What are availability zones?

Short answer: Physically separate datacenters within an Azure region. Ensure high availability and fault tolerance. Example: Deploy VMs across Zone 1, 2, 3 for resiliency.

Real-world example (ShopNest)

ShopNest on Azure typically uses App Service + SQL Database + Blob Storage + Application Insights for monitoring.

Say this in the interview

1. Define — one clear sentence (the short answer above).
2. Example — relate it to a project like ShopNest or your real work.
3. Trade-off — when you would not use it.