CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company runs compute-intensive batch processing jobs that require high CPU performance. The workload is not memory-intensive and does not require GPU acceleration. Which Amazon EC2 instance family is the most appropriate choice?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse 'compute-intensive' with 'memory-intensive' and select memory-optimized instances, or they assume all high-performance workloads require GPU acceleration and pick accelerated computing instances.
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 optimised (C family)
The compute-optimized (C family) EC2 instances are designed for workloads that benefit from high-performance processors, such as batch processing, scientific modeling, and gaming servers. Since the job requires high CPU performance and is not memory-intensive or GPU-accelerated, the C family provides the best price-performance ratio for compute-bound tasks.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Memory optimised (R family)
Why it's wrong here
Memory-optimized instances such as the R family expose a high memory-to-CPU ratio, tailored for workloads that keep large datasets in RAM—for example in-memory caches, SAP HANA, or real-time analytics. A CPU-bound batch processing job primarily saturates vCPUs rather than consuming huge memory, so choosing an R-family instance would leave CPU resources underutilized and incur unnecessary cost.
- ✓
Compute optimised (C family)
Why this is correct
Compute-optimized instances in the C family are engineered for high-throughput CPU processing, delivering the highest performance per vCPU core across EC2. Batch processing, scientific computation, batch scoring, and media encoding are textbook use cases because they are sustained, CPU-bound operations that do not heavily stress memory or storage. This makes the C family the most cost-effective and performance-appropriate choice.
- ✗
Storage optimised (I family)
Why it's wrong here
Storage-optimized instances like the I family are built for workloads that demand intense random I/O and very low latency, such as NoSQL databases and data warehouses. If the batch job is CPU-bound, its execution bottleneck is CPU cycles rather than disk throughput, so provisioning high-IOPS storage instances would not speed up processing and would waste resources.
- ✗
Accelerated computing (P family)
Why it's wrong here
Accelerated computing instances, including the P family, attach GPU, FPGA, or Inferentia accelerators to offload massively parallel operations. They are warranted for machine learning training, graphics rendering, and signal processing—none of which are described in a typical CPU-only batch job. Running scalar CPU batch work on GPUs would provide little benefit while raising cost and complexity.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CLF-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 993-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.