- A
On-Demand Instances
Why wrong: On-Demand Instances incur the highest cost with no long-term commitment or discount, so they do not provide the lowest possible cost.
- B
Standard Reserved Instances
Why wrong: Standard Reserved Instances offer the largest discount (up to 72%), but they are tied to a specific instance family, which prevents the flexibility to change instance families as required.
- C
Compute Savings Plans
Compute Savings Plans offer significant discounts (up to 66%) and apply to any EC2 instance, regardless of family, region, or operating system, providing the lowest cost with the desired flexibility.
- D
Spot Instances
Why wrong: Spot Instances can be significantly cheaper but can be interrupted with short notice, making them unsuitable for a continuous 3-year steady-state workload.
CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of billing, pricing, and support. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company plans to run a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances continuously for 3 years to support a steady-state application. The company wants the lowest possible cost for this predictable workload while maintaining the flexibility to change instance families if needed. Which AWS purchasing option should the company choose?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Compute Savings Plans
Compute Savings Plans offer the lowest cost for a predictable, steady-state workload over 3 years while allowing flexibility to change instance families. Unlike Reserved Instances, which lock you to a specific instance family, Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance (including those in different families) within a chosen region, automatically providing the highest discount (up to 66% vs On-Demand) for consistent compute usage.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
On-Demand Instances
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand Instances incur the highest cost with no long-term commitment or discount, so they do not provide the lowest possible cost.
- ✗
Standard Reserved Instances
Why it's wrong here
Standard Reserved Instances offer the largest discount (up to 72%), but they are tied to a specific instance family, which prevents the flexibility to change instance families as required.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans offer significant discounts (up to 66%) and apply to any EC2 instance, regardless of family, region, or operating system, providing the lowest cost with the desired flexibility.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Spot Instances
Why it's wrong here
Spot Instances can be significantly cheaper but can be interrupted with short notice, making them unsuitable for a continuous 3-year steady-state workload.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose Standard Reserved Instances for long-term savings without realizing that they sacrifice instance family flexibility, which Compute Savings Plans uniquely provide while still offering comparable discounts.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compute Savings Plans are a flexible discount model that applies to any EC2 instance, including those in different families, sizes, tenancies, and even AWS Fargate or Lambda usage, as long as the hourly compute spend stays within the committed amount. Under the hood, AWS automatically applies the Savings Plan rate to eligible usage first, then falls back to On-Demand rates for any overage, making it ideal for workloads with potential family changes. In a real-world scenario, if you start with m5 instances but later migrate to c6i for better price-performance, the Savings Plan continues to cover the new instances without requiring a new commitment.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Billing, Pricing, and Support — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Billing, Pricing, and Support — This question tests Billing, Pricing, and Support — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Compute Savings Plans — Compute Savings Plans offer the lowest cost for a predictable, steady-state workload over 3 years while allowing flexibility to change instance families. Unlike Reserved Instances, which lock you to a specific instance family, Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance (including those in different families) within a chosen region, automatically providing the highest discount (up to 66% vs On-Demand) for consistent compute usage.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
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