- A
EC2 Instance Savings Plans
Why wrong: EC2 Instance Savings Plans provide flexibility within a specific instance family (e.g., m5) in a chosen region, but they do not allow switching to a different instance family or between EC2 and Fargate. This does not meet the company's requirement for cross-family and cross-platform flexibility.
- B
Compute Savings Plans
Compute Savings Plans are the most flexible discount model. They apply to any Amazon EC2, Fargate, or Lambda usage, and automatically cover any instance family, region, operating system, or tenancy. The company can change workloads freely while still benefiting from the committed discount, making this the best choice.
- C
Reserved Instances (Standard)
Why wrong: Standard Reserved Instances require a specific instance type, region, and platform. They cannot adapt to changes in instance family or compute platform (e.g., moving from EC2 to Fargate). This lack of flexibility makes them unsuitable for the company's needs.
- D
Dedicated Hosts
Why wrong: Dedicated Hosts provide physical servers for licensing or compliance requirements, not a discount model. They incur higher costs and do not offer the committed-use discounts that Savings Plans or Reserved Instances provide. They do not address the cost reduction objective.
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 runs a mix of Amazon EC2 instances (different instance families) and AWS Fargate tasks across multiple AWS Regions. The cloud operations team wants to reduce costs while retaining maximum flexibility to change instance families, operating systems, and compute platforms (EC2 or Fargate) without losing the discount. They are willing to commit to a consistent amount of compute usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1-year term. Which AWS pricing model should they 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 provide the most flexibility, applying to any EC2 instance family, any operating system, and any compute platform (including Fargate) across any region, as long as the hourly spend commitment is met. This matches the team's requirement to retain maximum flexibility to change instance families, OS, and compute platforms without losing the discount, for a 1-year term.
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.
- ✗
EC2 Instance Savings Plans
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Instance Savings Plans provide flexibility within a specific instance family (e.g., m5) in a chosen region, but they do not allow switching to a different instance family or between EC2 and Fargate. This does not meet the company's requirement for cross-family and cross-platform flexibility.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans are the most flexible discount model. They apply to any Amazon EC2, Fargate, or Lambda usage, and automatically cover any instance family, region, operating system, or tenancy. The company can change workloads freely while still benefiting from the committed discount, making this the best choice.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Reserved Instances (Standard)
Why it's wrong here
Standard Reserved Instances require a specific instance type, region, and platform. They cannot adapt to changes in instance family or compute platform (e.g., moving from EC2 to Fargate). This lack of flexibility makes them unsuitable for the company's needs.
- ✗
Dedicated Hosts
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Hosts provide physical servers for licensing or compliance requirements, not a discount model. They incur higher costs and do not offer the committed-use discounts that Savings Plans or Reserved Instances provide. They do not address the cost reduction objective.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse EC2 Instance Savings Plans (which are family-specific) with Compute Savings Plans (which are fully flexible), leading them to choose the less flexible option when the question explicitly requires flexibility across instance families and platforms.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compute Savings Plans automatically apply the discounted rate to any eligible compute usage up to the committed hourly amount, with the remainder billed at on-demand rates. Under the hood, AWS uses a usage-based allocation model where the discount is applied first to the most expensive usage in the account, maximizing savings. In a real-world scenario, a team that frequently experiments with different instance types or migrates workloads between EC2 and Fargate would see consistent savings without needing to re-purchase plans.
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.
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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 provide the most flexibility, applying to any EC2 instance family, any operating system, and any compute platform (including Fargate) across any region, as long as the hourly spend commitment is met. This matches the team's requirement to retain maximum flexibility to change instance families, OS, and compute platforms without losing the discount, for a 1-year term.
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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