CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
A company runs several Amazon EC2 instances for development and testing purposes. The finance team wants to identify any instances that have been running with very low CPU utilization (less than 10%) over the past two weeks so they can stop or resize them to reduce costs. Which AWS tool provides this specific recommendation as part of its cost optimization checks?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse AWS Compute Optimizer's right-sizing recommendations with Trusted Advisor's specific low-utilization check, but Compute Optimizer does not have a dedicated check for instances with less than 10% CPU utilization over two weeks.
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
✓
AWS Trusted Advisor
AWS Trusted Advisor provides cost optimization checks that include identifying Amazon EC2 instances with low utilization. Specifically, the 'Low Utilization Amazon EC2 Instances' check flags instances that have had a CPU utilization of 10% or less for the past 14 days, enabling the finance team to stop or resize them to reduce costs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Compute Optimizer
Why it's wrong here
AWS Compute Optimizer provides right-sizing recommendations for EC2 instances based on historical utilization, but it does not specifically flag idle instances with low CPU utilization as a cost optimization check; it is more focused on suggesting optimal instance types.
- ✗
AWS Cost Explorer
Why it's wrong here
AWS Cost Explorer is a historical cost and usage analysis service that provides interactive charts and reports, letting you filter by service, region, or tag to explore spending patterns. While you could manually drill down into EC2 costs and maybe infer that an instance shows little activity, it does not ingest utilization metrics or make recommendations about whether a specific instance is idle or underutilized. It is a self-service analysis tool, not an automated best-practice evaluator, so it cannot deliver this type of proactive resource check.
When this WOULD be correct
When the question asks for a tool to visualize and analyze historical cost and usage data to identify cost trends or forecast future spending, AWS Cost Explorer would be the correct answer.
- ✗
AWS Budgets
Why it's wrong here
AWS Budgets is designed for cost governance: you define monthly or daily budget limits for total spend or usage and set alerts when actual or forecasted charges exceed those thresholds. It tracks aggregate cost data across your account and triggers notifications, but it never inspects individual EC2 instance CPU utilization or any other resource-level performance metric. Thus it cannot proactively identify underutilized instances; it only notifies you about spending overruns, so it is not the correct service for this cost optimization check.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to receive alerts when their monthly EC2 spending exceeds a certain threshold, and they need to set a custom budget with notifications. AWS Budgets would be the correct tool for defining cost or usage budgets and triggering actions when limits are exceeded.
- ✓
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why this is correct
AWS Trusted Advisor's cost optimization category includes a specific check called 'Underutilized Amazon EC2 Instances' that reviews CloudWatch CPU and network utilization metrics over a 14-day period. It automatically flags instances that consistently run at very low utilization, such as a median CPU below a given threshold, and recommends downsizing or stopping them. This is a direct, proactive best-practice recommendation, not a cost tracking or visualization tool, which makes it the correct answer.
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.
✓AWS Trusted AdvisorCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
AWS Trusted Advisor's cost optimization category includes a specific check called 'Underutilized Amazon EC2 Instances' that reviews CloudWatch CPU and network utilization metrics over a 14-day period. It automatically flags instances that consistently run at very low utilization, such as a median CPU below a given threshold, and recommends downsizing or stopping them. This is a direct, proactive best-practice recommendation, not a cost tracking or visualization tool, which makes it the correct answer.
✗AWS Cost ExplorerWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
AWS Cost Explorer provides cost and usage data but does not generate specific recommendations for underutilized EC2 instances; it requires manual analysis to identify such patterns.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When the question asks for a tool to visualize and analyze historical cost and usage data to identify cost trends or forecast future spending, AWS Cost Explorer would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think Cost Explorer can identify underutilized instances because it shows usage metrics, but it lacks automated optimization recommendations like Trusted Advisor.
✗AWS BudgetsWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
AWS Budgets allows you to set custom cost and usage budgets and receive alerts, but it does not provide specific recommendations for idle or underutilized EC2 instances. It lacks the cost optimization checks that identify low CPU utilization instances.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to receive alerts when their monthly EC2 spending exceeds a certain threshold, and they need to set a custom budget with notifications. AWS Budgets would be the correct tool for defining cost or usage budgets and triggering actions when limits are exceeded.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think AWS Budgets can identify cost-saving opportunities because it monitors costs, but they overlook that it does not analyze resource utilization or provide specific optimization recommendations like Trusted Advisor does.
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?”
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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.