Top 25 Interview Questions and Answers for Azure API Management

Azure API Management (APIM) is a critical Azure service used to publish, secure, monitor, and manage APIs at scale. With the growing adoption of cloud-native and microservices architectures, APIM skills are in high demand across enterprises.

Whether you’re preparing for Azure Administrator, Azure Developer, or Integration Engineer roles, this blog covers the Top 25 Azure API Management interview questions and answers, from basic to advanced, explained clearly and practically.

1. What is Azure API Management?

Azure API Management (APIM) is a fully managed Azure service that allows organizations to create, publish, secure, transform, maintain, and monitor APIs. It acts as a gateway between backend services and API consumers.

Key purposes:

• Centralized API governance
• Security and access control
• Analytics and monitoring
• API lifecycle management

2. What are the main components of Azure API Management?

Azure APIM consists of three core components:

3. What is an API Gateway in Azure APIM?

The API Gateway is the runtime component that:

• Accepts client requests
• Applies policies (security, transformation, throttling)
• Routes traffic to backend services
• Returns responses to clients

It ensures security, performance, and reliability for APIs.

4. What is the Developer Portal in Azure API Management?

The Developer Portal is a customizable website where:

• Developers can discover APIs
• Read documentation
• Test APIs
• Subscribe to products
• Manage API keys

It improves developer onboarding and API adoption.

5. What is a Product in Azure API Management?

A Product is a logical container that:

• Groups one or more APIs
• Defines usage policies (rate limits, quotas)
• Controls access through subscriptions

Users must subscribe to a product to consume APIs.

6. What are Policies in Azure API Management?

Policies are XML-based rules that modify API behavior at runtime.

Common policy use cases:

• Authentication & authorization
• Rate limiting
• IP filtering
• Request/response transformation
• Caching

Policies can be applied at global, product, API, or operation level.

7. What is Rate Limiting in Azure APIM?

Rate limiting controls the number of API calls a client can make within a time period.

Example:

• 100 calls per minute per subscription

This protects backend services from:

• Overuse
• Abuse
• Denial-of-service attacks

8. What is API Versioning in Azure API Management?

API Versioning allows you to maintain multiple versions of an API simultaneously.

Azure APIM supports:

• URL-based versioning
• Query string versioning
• Header-based versioning

This ensures backward compatibility for existing consumers.

9. What is a Subscription in Azure APIM?

A Subscription provides:

• A unique subscription key
• Access control to APIs/products
• Usage tracking and analytics

Clients must pass the subscription key in API requests to authenticate.

10. How does Azure APIM handle security?

Azure API Management provides multiple security features:

• Subscription keys
• OAuth 2.0
• OpenID Connect
• JWT validation
• Client certificates
• IP filtering

These features ensure secure API access.

11. What is OAuth 2.0 in Azure API Management?

OAuth 2.0 is an authorization framework used to secure APIs.

In APIM:

• APIM validates access tokens
• Integrates with Azure AD or external identity providers
• Ensures secure, token-based access

12. What is API Caching in Azure API Management?

Caching stores API responses temporarily to:

• Reduce backend load
• Improve response time
• Enhance scalability

APIM supports:

• In-memory caching
• Time-based cache expiration

13. What is API Transformation?

API transformation allows modifying:

• Request headers
• Query parameters
• Payload formats (JSON ↔ XML)

This is done using policies without changing backend code.

14. What is Azure APIM Pricing Tiers?

Azure APIM offers multiple tiers:

15. What is the Consumption Tier in Azure APIM?

The Consumption tier:

• Is serverless
• Charges per API call
• Automatically scales
• No VNet support

Ideal for event-driven and unpredictable workloads.

16. How does Azure APIM integrate with Azure Monitor?

Azure APIM integrates with Azure Monitor and Application Insights to:

• Track API usage
• Monitor latency and failures
• Analyze traffic patterns
• Set alerts

This enables proactive performance management.

17. What is API Import in Azure APIM?

Azure APIM supports importing APIs from:

• OpenAPI (Swagger)
• WSDL
• Azure Functions
• Logic Apps
• App Services

This simplifies API onboarding and documentation.

18. What is Backend in Azure API Management?

A Backend represents:

• The actual service behind the API
• Can be App Service, Function, Logic App, or external API

APIM routes client requests to the configured backend.

19. What is the difference between API Management and Azure Application Gateway?

20. What is Throttling in Azure APIM?

Throttling limits:

• API call frequency
• Concurrent requests

It prevents backend overload and ensures fair usage among consumers.

21. What is Self-hosted Gateway in Azure APIM?

A Self-hosted Gateway:

• Runs outside Azure (on-premises or other clouds)
• Connects to Azure APIM control plane
• Enables hybrid API management

22. What is OpenAPI Specification?

OpenAPI (Swagger) is a standard format for:

• Describing REST APIs
• Defining endpoints, parameters, responses
• Auto-generating documentation

Azure APIM natively supports OpenAPI.

23. How do you monitor API usage in Azure APIM?

You can monitor API usage using:

• Azure Monitor
• Application Insights
• APIM Analytics dashboards
• Logs and metrics

This helps track performance and usage trends.

24. What are Common Use Cases of Azure API Management?

• Microservices governance
• Partner API exposure
• Mobile backend services
• Legacy system modernization
• API monetization

25. Why is Azure API Management important for enterprises?

Azure APIM helps enterprises:

• Secure APIs
• Scale API ecosystems
• Improve developer experience
• Ensure governance and compliance
• Monitor and optimize API performance

Conclusion

Azure API Management is a core integration and API governance service in Microsoft Azure. Mastering APIM concepts not only helps you crack interviews but also enables you to design secure, scalable, and enterprise-ready API platforms.

If you’re preparing for Azure APIM roles or certifications, these 25 interview questions will give you a strong conceptual and practical foundation.