AKS with Azure Load Balancer - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Architecture

intermediate

Understanding AKS Load Balancer Integration

In an AKS cluster, which component is responsible for provisioning the Azure Load Balancer to expose services externally?

A The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template manually deployed by the user

B The Kubernetes kube-proxy running on each node

C The Azure Load Balancer operator running as a pod inside the cluster

D The Azure cloud controller manager integrated with AKS

💡 Hint

Think about which component communicates between Kubernetes and Azure infrastructure.

The Azure cloud controller manager in AKS manages cloud resources like the Azure Load Balancer by interacting with Azure APIs to provision and configure them automatically.

❓ scaling

intermediate

Scaling AKS Services with Azure Load Balancer

You have an AKS service exposed via an Azure Load Balancer. When you scale the number of pods for this service, what happens to the Load Balancer's backend pool?

A The backend pool automatically updates to include the new pod IPs

B The backend pool updates to include the node IPs where pods run, not pod IPs

C The Load Balancer creates a new backend pool for each pod

D The backend pool remains unchanged until manually updated

💡 Hint

Consider how Azure Load Balancer routes traffic to pods in AKS.

Azure Load Balancer routes traffic to node IPs in the backend pool. kube-proxy on nodes forwards traffic to pods. So, backend pool updates include node IPs, not pod IPs.

❓ tradeoff

advanced

Choosing Between Basic and Standard Azure Load Balancer for AKS

Which of the following is a key advantage of using the Standard Azure Load Balancer over the Basic one in an AKS cluster?

A Standard Load Balancer supports zone redundancy and higher scale

B Standard Load Balancer is free of charge while Basic is paid

C Basic Load Balancer supports more backend pool instances

D Basic Load Balancer supports inbound NAT rules, Standard does not

💡 Hint

Think about availability and scale features in Azure Load Balancer SKUs.

The Standard Load Balancer supports zone redundancy, higher scale, and better security features compared to the Basic SKU, making it suitable for production AKS workloads.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Request Flow in AKS with Azure Load Balancer

In an AKS cluster exposed via an Azure Load Balancer, what is the correct sequence of components a client request passes through before reaching a pod?

A 1,2,3,4

B 1,3,2,4

C 1,2,4,3

D 2,1,3,4

💡 Hint

Follow the path from client to pod step-by-step.

The client sends the request to the Load Balancer IP, which forwards it to a node. kube-proxy on the node routes it to the pod, which processes and responds.

❓ estimation

expert

Estimating Azure Load Balancer Capacity for AKS Cluster

You have an AKS cluster with 50 nodes and a service exposed via a Standard Azure Load Balancer. Each node runs 10 pods for this service. If the Load Balancer supports up to 1000 backend pool instances, what is the maximum number of pods that can be effectively load balanced by this service?

A 50 pods, limited by the number of nodes in the cluster

B 500 pods, since each node counts as 2 backend pool instances

C 10000 pods, because Load Balancer backend pool limits the number of nodes, not pods

D 5000 pods, since pods are directly registered in the backend pool

💡 Hint

Consider what the Load Balancer backend pool tracks: nodes or pods?

The Azure Load Balancer backend pool tracks nodes, not individual pods. The 1000 instance limit allows up to 1000 nodes. With 10 pods per node, that's up to 10,000 pods. The current 50 nodes is well below the limit.