SAP-C03 practice question: Purchase options (Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Spot)
Cost-Optimized Architecture Design A free question from our original SAP-C03 practice exam. Try it, then open the answer to see why each option is right or wrong.
A retailer runs a steady baseline of EC2 instances and some AWS Fargate tasks in two Regions. Its engineers expect to move workloads between instance families and to adopt Graviton over the next year, so the commitment must not be tied to one instance type. Both Regions run about the same amount of steady load.
Finance wants the lowest committed hourly rate for that baseline, and it accepts a one-year commitment with no upfront payment.
Which purchase option meets these requirements?
Choose one answer.
AA. Buy Standard Reserved Instances for the current instance types in each Region, so that the hourly rate is locked for every type the team runs today.
BB. Keep the baseline On-Demand and rely on the standard hourly rate, because flexibility matters more than a commitment for this workload.
CC. Run the entire baseline on Spot Instances, so every hour is billed at the lowest Spot price available in the two Regions.
DD. Buy a one-year Compute Savings Plan at the hourly spend the baseline needs, which applies to EC2 across instance families and Regions, and to eligible Fargate usage.
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: D
A. Wrong: Standard Reserved Instances are tied to an instance type and Region, so the discount is lost when the team moves to a new family or to Graviton. They also do not cover Fargate tasks.
B. Wrong: On-Demand gives full flexibility but no discount, and the finance team asked for the lowest committed rate on a steady baseline. This option does not reduce cost.
C. Wrong: Spot capacity can be reclaimed with a short warning, which does not suit a steady baseline that must stay up. The lower price comes with interruptions the team has not accepted.
D. Right: Correct. A Compute Savings Plan discounts EC2 regardless of instance family, size, Region or operating system, and it also covers Fargate. The commitment follows the workloads as the team changes instance types.
Explanation
A one-year Compute Savings Plan gives the lowest committed rate on a steady baseline while following the team across instance families and Regions. Standard Reserved Instances are tied to one type, and Spot or On-Demand each fail the stability or cost requirement.
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