Network packet inspection
- String matching in network traffic
- Protocol-specific parsing and validation
Challenge yourself with these string segmentation and palindrome problems:
String segmentation
Problem Statement
Given a dictionary of words and an input string tell whether the input string can be completely segmented into dictionary words.
Find all palindrome substrings
Problem Statement
Given a string, find all substrings that are palindromes.
Dynamic Programming
Dynamic programming is an essential topic for VMware interviews. It optimizes resource allocation and workload scheduling.
Questions could be about virtual machine placement, load balancing, or optimal resource provisioning. You can apply dynamic programming techniques to devise efficient and scalable solutions. Practice your dynamic programming concepts with the questions below.
Find the maximum sum of a subarray
Problem Statement
Given an array of positive numbers and a positive number ‘k’, find the maximum sum of any contiguous subarray of size ‘k’.
Math and Stats
Mathematical modeling and statistical analysis help in understanding system behavior. They can also be useful for these operations:
- Predicting performance bottlenecks
- Designing efficient algorithms and policies
VMware products and services involve the management of Virtual Machines (VMs). So, you should be familiar with capacity planning and forecasting. Now try to solve this problem and check your answer:
Determine if the number is valid
Problem Statement
Given an input string, determine if it makes a valid number or not. For simplicity, assume that white spaces are not present in the input.
Backtracking
You should have a strong understanding of common sorting algorithms. Search algorithms like binary search and hash-based searching are also important. So, where can you use sorting algorithms?
One example is when using scheduling algorithms to assign VMs to hosts.
Apply your knowledge of backtracking to the following question:
Boggle
Problem Statement
Given an NxN grid of characters and a dictionary, find all words which can be made from the characters in the grid and are present in the given dictionary. A word can start and end at any character in the grid. The next character must be adjacent to the previous character in any of the directions i.e. up, down, left, right and diagonal. The character at each position in the grid can be used only once while making a word.
Graphs
Graphs are useful for the VMware interview process in the following ways:
- Representing and analyzing VMware networking topologies
- Modeling and managing component dependencies
- Managing clusters
- Analyzing system performance analysis
Ready to test your knowledge of graphs? Try solving this problem and see if you need more practice:
Find the minimum spanning tree
Problem Statement
Find the minimum spanning tree of a connected, undirected graph with weighted edges.
Design
VMware develops complex software systems and solutions. This is why you should have a strong foundation of design principles. Here are some aspects of design that might come up during the interview:
- Ability to design scalable and efficient systems
- Component interactions, API design, and proposing design patterns
- Database design for different management solutions
- Intuitive UI/UX of VMware products
VMware security design to enhance privacy
Implement a LRU cache
Problem Statement
Least Recently Used (LRU) is a common caching strategy. It defines the policy to evict elements from the cache to make room for new elements when the cache is full, meaning it discards the least recently used items first.
Sorting and Searching
You should have a strong understanding of common sorting algorithms. Search algorithms like binary search and hash-based searching are also important. So, where can you use sorting algorithms?
One example is their use in scheduling algorithms that assign VMs to hosts. How well do you remember sorting and searching?
Test yourself now:
Merge overlapping intervals
Problem Statement
Given a list of intervals, merge all the overlapping intervals to produce a list that has only mutually exclusive intervals.
Search in a 2D matrix
Problem Statement
Search, or find the position of, a given key in a 2D matrix. All rows and columns are sorted.
