CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
A company runs a diverse workload on AWS that includes Amazon EC2 instances of various families and sizes across multiple regions, Amazon RDS databases, and a serverless application using AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate. The finance team wants to reduce compute costs by making a 1-year hourly spend commitment, but they need the flexibility to change instance families, sizes, regions, or switch between EC2, Fargate, and Lambda without losing the discount. Which AWS pricing model should the finance team choose to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Convertible Reserved Instances with Compute Savings Plans, assuming the ability to change instance families is sufficient, but they overlook that Convertible RIs do not cover Fargate or Lambda, which is a key requirement in this question.
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 Plan
A Compute Savings Plan is the correct choice because it offers a 1-year hourly spend commitment with the flexibility to change instance families, sizes, regions, and even switch between EC2, Fargate, and Lambda while still receiving the discount. This plan applies to any compute usage across these services, automatically adjusting the discount to the most cost-effective instance type or compute option, meeting the finance team's need for both cost reduction and operational flexibility.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plan
Why this is correct
Correct. Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance (any family, size, region), AWS Fargate, and AWS Lambda. They provide significant discounts in exchange for a consistent hourly spend commitment and offer the maximum flexibility to change instance attributes or move between compute services.
- ✗
Reserved Instances (Standard)
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Standard Reserved Instances provide a discount but are locked to a specific instance family and region. They do not cover AWS Fargate or AWS Lambda, and changing instance attributes would require purchasing new reservations.
When this WOULD be correct
A company runs a stable workload of EC2 instances of the same family and size in a single region, expects no changes, and wants the highest possible discount (up to 72%) for a 1-year commitment.
- ✗
Reserved Instances (Convertible)
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Convertible Reserved Instances offer some flexibility to change instance family or region, but they still apply only to Amazon EC2 (not Fargate or Lambda) and require a 1:1 exchange of attributes. They also do not provide the broad service coverage of a Compute Savings Plan.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to commit to a 1-year term for EC2 instances but expects to change instance families or sizes within the same region. Convertible Reserved Instances offer flexibility to modify attributes like instance family and OS while still receiving a discount over On-Demand.
- ✗
On-Demand
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand pricing is incorrect because it involves no upfront commitment or term agreement, so customers pay the full, undiscounted hourly rate for every instance hour consumed. While On-Demand offers maximum flexibility—you can launch, stop, or terminate instances at any time without penalty—it does not provide the cost reduction that the finance team requires. Since the workload is diverse and steady enough to warrant savings, committing to a Compute Savings Plan would yield significantly lower prices than On-Demand, making On-Demand the least economical choice for this scenario.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs maximum flexibility with no upfront commitment and unpredictable workloads that cannot tolerate any discount-related constraints, such as a startup running variable workloads that may change at any time.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The CLF-C02 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Compute Savings PlanCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Correct. Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance (any family, size, region), AWS Fargate, and AWS Lambda. They provide significant discounts in exchange for a consistent hourly spend commitment and offer the maximum flexibility to change instance attributes or move between compute services.
✗Reserved Instances (Standard)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Reserved Instances (Standard) require a 1-year or 3-year commitment to a specific instance family, size, and region, and do not apply to Lambda or Fargate, so they lack the flexibility to change instance families, sizes, regions, or compute services.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company runs a stable workload of EC2 instances of the same family and size in a single region, expects no changes, and wants the highest possible discount (up to 72%) for a 1-year commitment.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Reserved Instances with Savings Plans, thinking both offer similar discounts, but overlook the strict flexibility limitations of Standard RIs.
✗Reserved Instances (Convertible)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Convertible Reserved Instances allow changing instance families and sizes but do not cover AWS Lambda or Fargate, and they cannot change regions. The question requires flexibility across EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, which only Compute Savings Plan provides.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to commit to a 1-year term for EC2 instances but expects to change instance families or sizes within the same region. Convertible Reserved Instances offer flexibility to modify attributes like instance family and OS while still receiving a discount over On-Demand.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think 'Convertible' implies full flexibility, but they overlook that it does not cover serverless services like Lambda or Fargate, and region changes are not allowed.
✗On-DemandWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
On-Demand pricing offers no discount and no commitment, so it cannot meet the requirement to reduce costs by making a 1-year hourly spend commitment.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs maximum flexibility with no upfront commitment and unpredictable workloads that cannot tolerate any discount-related constraints, such as a startup running variable workloads that may change at any time.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think On-Demand is the most flexible option, overlooking that the question explicitly requires a 1-year commitment to reduce costs.
Analysis generated from the official CLF-C02blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.