What does it mean that Ansible is 'agentless', and why does it matter?
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Quick Answer
Ansible connects over plain SSH (or WinRM) and needs no daemon installed on managed hosts — only Python on the target.
Detailed Answer
Because there's no agent to deploy, patch, or secure, onboarding a host is just SSH access. The control node pushes modules, runs them, and removes them. This lowers operational overhead versus pull-based agents, though it means the control node must reach every host and scale is bounded by SSH fan-out (tunable with forks).
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Interview Tip
Contrast push-based (Ansible) vs pull-based agents (Puppet/Chef).
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