Serverless is a cloud execution model in which code is deployed without provisioning or managing servers: the platform allocates capacity on demand, automatically adjusts the number of instances and bills for actual usage.
There are still servers, but they are invisible to the team. The model comes in several forms:
- functions triggered by an event (AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel Functions);
- serverless containers (Google Cloud Run);
- databases and managed services that scale on their own with load (DynamoDB, Aurora Serverless, Neon).
Serverless works very well for irregular or unpredictable workloads. Under a constant, high load, it can cost more than a traditional infrastructure, and it comes with its own constraints: startup delay (cold start), limited execution time, strong dependency on the provider.
Why it matters when hiring
Serverless shifts the skill set: less system administration, more event-driven architecture design and cost control. In interviews, ask the candidate to describe a case where they chose not to use serverless: it shows they think in trade-offs. A profile that has only known serverless may lack networking and systems fundamentals the day an incident needs diagnosing.