Interviews/Application Development/Solutions Architect

Hire Solutions Architects
who actually design systems people can build

With EasyEnv we build a fit test for the role. Use it to cut the noise at the top of the funnel, or to go deep on the candidates who matter.

You can even evaluate how this person works with AI. So you hire the engineer who can ship, not the one who looks good in a slide.

Multi-cloudCost · riskDiagramsArchitecture decision recordsLive or take-home

Request a Demo Create a Free Account

Real Linux VM

Not a sandbox

systemd, kernel, full toolchain

Browser-based

Zero install for candidates

One link and they are in

Auto-graded

Pass / fail checks per challenge

Plus the full session replay

A solutions architect turns business problems into systems other engineers can build. The good ones think about cost, blast radius and the team that has to run it. EasyEnv hands the candidate a real brief, a real cost envelope and a workspace where they can prove the design.

Inside a live interview

What you see when they work.

Real workspace, real proof slice, every keystroke recorded.

billing-api

AMS

Billing-api

src

billing.py

auth.py

models.py

tests

test_billing.pyM

test_auth.py

pyproject.toml

README.md

Pybilling.py

from decimal import Decimal

def calculate_total(items: list[dict]) -> Decimal:

# Sum line totals using Decimal for currency precision

total = Decimal("0")

for item in items:

total += Decimal(str(item["price"])) * item["qty"]

return total

candidate@arch-workspace:~

alice@dev:~/billing-api$

● mainPython 3.12

Claude · ready

Claude

You

Refactor calculate_total to use Decimal for currency math, and add a test.

Claude

Ask Claude...

Mike

Sam

How it works

Three steps. Zero infra to maintain.

Pick the fit test

Use a ready-made challenge or ask us to build one for your stack. Live, take-home, or both.

Send one link

The candidate clicks. A full Linux workspace boots in their browser. No installs, no VPN, no zoom-share.

Review at 2x

Replay the session, read the auto-graded checks, and decide. Most reviews take under five minutes.

The problem

Why hiring a Solutions Architect is hard.

Architecture is taste. Whiteboards alone never tell you enough.

Trade-offs are the job. The candidate has to defend choices, not just propose them.

Cost and risk are first-class. Many candidates duck both.

Communication separates great architects from confident ones.

The fit test

What we measure for a Solutions Architect.

Every area runs inside a real production-like workspace. The candidate works in a browser, the session records itself.

Design under constraints

A brief with a cost ceiling and a latency budget. They design within both.

Risk reasoning

Live conversation around blast radius, on-call and operational drag.

Cost defense

Two architectures, one cheaper. They justify the more expensive one if it is right.

ADR writing

A real architecture decision record. They write it the way teams use them.

Prove it

A workspace where they can stand up a small slice to demonstrate the design.

AI collaboration

Allow AI for diagram drafts and grade whether they sharpen the constraints AI tends to gloss over.

The stack we put in front of them.

Real tools, pre-installed, accessible from the workspace terminal.

AWSGCPAzureTerraformKubernetesPostgreSQLRedisKafkaOpenAPIgRPCGraphQLCDNEdgeMermaidExcalidraw

Sample challenges

What a Solutions Architect interview looks like.

Pick from our library or ask us to build a challenge for your stack. Each one is a real workspace, not a snippet.

Challenge 01

Design within $4k/month

Scenario

A real-time leaderboard for 5M users. The candidate has the brief, the SLOs and the cost envelope.

What you learn

Whether they pick managed services where they help and self-host where they save.

In the workspace

$ ls challenges/

workspace, runbook.md, README.md

candidate has:

· a real Linux box in the browser
· kubectl, docker, terraform, jq, yq
· cluster, repo and cloud creds pre-wired
· auto-checks running in the background

interviewer sees:

· every keystroke + every command
· terminal + screen recording
· auto-graded pass/fail per check

AI in the loop

Score the engineer, and how they work with AI.

AI is fast at diagrams and slow at constraints. EasyEnv records the prompts so you see whether the candidate forced the LLM to defend cost, latency and operational risk before they wrote the ADR.

Allow or block AI per question, not per interview

Full prompt and response history replayed in the review

Score "verifies AI output" as a separate signal

Ready to hire a Solutions Architect who ships?

Set up your first interview in under an hour. We will help you build a fit test for this role on your stack.

Request a Demo Create a Free Account

Role FAQ

Hiring a Solutions Architect, answered.

Yes. We can drop your brief or a sanitised version into the workspace.

Yes. Live sessions include collaborative diagrams alongside the terminal.

No. The workspace runs in their browser. Terminal, editor, ports and dashboards are all served from the EasyEnv workspace, so candidate setup is zero.

Each challenge has automated checks (did the service come back, did the test pass, did the right log message appear) plus a recording your team can replay. Most reviews take under five minutes.

Yes. AI access is a per-interview setting. Block it for fundamentals, then allow it later in the loop to assess AI collaboration separately.

Interviews/Application Development/Solutions Architect

Hire Solutions Architects
who actually design systems people can build

With EasyEnv we build a fit test for the role. Use it to cut the noise at the top of the funnel, or to go deep on the candidates who matter.

You can even evaluate how this person works with AI. So you hire the engineer who can ship, not the one who looks good in a slide.

Multi-cloudCost · riskDiagramsArchitecture decision recordsLive or take-home

Request a Demo Create a Free Account

Real Linux VM

Not a sandbox

systemd, kernel, full toolchain

Browser-based

Zero install for candidates

One link and they are in

Auto-graded

Pass / fail checks per challenge

Plus the full session replay

Inside a live interview

What you see when they work.

Real workspace, real proof slice, every keystroke recorded.

billing-api

AMS

Billing-api

src

billing.py

auth.py

models.py

tests

test_billing.pyM

test_auth.py

pyproject.toml

README.md

Pybilling.py

from decimal import Decimal

def calculate_total(items: list[dict]) -> Decimal:

# Sum line totals using Decimal for currency precision

total = Decimal("0")

for item in items:

total += Decimal(str(item["price"])) * item["qty"]

return total

candidate@arch-workspace:~

alice@dev:~/billing-api$

● mainPython 3.12

Claude · ready

Claude

You

Refactor calculate_total to use Decimal for currency math, and add a test.

Claude

Ask Claude...

Mike

Sam

How it works

Three steps. Zero infra to maintain.

Pick the fit test

Use a ready-made challenge or ask us to build one for your stack. Live, take-home, or both.

Send one link

The candidate clicks. A full Linux workspace boots in their browser. No installs, no VPN, no zoom-share.

Review at 2x

Replay the session, read the auto-graded checks, and decide. Most reviews take under five minutes.

The problem

Why hiring a Solutions Architect is hard.

Architecture is taste. Whiteboards alone never tell you enough.

Trade-offs are the job. The candidate has to defend choices, not just propose them.

Cost and risk are first-class. Many candidates duck both.

Communication separates great architects from confident ones.

The fit test

What we measure for a Solutions Architect.

Every area runs inside a real production-like workspace. The candidate works in a browser, the session records itself.

Design under constraints

A brief with a cost ceiling and a latency budget. They design within both.

Risk reasoning

Live conversation around blast radius, on-call and operational drag.

Cost defense

Two architectures, one cheaper. They justify the more expensive one if it is right.

ADR writing

A real architecture decision record. They write it the way teams use them.

Prove it

A workspace where they can stand up a small slice to demonstrate the design.

AI collaboration

Allow AI for diagram drafts and grade whether they sharpen the constraints AI tends to gloss over.

The stack we put in front of them.

Real tools, pre-installed, accessible from the workspace terminal.

AWSGCPAzureTerraformKubernetesPostgreSQLRedisKafkaOpenAPIgRPCGraphQLCDNEdgeMermaidExcalidraw

Sample challenges

What a Solutions Architect interview looks like.

Pick from our library or ask us to build a challenge for your stack. Each one is a real workspace, not a snippet.

Challenge 01

Design within $4k/month

Scenario

A real-time leaderboard for 5M users. The candidate has the brief, the SLOs and the cost envelope.

What you learn

Whether they pick managed services where they help and self-host where they save.

In the workspace

$ ls challenges/

workspace, runbook.md, README.md

candidate has:

· a real Linux box in the browser
· kubectl, docker, terraform, jq, yq
· cluster, repo and cloud creds pre-wired
· auto-checks running in the background

interviewer sees:

· every keystroke + every command
· terminal + screen recording
· auto-graded pass/fail per check

AI in the loop

Score the engineer, and how they work with AI.

AI is fast at diagrams and slow at constraints. EasyEnv records the prompts so you see whether the candidate forced the LLM to defend cost, latency and operational risk before they wrote the ADR.

Allow or block AI per question, not per interview

Full prompt and response history replayed in the review

Score "verifies AI output" as a separate signal

Ready to hire a Solutions Architect who ships?

Set up your first interview in under an hour. We will help you build a fit test for this role on your stack.

Request a Demo Create a Free Account

Role FAQ

Hiring a Solutions Architect, answered.

Yes. We can drop your brief or a sanitised version into the workspace.

Yes. Live sessions include collaborative diagrams alongside the terminal.

No. The workspace runs in their browser. Terminal, editor, ports and dashboards are all served from the EasyEnv workspace, so candidate setup is zero.

Each challenge has automated checks (did the service come back, did the test pass, did the right log message appear) plus a recording your team can replay. Most reviews take under five minutes.

Yes. AI access is a per-interview setting. Block it for fundamentals, then allow it later in the loop to assess AI collaboration separately.

How to Hire a Solutions Architect | EasyEnv | EasyEnv

Hire Solutions Architectswho actually design systems people can build

What you see when they work.

Three steps. Zero infra to maintain.

Pick the fit test

Send one link

Review at 2x

Why hiring a Solutions Architect is hard.

What we measure for a Solutions Architect.

Design under constraints

Risk reasoning

Cost defense

ADR writing

Prove it

AI collaboration

The stack we put in front of them.

What a Solutions Architect interview looks like.

Design within $4k/month

Score the engineer, and how they work with AI.

Ready to hire a Solutions Architect who ships?

Hiring a Solutions Architect, answered.

Hire Solutions Architectswho actually design systems people can build

What you see when they work.

Three steps. Zero infra to maintain.

Pick the fit test

Send one link

Review at 2x

Why hiring a Solutions Architect is hard.

What we measure for a Solutions Architect.

Design under constraints

Risk reasoning

Cost defense

ADR writing

Prove it

AI collaboration

The stack we put in front of them.

What a Solutions Architect interview looks like.

Design within $4k/month

Score the engineer, and how they work with AI.

Ready to hire a Solutions Architect who ships?

Hiring a Solutions Architect, answered.

Hire Solutions Architects
who actually design systems people can build

Hire Solutions Architects
who actually design systems people can build