Instances, Savings Plans & Spot
Instances Practice Test 2026–2027 |
AWS Pricing Strategies & Detailed
Answers
Question 1
A company runs a production application on Amazon EC2 continuously for three
years. The workload is predictable and the company wants to reduce compute
costs while retaining the ability to change instance attributes when necessary.
Which pricing option is generally most appropriate?
A. On-Demand Instances
B. Spot Instances
C. Reserved Instances
D. Savings Plans
Answer: D. Savings Plans
,Rationale: Savings Plans provide discounted compute usage in exchange for a
commitment to a consistent amount of usage per hour over a one- or three-year
term. Compute Savings Plans offer flexibility across EC2 instance families, sizes,
operating systems, and regions, depending on the usage covered.
Question 2
Which AWS purchasing model provides discounts in exchange for committing to a
specific amount of compute usage measured in dollars per hour?
A. Reserved Instances
B. Savings Plans
C. Spot Instances
D. Dedicated Hosts
Answer: B. Savings Plans
Rationale: Savings Plans require a commitment to a consistent hourly spend,
measured in USD per hour, rather than requiring the customer to commit to a
particular EC2 instance configuration.
Question 3
A development workload can tolerate interruptions and can restart automatically
when capacity becomes available. Which EC2 purchasing option can provide the
lowest-cost compute capacity for this workload?
A. On-Demand Instances
B. Reserved Instances
C. Spot Instances
D. Dedicated Instances
Answer: C. Spot Instances
,Rationale: Spot Instances use spare Amazon EC2 capacity and can provide
substantial discounts compared with On-Demand prices. They are best suited to
fault-tolerant and interruptible workloads.
Question 4
Which characteristic most clearly distinguishes Spot Instances from Reserved
Instances?
A. Spot Instances require a three-year commitment.
B. Spot Instances use spare EC2 capacity and can be interrupted.
C. Spot Instances guarantee capacity for production workloads.
D. Spot Instances are limited to Dedicated Hosts.
Answer: B. Spot Instances use spare EC2 capacity and can be interrupted.
Rationale: Spot Instances are based on spare AWS capacity and may be
reclaimed by AWS when capacity is needed. Reserved Instances provide a
pricing discount for committed usage but do not have the same interruption
model.
Question 5
A company knows it will run an EC2 workload continuously for the next 12
months but wants flexibility to move between instance families and sizes. Which
option should the company investigate first?
A. Compute Savings Plan
B. Spot Instance
C. On-Demand pricing
D. Dedicated Host reservation only
Answer: A. Compute Savings Plan
, Rationale: Compute Savings Plans provide significant flexibility while offering
discounted compute pricing in return for a usage commitment. They can apply
across eligible compute usage rather than locking the customer to one specific
instance configuration.
Question 6
Which Savings Plan provides the greatest flexibility for eligible compute usage?
A. EC2 Instance Savings Plan
B. Compute Savings Plan
C. Dedicated Host Savings Plan
D. Spot Savings Plan
Answer: B. Compute Savings Plan
Rationale: Compute Savings Plans provide flexibility across EC2 instances, AWS
Lambda, and AWS Fargate, subject to the applicable Savings Plan rules.
Question 7
A company purchases an EC2 Instance Savings Plan. What is a key characteristic of
this type of Savings Plan?
A. It applies to every AWS service.
B. It provides a lower rate for a selected EC2 instance family in a specified AWS
Region.
C. It applies only to Spot Instances.
D. It eliminates all data transfer charges.
Answer: B. It provides a lower rate for a selected EC2 instance family in a
specified AWS Region.