MLS-C01 Modeling Practice Question
A machine learning team trains a deep learning model on SageMaker. The training job uses a single ml.p3.2xlarge instance and takes 12 hours. The team needs to reduce training time without changing the algorithm. Which approach is most effective?
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
✓
Use SageMaker's distributed data parallelism across multiple instances
Using SageMaker's distributed data parallelism (e.g., with SageMaker distributed training libraries) across multiple GPUs can significantly reduce training time by splitting the mini-batches across GPUs. Increasing instance type to a single larger GPU (e.g., p3.16xlarge) helps but is less effective than multi-GPU distribution. Hyperparameter tuning doesn't directly reduce training time. Spot instances may interrupt.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the learning rate
Why it's wrong here
Higher learning rate may cause divergence; not a reliable way to reduce time.
- ✗
Switch to a larger instance type, such as ml.p3.16xlarge
Why it's wrong here
Larger instance helps but not as much as distributed training across multiple GPUs.
- ✗
Use managed Spot Training
Why it's wrong here
Spot training reduces cost but not necessarily training time.
- ✓
Use SageMaker's distributed data parallelism across multiple instances
Why this is correct
Distributed data parallelism scales training across GPUs, reducing wall-clock time.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,672 original MLS-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MLS-C01 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 MLS-C01 exam.