- A
Buy EC2 Spot Instances for the Auto Scaling group to maximize savings
Why wrong: Spot can be interrupted and is a poor fit for 24/7 steady demand when interruption tolerance is not stated.
- B
Purchase a Compute Savings Plan for the region and commit to a dollar-per-hour amount
A Compute Savings Plan reduces cost for steady compute usage and supports flexibility across instance families and sizes.
- C
Purchase Reserved Instances that are limited to a single specific instance type in the Auto Scaling group
Why wrong: Reserved Instances are most beneficial when you commit to a specific instance type and matching scope, which conflicts with changing types.
- D
Use on-demand only, and rely on Auto Scaling to reduce cost during low utilization
Why wrong: With steady 24/7 demand, on-demand pricing does not target the largest savings opportunities from commitments.
Compute Savings Plan: Flexible Discounts for EC2, Fargate, and Lambda
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design cost-optimized architectures. 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 SaaS company runs a production API on an EC2 Auto Scaling group with steady demand 24/7. The team uses multiple instance types over time (they switch types during tuning) but the overall compute hours are stable. They want a cost reduction without committing to a specific instance type or size. Which AWS pricing option best meets the requirement?
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
Purchase a Compute Savings Plan for the region and commit to a dollar-per-hour amount
B is correct because a Compute Savings Plan provides the flexibility to change instance types, sizes, and even compute services (e.g., EC2, Fargate, Lambda) within a region while still receiving discounted rates (up to 66% vs. on-demand). This matches the requirement of reducing costs without committing to a specific instance type or size, as the plan is based on a dollar-per-hour commitment rather than instance family or tenancy.
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.
- ✗
Buy EC2 Spot Instances for the Auto Scaling group to maximize savings
Why it's wrong here
Spot can be interrupted and is a poor fit for 24/7 steady demand when interruption tolerance is not stated.
- ✓
Purchase a Compute Savings Plan for the region and commit to a dollar-per-hour amount
Why this is correct
A Compute Savings Plan reduces cost for steady compute usage and supports flexibility across instance families and sizes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Purchase Reserved Instances that are limited to a single specific instance type in the Auto Scaling group
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances are most beneficial when you commit to a specific instance type and matching scope, which conflicts with changing types.
- ✗
Use on-demand only, and rely on Auto Scaling to reduce cost during low utilization
Why it's wrong here
With steady 24/7 demand, on-demand pricing does not target the largest savings opportunities from commitments.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Compute Savings Plans with Reserved Instances, assuming that any savings plan requires a specific instance type, but Compute Savings Plans offer full flexibility across instance families and sizes within a region.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance family, size, OS, or tenancy within a region, and also cover AWS Fargate and Lambda usage, making them more flexible than EC2 Instance Savings Plans or Reserved Instances. The discount is applied automatically to eligible usage up to the committed dollar-per-hour amount, with any usage beyond that charged at on-demand rates. In a real-world scenario, if the team switches from c5.large to r6g.xlarge during tuning, the Compute Savings Plan still applies the same discount percentage, whereas a Reserved Instance would require a new purchase or modification.
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.
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 |
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.
- →
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All SAA-C03 questions
1,040 questions across all exam domains
- →
SAA-C03 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
SAA-C03 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related SAA-C03 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Design Secure Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Secure Architectures.
Design Resilient Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Resilient Architectures.
Design High-Performing Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design High-Performing Architectures.
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Cost-Optimized Architectures.
SAA-C03 VPC practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Start a free SAA-C03 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures — This question tests Design Cost-Optimized Architectures — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Purchase a Compute Savings Plan for the region and commit to a dollar-per-hour amount — B is correct because a Compute Savings Plan provides the flexibility to change instance types, sizes, and even compute services (e.g., EC2, Fargate, Lambda) within a region while still receiving discounted rates (up to 66% vs. on-demand). This matches the requirement of reducing costs without committing to a specific instance type or size, as the plan is based on a dollar-per-hour commitment rather than instance family or tenancy.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
4 more ways this is tested on SAA-C03
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 production log archive runs continuously on EC2 with predictable usage for the next three years. The team wants a discount while retaining some instance-family flexibility. What should they buy? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
medium- A.S3 Intelligent-Tiering
- B.Dedicated Instances
- ✓ C.Compute Savings Plan
- D.Spot Instances only
Why C: The Compute Savings Plan (C) offers the largest discount (up to 66%) in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1- or 3-year term, while still allowing flexibility across instance families, sizes, OS, tenancy, and regions. This matches the predictable three-year workload and the requirement for instance-family flexibility without custom scripts.
Variation 2. A production log archive runs continuously on EC2 with predictable usage for the next three years. The team wants a discount while retaining some instance-family flexibility. What should they buy? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
medium- A.S3 Intelligent-Tiering
- B.Dedicated Instances
- ✓ C.Compute Savings Plan
- D.Spot Instances only
Why C: A Compute Savings Plan offers the lowest prices on EC2 compute usage (up to 66% off On-Demand) in exchange for a 1- or 3-year commitment, while allowing instance-family flexibility across any region, OS, or tenancy. This matches the predictable three-year workload and the team's requirement for instance-family flexibility, and it is a managed AWS-native offering (no manual reservation management).
Variation 3. A startup expects steady compute usage around the clock for the next year. They want to reduce costs compared to On-Demand pricing, without tightly planning specific instance types. Which option best matches their goal?
easy- ✓ A.Purchase a Compute Savings Plan to receive discounted rates for a usage amount over a 1-year term.
- B.Purchase a Reserved Instance that must be tied to exactly one specific instance size (no flexibility to switch instance families).
- C.Only use Spot Instances and set the workload to stop immediately if capacity is interrupted.
- D.Rely on On-Demand pricing and add more alarms to detect when costs spike.
Why A: A Compute Savings Plan offers the lowest prices on EC2 compute usage (including Fargate and Lambda) in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of compute (measured in $/hour) over a 1-year or 3-year term. This matches the startup's steady, predictable usage and provides up to 66% savings over On-Demand, while allowing flexibility to change instance families, sizes, regions, or even switch to containers without renegotiating the plan.
Variation 4. A media company runs a fleet of EC2 instances using Auto Scaling across multiple instance families (for example, m-series and c-series) in a single region. The business wants to commit to steady usage for one year to reduce cost, but the application team must retain flexibility to switch instance families and scale up/down as demand changes. They need the cost-reduction approach that best matches this flexibility. Which option is the best fit?
medium- A.Purchase Standard Reserved Instances tied to a specific instance family and region, so the application can only run on the selected family.
- ✓ B.Purchase Compute Savings Plans so the commitment applies regardless of instance family changes within the selected scope.
- C.Purchase Spot Instances for all capacity and disable On-Demand fallback to guarantee the lowest cost.
- D.Rely only on On-Demand and reduce cost by using a CloudFront-only approach for all dynamic content.
Why B: Compute Savings Plans provide the most flexibility because they apply to any EC2 instance family (including m-series and c-series) within a region, automatically adjusting to instance family changes and scaling. This matches the requirement to commit to steady usage for one year while retaining the ability to switch families and scale up/down, offering up to 66% savings over On-Demand without locking the application to a specific instance type.
Keep practising
More SAA-C03 practice questions
- A content publishing system uses Lambda functions that call an unreliable third-party API. Failed events must be retaine…
- A startup runs two EC2-based workloads in the same AWS Region. Its customer-facing API is always on, and its nightly vid…
- A warehouse integration service must use shared file storage across Linux EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones.…
- A team runs a stateless web app on Amazon EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. During traffic spikes, new EC2 instan…
- A service in private subnets downloads product images from Amazon S3 and stores job state in DynamoDB. A NAT Gateway is…
- A static site is hosted in Amazon S3 and delivered by CloudFront. After a frontend release, the same JavaScript bundles…
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.