- A
Compute Savings Plans, sized to the expected average usage, because they provide savings across instance families and usage types.
Compute Savings Plans provide a discount for a consistent amount of EC2 (and related covered usage) in a region while allowing flexibility to change instance families and sizes within the covered scope. Because the team’s requirements may evolve and they primarily need to manage average utilization (40% baseline), Compute Savings Plans match both the cost-reduction goal and the flexibility requirement better than instance-specific commitments.
- B
All Upfront EC2 Instance Reserved Instances for a single instance family to maximize discount.
Why wrong: EC2 Instance Reserved Instances are scoped to specific instance attributes (including instance family and typically additional attributes like operating system/tenancy). If the team needs to switch instance families as requirements change, the discount may not apply to new families, reducing flexibility and potentially reducing savings.
- C
Spot Instances for the entire workload so they can avoid commitments entirely.
Why wrong: Spot can reduce cost, but it is not a commitment that guarantees baseline capacity. The prompt specifically asks for a purchasing commitment that reduces cost while keeping flexibility around instance family and size. Spot also introduces interruption and capacity variability that are not part of the stated requirement.
- D
On-Demand Instances with increased Auto Scaling to match the peak month only.
Why wrong: Using On-Demand with scaling to the peak month does not satisfy the objective of reducing cost via purchasing commitments. Scaling to peak capacity increases spend relative to a 40% average-utilization target and removes the primary cost lever (discounted commitment) described in the prompt.
Quick Answer
The answer is Compute Savings Plans, sized to the expected average usage, because they deliver cost savings with flexibility across instance families and sizes. Unlike Reserved Instances, which lock you into a specific instance type, Compute Savings Plans apply discounts to any EC2 instance within a chosen region, automatically covering changes from compute-optimized to memory-optimized families as requirements evolve. On the SAA-C03 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between purchasing options when the key constraint is flexibility—a common trap is choosing Reserved Instances for the highest discount, forgetting they penalize instance changes. A strong memory tip is to associate “Compute Savings” with “Change is free”: if your workload needs to shift families or sizes, Compute Savings Plans are the flexible cost-reduction tool, while Reserved Instances are for stable, predictable workloads.
SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question
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 development team expects their EC2 utilization to average about 40% of capacity across the next year. They want to lower costs but need flexibility to change instance families and sizes as requirements evolve (for example, moving from compute-optimized to memory-optimized instances). Which AWS purchasing commitment best meets the goal of reducing cost while keeping flexibility?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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, sized to the expected average usage, because they provide savings across instance families and usage types.
Compute Savings Plans offer the best balance of cost reduction and flexibility for this scenario. They provide up to 66% savings in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage (measured in $/hour), but unlike Reserved Instances, they automatically apply to any EC2 instance family, size, OS, or region (within a given AWS region). This allows the team to switch from compute-optimized to memory-optimized instances as needs evolve without losing the discount, directly meeting the requirement for flexibility while lowering costs.
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.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans, sized to the expected average usage, because they provide savings across instance families and usage types.
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans provide a discount for a consistent amount of EC2 (and related covered usage) in a region while allowing flexibility to change instance families and sizes within the covered scope. Because the team’s requirements may evolve and they primarily need to manage average utilization (40% baseline), Compute Savings Plans match both the cost-reduction goal and the flexibility requirement better than instance-specific commitments.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
All Upfront EC2 Instance Reserved Instances for a single instance family to maximize discount.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Instance Reserved Instances are scoped to specific instance attributes (including instance family and typically additional attributes like operating system/tenancy). If the team needs to switch instance families as requirements change, the discount may not apply to new families, reducing flexibility and potentially reducing savings.
- ✗
Spot Instances for the entire workload so they can avoid commitments entirely.
Why it's wrong here
Spot can reduce cost, but it is not a commitment that guarantees baseline capacity. The prompt specifically asks for a purchasing commitment that reduces cost while keeping flexibility around instance family and size. Spot also introduces interruption and capacity variability that are not part of the stated requirement.
- ✗
On-Demand Instances with increased Auto Scaling to match the peak month only.
Why it's wrong here
Using On-Demand with scaling to the peak month does not satisfy the objective of reducing cost via purchasing commitments. Scaling to peak capacity increases spend relative to a 40% average-utilization target and removes the primary cost lever (discounted commitment) described in the prompt.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Reserved Instances (which lock to a specific instance family) with Savings Plans (which offer cross-family flexibility), leading them to choose Option B for the higher discount without considering the flexibility requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compute Savings Plans are applied at the hourly commitment level (e.g., $10/hour) and automatically discount eligible compute usage across EC2, Fargate, and Lambda. The discount is applied to the On-Demand rate, and any usage above the commitment is charged at the standard On-Demand rate. A subtle behavior is that Savings Plans are regional (not global), so if the team moves instances to a different AWS region, the commitment does not apply, and they would need to purchase a new plan for that region.
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.
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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: Compute Savings Plans, sized to the expected average usage, because they provide savings across instance families and usage types. — Compute Savings Plans offer the best balance of cost reduction and flexibility for this scenario. They provide up to 66% savings in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage (measured in $/hour), but unlike Reserved Instances, they automatically apply to any EC2 instance family, size, OS, or region (within a given AWS region). This allows the team to switch from compute-optimized to memory-optimized instances as needs evolve without losing the discount, directly meeting the requirement for flexibility while lowering costs.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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 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.
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