SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question
A startup has a stable production web service that runs continuously (24/7) on AWS. They have consistent compute requirements for the next 1 year, but the instance size and family might change as they optimize performance. To reduce cost while maintaining flexibility across instance types, which purchasing option should they consider?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose Reserved Instances with a fixed instance type because they see a 1-year commitment, but they overlook the requirement for flexibility across instance types, which only Compute Savings Plans provide.
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 Savings Plans
Compute Savings Plans offer the lowest prices for EC2 compute usage (up to 66% off On-Demand) while allowing flexibility to change instance family, size, OS, and region (within a region). This matches the startup's need for consistent 1-year compute requirements with potential instance type changes during performance optimization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans discount compute usage while allowing flexibility across instance families, sizes, and even some services.
- ✗
Reserved Instances with a fixed instance type
Why it's wrong here
Fixed instance-type Reserved Instances can limit flexibility if the team needs to change instance families.
- ✗
Spot Instances
Why it's wrong here
Spot is interruption-capable and may not be appropriate for always-on production without added complexity.
- ✗
On-Demand Instances
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand provides maximum flexibility but generally lacks the savings of commitment-based plans.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.