Problem Statement
Explain the difference between a container and a virtual machine and mention typical use-cases for each.
Explanation
A virtual machine includes a full guest operating system and virtualised hardware, so each VM is isolated and runs independently. It uses a hypervisor to manage resources. A container, by contrast, shares the host OS kernel but isolates the user-space environment; containers are lighter weight, start faster and use fewer resources. Use-cases: VMs are good when full isolation and different OSs are needed (for instance running Windows and Linux on one host). Containers are ideal for microservices, rapid deployment and when many similar processes need to run in isolation but share host resources. Mentioning the trade-offs (isolation vs lightweight, flexibility vs overhead) is important for interviews.
