IoT Interview Questions and Answers
In this article, we will see some of the most frequently asked IoT Interview Questions and Answers. So let’s get started.
IoT Interview Questions and Answers
Q1. How is IoT responsible for affecting everyday lives?
Ans. IoT is largely responsible for reinventing the physical world. It connects devices and makes them smarter. This allows us to better use these devices. The devices send messages to our smartphones and digital computers about our personal assets and their functioning.
The IoT uses sensors and RFID chips to manage and control domains such as healthcare, homes, cities, traffic management and so much more. The world of IoT is limitless and offers endless possibilities to innovate and create anything possible to the human imagination.
Q2. Explain the working of IoT.
Ans. Artificial intelligence forms the basis of the IoT. IoT is a combination of various possible technologies. The core of IoT is to establish fine communication and build performance using sensors and other data processing models.
The IoT components can be divided into sensors, cloud units, data processing mechanisms and unique user interfaces.
The sensors collect data from their environment. The cloud offers a transport and network between the software. The cloud also stores huge amounts of incoming data from sensors. The user interface programs the device to react to the response according to the reaction in the environment.
Q3. Elaborate on the components of IoT.
Ans. Any IoT device ideally consists of just 4 components. They are as follows:
a. Sensors: Sensors collect data from the surroundings. These are essentially devices that can connect to the environment and also perform important tasks. Sensors are responsible for real-world integration in IoT. There are various types of sensors available in the market that can sense the temperature, track locations, heat, pressure, and so on.
b. Connectivity: Cloud computing is the cheapest way of connecting various IoT devices and getting them running as quickly as possible. Cloud computing also allows devices to communicate with each other freely.
c. Data processing: Once we obtain the information about the surroundings, we send it to the cloud. Here the data undergoes processing to perform the next sets of tasks. The computer understands the response to generate some response that is acceptable.
d. User interface: IoT devices must include a highly interactive and cutting-edge user interface. Since devices must be able to communicate with each other and also the user, the interface must be easy to understand. IoT uses end-user commands to obtain a precise and effective flow of communication.
Q4. What role does IoT play in smart cities?
Ans. The highly functional IoT devices along with a strong network engagement allow the internet of things to offer transparency, efficiency and adaptability in the planning of infrastructure. IoT offers energy efficiency which makes it stand out from other forms of technology. All of these reasons include cost efficiency and time management that enable the government to easily collaborate with this technology to offer better services to the citizens of any city.
Smart cities include the use of smart waste management systems, safe cities with secure systems, smart grids, traffic control and accident control, water conservation system and so much more is made possible with the help of the internet of things,
IoT has made the planning of public utilities and the overall city planning more creative and intuitive.
Q5. What is the main distinction between business IoT and IIoT?
Ans. The business IoT includes small-scale devices in homes and offices that ease human lives. These include smart consumer utilities and personal assets such as smart thermostats, TVs, geysers, smart wearables and so on. Whereas the industrial IoT as the name indicates is on a large industrial level. They are used to effectively manage cities and countries. Examples of IIoT include process monitoring, equipment maintenance, remote asset tracking and so on.
Q6. Explain about the IoT architecture.
Ans. The architecture of the internet of things can be categorised into 4 layers:
a. Sensing layer: As the name suggests the layer contains sensors, actuators and other IoT devices to sense the changes in the local environment and close surroundings. These sensors take in data, process it and send it over the network
b. Network layer: This layer is made of data acquisition systems and network/internet gateways. The DAQs perform collection and aggregation functions and then finally convert the analog data coming from the sensors into digital data. The gateways are primarily responsible for establishing connections between various sensors and networks. The internet gateways mainly offer protection and filtration.
c. Data processing layer: Edge IoT and edge analytics analyze the data and pre-process it before sending it to data centres.
d. Application layer: This stage manages the data with the help of data centers and the end-users make use of the applications such as agriculture, healthcare, offices, industries and so on.
Q7. What are some of the popular IoT communication protocols?
Ans. Wifi is the most common IoT protocol. This is based on the IEEE 802.11n which is commonly used in homes these days. It has frequency ranges of 2.4 Ghz and 5.5 Ghz bands. It offers a faster transfer of data.
Bluetooth is another communication protocol used in the internet of things. It is used for communications within short distances. It is used in wearables such as smartwatches and smart bands.
Zigbee is an important IoT protocol. It consumes low power, it offers security, scalability and it is highly robust. Its design specifically matches the industrial sites that require low power and decides to perform a complicated set of tasks.
Some of the other important communication protocols are LoRa, cellular, MQTT, Z wave, NFC and SigFox.
Developers chose the right communication protocols based on the projects under development.
Q8. Explain about IoT hardware and software.
Ans. IoT hardware is a set of devices that are capable of sensing data from the local environment. These devices send the data for processing to generate responses. IoT hardware is divided into chips such as microcontrollers, sensors, actuators that collect details based on movement and standard devices that include routers.
IoT software is a collection of code and programs that achieve functions such as data collection, processing , storage and instruction evaluation. Some of the most prominent software are the operating systems, firmware, applications and middleware. Software is divided on the basis of the tasks they perform. These tasks could be data collection, data integration, real-time analysis, application and process execution.
Q9. Talk about the examples of IoT in education.
Ans. The internet of things does not limit the learning experience to rotting and textbook learning. It opens the wide imagination of the student. IoT incorporates audio and visual learning into textbooks to promote interactive learning.
With the help of IoT the details and the location of the students can be monitored within the campus. IoT increases the security within campuses. IoT deploys Intelligent camera vision to further navigate the behaviour of the students. Educational apps are innovative tools that use graphic textbooks, videos and options to make notes. Automatic attendance systems save teachers from the tedious task of taking attendance every day.
Q10. Talk about the role of IoT in government.
Ans. It is the responsibility of the government to assist the citizens in health, education, housing, water, safety, and prosperity. IoT works closely with the government in order to serve the needs of the citizens better. With the range of smart networks and sensing devices, IoT allows monitoring public safety. It helps law enforcement agencies to ensure law and order among the citizens of any country.
It quickly detects defects in systems designed for the use of citizens such as roads, bridges, and power grids. Disaster prevention and management can work with IoT and big data to protect human lives during disasters.
Q11. What are the advantages of IoT?
Ans. Following are the advantages of IoT:
a. Enhanced client management: IoT automates the customer task and makes their lives easier. For Example, smart cars handle most of the driving for the user.
b. Technical optimization: IoT allows users to transmit data through the help of the internet. This makes it easier to communicate between end-users and IoT devices.
c. Mitigation of Access: IoT makes it easier to obtain real-time information with the help of the internet and a smartphone.
d. Enhanced insights: IoT offers real-time insights about the personal assets of any business or organisation that makes users take better-calculated decisions.
e. Security measures: IoT provides additional security to systems and persons.
Q12. What are the challenges of IoT?
Ans. Below are the challenges of IoT:
a. Privacy: IoT devices are open to hacking if they transfer information on an open network without encryption on the user information.
b. Insufficient testing and outdated product: Many companies or manufacturers rush to start releasing their products and software without doing enough testing. Many of them don’t provide timely updates as well. All these reasons make IoT devices open to hacking
c. Lack of understanding and awareness: IoT is a fairly new technology and many of the non-technical users of IoT may not fully understand the working of the devices which makes them vulnerable to hacks.
d. Network connectivity: It is difficult to establish connections for smaller bandwidths, distributed devices, and large localities.
e. Reliability: Natural calamities, disruption in cloud services, power limitations and system failures make the IoT technology unreliable.
Q13. What are the various layers of the IoT protocol stack? Talk about the classification of IoT protocols.
Ans. Protocols ensure the exchange of information between users and devices is safe. They describe how the data transfer takes place over the internet in a secure manner.
The IoT protocols are classified as follows:
a. Application layer: It includes protocols such as AMQP, MQTT, and CoAP
b. Transport layer: It uses protocols such as user datagram protocol(UDP) and Transmission control protocol(TCP).
c. Network layer: It consists of protocols such as 6LoWPAN and IP
d. Data Link layer: LPWAN and IEE 802.15.4 MAC are some of the important protocols.
e. Physical layer: Some of the important protocols are Bluetooth, BLE, new field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification(RFID), and ethernet.
Q14. Describe the different communication models.
Ans. The internet of things makes use of technical models to communicate with various IoT devices. IoT connects users and devices from any location with the help of any network or service.
The various communication models are:
a. Request response model: In this model the IoT devices make the request and the server responds to those requests. Once the server receives these requests it makes a decision about sending the necessary information, it then prepares the response and sends it back to the client.
b. Publisher subscriber model: This is one of the popular modes of communication in the internet of things. It includes publishers, subscribers and consumers. Publishers send data to topics. Consumers subscribe to particular topics. When the broker gets a topic from the publisher it simply forwards it to the subscribed consumers.
c. Push-pull model: Here the producers of data push the data into queue data structures and the data consumers pull these data from the queues.
d. Exclusive-pair model: This model allows continuous communication between client and server. Once we establish a connection the client and server are free to exchange messages.
Q15. What is bluetooth low energy(BLE)?
Ans. Bluetooth low energy was founded in 2009. It focuses primarily on small-scale IoT applications such as smart wearables and broadcasting beacons. These applications require devices that can store small amounts of data with less power consumption.
Q16. List the preferred databases for IoT.
Ans. The top six databases for IoT are as follows:
- MongoDB
- InfluxDB
- Cassandra
- Prometheus
- RethinkDB
- PostgreSQL
Q17. What is the difference between Raspberry Pi and Arduino?
Ans. The following are the main differences between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino:
The most important difference between the boards is that the Raspberry Pi is a microprocessor-based mini computer(MCB) whereas Arduino is a microcontroller board.
The microcontroller on the Arduino board is equipped with the necessary hardware for programming and monitoring. The Raspberry Pi board comes with all the necessary hardware to run smoothly.
Raspberry Pi requires an Operating system to run whereas Arduno does not need an OS.
The Raspberry Pi comes with an operating system called Raspbian. Although it can run different versions of Linux, the OS is preferred by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Q18. What is MicroPython?
Ans. MicroPython is an open-source Python programming language interpreter and it is designed specifically for tiny embedded boards. MicroPython allows its users to write clean and simple code in Python without having to learn complicated programming languages
Python is a great choice for people who are new to programming or hardware. However, MicroPython is also full of features that make it a good choice for seasoned Python users.
Q19. Name the different types of sensors in IoT.
Ans.
- Smoke sensor
- Temperature sensor
- Pressure sensor
- Motion detection sensors
- Gas sensors
- Proximity sensor
- IR sensors
Q20. What do you mean by data in IoT?
Ans. Data can be any information the IoT device collects from its surroundings in the environment. Usually IoT sensors perceive their environment and collect data. Different kinds of sensors collect different kinds of data. We can transmit, store and retrieve this data at any given time.
Q21. What is Zigbee?
Ans. ZigBee is a wireless technology standard that offers us a set of communication protocols for short-range communications. It is an open-source global standard developed by Zigbee Alliance in order to fix the issues and the needs of low-cost, low-power wireless IoT networks. The protocol makes use of a low data rate, brief to medium-range wireless networking devices such as sensors and control networks.
Q22. What is MQTT?
Ans. MQTT stands for Message Queue Telemetry Transport protocol. It is a messaging protocol that follows and tracks devices on the internet of things. MQTT uses a home network to send messages to IoT devices and to respond to those messages.
Q23. What is IoT salesforce?
Ans. Salesforce IoT is used to enhance customer experience, offer services to end business users and improve the overall business application. Salesforce IoT cloud enhances these services with the help of Big data. It obtains this data from connected devices in the network.
Q24. What is IoT Eclipse?
Ans. Eclipse IoT is a combination of industry and academia that works together to form a foundation for open source technologies, especially for IoT projects. Their main aim is to produce open source applications for standard IoT technology. They achieve this by creating open-source frameworks and services for usage in IoT solutions and by developing tools for software developers.
Q25. What is Contiki?
Ans. Contiki is an operating system designed for small IoT with small memory storage, small power, processing power, and bandwidth. It opts for a minimal design approach while keeping in mind the basic functionality of an operating system. It offers a means for controlling programs, processes, resources, memory, and transmission.
Q26. Explain GE Predix.
Ans. Predix is GE’s mechanism to cultivate data from the industrial Internet of Things and to deploy machine learning algorithms to optimise industrial systems. It is a combination of GE’s software products to serve as an OS for heavy industries. The main idea is to collect data from the internet of things and make ML algorithms to offer a strategic approach for various industries.
Q27. What is IoT Cisco?
Ans. Cisco looks at IoT as a key problem solver in businesses problems, increasing growth, improving customer experience, and optimizing business operations. It extends intent-based networking to the IoT edge that allows enterprises and network policies all the way to the edge. It offers unmatched flexibility with the help of a comprehensive IoT portfolio.
Q28. What is IoT Thingworx?
Ans. Thingworx offers the easiest solution to automate industrial processes and various other complex analytical processes that improvise IoT solutions with information and deep insights. Thingworx allows users to construct a scalable communications infrastructure that supports millions of smart devices. It provides a means of storage, analysis, execution and collaboration capabilities required for connected applications. IoT thingworx can be used for searching data, events, services and relationships of the connected world to make better business decisions.
Q29. What is the difference between IoT and M2M?
Ans. The main difference between IoT and M2M is that IoT is used for connecting any kind of devices to improve performance whereas M2M connects one or more devices with the help of the internet for sharing data and analytics. M2M is a system that allows two or more machines to communicate with each other and with other humans. The internet of things connects every smart device such as vehicles, appliances, homes to the internet with sensors and embedded into almost everything.
Q30. What is thingful?
Ans. Thingful is a search engine used for the internet of things. It offers safe interoperability in between millions of IoT devices via the Internet. This form of IoT tool testing controls how data is used and empowers people to make more decisive and important decisions.
Summary
So this was it about the IoT Interview Questions and Answers. We advise you to understand the topics well and prepare well before the interview. Hope our explanation was easy to understand.