← CLF-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 546 of 1,024

Billing, Pricing, and Support →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is to create a budget in AWS Budgets for the account, set the budget amount to $10,000, configure an alert for actual cost at 80% of the budget amount, and specify an email address to receive the notification. This is correct because AWS Budgets is a fully managed service that lets you set cost thresholds and trigger automated email alerts when actual costs hit a specified percentage, such as 80% ($8,000), without requiring any custom code or infrastructure management. On the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of AWS Budgets as a no-code, native monitoring tool for cost governance, often appearing as a straightforward question where the trap is confusing AWS Budgets with AWS Cost Explorer (which provides visual reports but not automated email alerts) or assuming you need Amazon CloudWatch or Lambda. Remember the key distinction: AWS Budgets handles both the threshold and the email notification natively, so you never need to build anything. A simple memory tip is “Budgets = Built-in Alerts,” reinforcing that the service itself sends the email.

CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question

This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of billing, pricing, and support. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 has a monthly budget of $10,000 for its development AWS account. The project manager wants to receive an automated email alert when the actual costs for the current month reach 80% of the budget. The project manager does not want to build any custom code or manage any infrastructure for this alert. Which approach should the project manager take to meet these requirements?

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A
Create a budget in AWS Budgets for the account, set the budget amount to $10,000, configure an alert for actual cost at 80% of the budget amount, and specify an email address to receive the notification.
Correct. AWS Budgets allows you to set a cost budget and define alerts for actual or forecasted costs. When the actual costs reach the 80% threshold, Budgets sends a notification to the specified email address. This is a fully managed feature with no custom code or infrastructure required.
B
Create a cost allocation tag in the Billing and Cost Management console, then configure an Amazon SNS topic to send an email when the tag's cost reaches $8,000.
Why wrong: Incorrect. Cost allocation tags are used to categorize costs (e.g., by project or department) for reporting in Cost Explorer and the Cost and Usage Report. They do not have any built-in alerting or budget enforcement capabilities. Tags cannot trigger notifications.
C
Create a usage report in AWS Cost Explorer, set a forecast alert at 80% of the monthly budget, and configure the report to be sent via email.
Why wrong: Incorrect. AWS Cost Explorer is a tool for visualizing, analyzing, and exploring your AWS costs and usage over time. It can generate reports, but it does not provide alerting or notification features based on cost thresholds. Forecasts are displayed visually, not sent as alerts.
D
Create an AWS Lambda function that queries the AWS Cost Explorer API daily, compares actual cost to the budget, and sends an email if costs exceed $8,000.
Why wrong: Incorrect. While this approach could technically work, it is unnecessarily complex. The project manager wants a solution that requires no custom code or managed infrastructure. AWS Budgets already provides this exact functionality as a free, built-in service, making a custom Lambda function an incorrect choice when a simpler managed option exists.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Create a budget in AWS Budgets for the account, set the budget amount to $10,000, configure an alert for actual cost at 80% of the budget amount, and specify an email address to receive the notification.

AWS Budgets allows you to set a monthly budget of $10,000 and configure an alert to trigger when actual costs reach 80% ($8,000). The alert can send an email notification directly without requiring any custom code or infrastructure management, meeting the project manager's requirements exactly.

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.

✓
Create a budget in AWS Budgets for the account, set the budget amount to $10,000, configure an alert for actual cost at 80% of the budget amount, and specify an email address to receive the notification.
Why this is correct
Correct. AWS Budgets allows you to set a cost budget and define alerts for actual or forecasted costs. When the actual costs reach the 80% threshold, Budgets sends a notification to the specified email address. This is a fully managed feature with no custom code or infrastructure required.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a cost allocation tag in the Billing and Cost Management console, then configure an Amazon SNS topic to send an email when the tag's cost reaches $8,000.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Cost allocation tags are used to categorize costs (e.g., by project or department) for reporting in Cost Explorer and the Cost and Usage Report. They do not have any built-in alerting or budget enforcement capabilities. Tags cannot trigger notifications.
✗
Create a usage report in AWS Cost Explorer, set a forecast alert at 80% of the monthly budget, and configure the report to be sent via email.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. AWS Cost Explorer is a tool for visualizing, analyzing, and exploring your AWS costs and usage over time. It can generate reports, but it does not provide alerting or notification features based on cost thresholds. Forecasts are displayed visually, not sent as alerts.
✗
Create an AWS Lambda function that queries the AWS Cost Explorer API daily, compares actual cost to the budget, and sends an email if costs exceed $8,000.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. While this approach could technically work, it is unnecessarily complex. The project manager wants a solution that requires no custom code or managed infrastructure. AWS Budgets already provides this exact functionality as a free, built-in service, making a custom Lambda function an incorrect choice when a simpler managed option exists.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates may overcomplicate the solution by choosing a custom-coded approach (Lambda) or a reporting tool (Cost Explorer) when AWS Budgets provides a simple, managed, and code-free alerting mechanism directly in the Billing and Cost Management console.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

AWS Budgets uses the AWS Budgets API to track costs against a defined budget and can send notifications via Amazon SNS or email. The alert is evaluated multiple times per day, and the threshold is based on actual costs (not forecasted), ensuring timely notification when spending reaches 80% of the $10,000 budget. This service is fully managed, requiring no server or code maintenance.

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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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: Create a budget in AWS Budgets for the account, set the budget amount to $10,000, configure an alert for actual cost at 80% of the budget amount, and specify an email address to receive the notification. — AWS Budgets allows you to set a monthly budget of $10,000 and configure an alert to trigger when actual costs reach 80% ($8,000). The alert can send an email notification directly without requiring any custom code or infrastructure management, meeting the project manager's requirements exactly.

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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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on CLF-C02

These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.

Variation 1. A company has multiple departments (HR, Finance, Engineering) sharing a single AWS account. Each department tags its resources with a 'Department' tag (e.g., Department:HR). The finance team wants to set monthly spending limits for each department and receive email alerts when a department's spending reaches 80% of its limit. They also want a visual dashboard to compare actual spending against the budgeted amounts. Which combination of AWS services should the finance team use?

medium

A.AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Trusted Advisor
B.AWS Budgets and Amazon QuickSight
✓ C.AWS Budgets and AWS Cost Explorer
D.AWS Pricing Calculator and AWS Cost Explorer

Why C: AWS Budgets allows the finance team to set monthly spending limits per department (using the 'Department' tag) and configure alerts at 80% of the budget. AWS Cost Explorer provides a visual dashboard to compare actual spending against budgeted amounts, enabling trend analysis and cost allocation tracking. Together, they fulfill both the alerting and visualization requirements.

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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.