- A
Reserved Instances
Why wrong: Reserved Instances provide discounts through 1 or 3-year commitments — they are not based on available spare capacity and are not interruptible.
- B
On-Demand Instances
Why wrong: On-Demand provides capacity on request at full price with no interruption — no discount applies.
- C
Spot Instances
Spot Instances leverage AWS spare capacity at up to 90% discount, with the risk of a 2-minute interruption notice when AWS needs capacity back.
- D
Dedicated Instances
Why wrong: Dedicated Instances run on hardware dedicated to a single customer — they're about isolation, not discounted spare capacity.
Question 485 of 1,024
AWS Spot Instances — Interruptible EC2 Pricing | AWS Cloud Practitioner Explained
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 wants to purchase EC2 capacity that provides a discount over On-Demand pricing and is available only when AWS has excess capacity, with the option of interruption with a 2-minute warning. Which option is this?
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
✓
Spot Instances
Spot Instances (Option C) are correct because they offer a significant discount over On-Demand pricing but can be interrupted by AWS with a 2-minute warning when AWS needs the capacity back. This matches the scenario of purchasing EC2 capacity that is available only when AWS has excess capacity and includes the risk of interruption.
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.
- ✗
Reserved Instances
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances provide discounts through 1 or 3-year commitments — they are not based on available spare capacity and are not interruptible.
- ✗
On-Demand Instances
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand provides capacity on request at full price with no interruption — no discount applies.
- ✓
Spot Instances
Why this is correct
Spot Instances leverage AWS spare capacity at up to 90% discount, with the risk of a 2-minute interruption notice when AWS needs capacity back.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Dedicated Instances
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Instances run on hardware dedicated to a single customer — they're about isolation, not discounted spare capacity.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Spot Instances with Reserved Instances, thinking any discount means a commitment, but Spot Instances are interruptible and based on excess capacity, not a fixed-term contract.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Spot Instances leverage AWS's spare compute capacity, with pricing that fluctuates based on supply and demand; when the Spot price exceeds your bid or AWS needs the capacity back, you receive a 2-minute interruption notice before the instance is terminated or stopped. This model is ideal for fault-tolerant, stateless workloads like batch processing, big data, or CI/CD pipelines, where interruptions can be handled gracefully. A subtle behavior is that Spot Instances can also be used with a 'persistent request' to automatically relaunch when capacity becomes available again.
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.
- →
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: Spot Instances — Spot Instances (Option C) are correct because they offer a significant discount over On-Demand pricing but can be interrupted by AWS with a 2-minute warning when AWS needs the capacity back. This matches the scenario of purchasing EC2 capacity that is available only when AWS has excess capacity and includes the risk of interruption.
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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