SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a cost-effective architecture for a batch processing job that runs nightly. The job can tolerate interruptions and requires significant compute power for a few hours. The company wants to minimize costs. Which TWO strategies should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose Reserved Instances (Option B) thinking they are always cheaper for recurring workloads, but they fail to recognize that the low utilization (a few hours per night) makes On-Demand or Spot more cost-effective than a 1-year commitment.
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 Spot Instances for compute.
Option A is correct because Spot Instances offer up to a 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices and are ideal for fault-tolerant, interruptible batch workloads that can be terminated and resumed without impacting the business. Option C is correct because Auto Scaling dynamically adds capacity only during the few hours the nightly job runs and removes it afterward, so the company pays only for the compute actually needed rather than provisioning for peak capacity 24/7. Together, Spot Instances plus Auto Scaling deliver the lowest cost for a short, interruption-tolerant batch job. Option B is not appropriate because a 1-year Reserved Instance commitment is wasteful for a workload that runs only a few hours per night. Option D is not appropriate because On-Demand pricing is the most expensive per-hour option and provides no cost optimization for interruptible work. Option E is not appropriate because Dedicated Hosts are a premium, compliance-driven offering and are far more costly than needed here.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Spot Instances for compute.
Why this is correct
Spot Instances deliver up to 90% discounts versus On-Demand by using spare EC2 capacity, and the job's tolerance of interruptions matches Spot's two-minute termination notice. This satisfies the minimise-cost constraint for a fault-tolerant nightly batch workload.
- ✗
Purchase Reserved Instances (RI) for a 1-year term.
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances bill a steady hourly commitment across the full one-year term, so idle hours between nightly runs are still charged. They are tempting because they cut compute cost substantially, which suits predictable, continuously running workloads rather than short, interruptible nightly batches.
- ✓
Configure Auto Scaling to scale out during the job and scale in after.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling adds instances only while the nightly job runs and removes them afterwards, so you pay for capacity solely during the few hours of compute. This satisfies the minimise-cost constraint by eliminating idle overnight capacity.
- ✗
Use On-Demand Instances to ensure availability.
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand Instances carry the highest hourly rate with no discount mechanism, so paying full price for a few hours nightly defeats the cost-minimisation goal. They are tempting because they guarantee capacity without commitment, which suits unpredictable or short-lived workloads that cannot tolerate interruption.
- ✗
Use Dedicated Hosts for compliance.
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Hosts charge for the entire physical server plus a per-host fee, and the workload's tolerance for interruption is irrelevant to that billing model. They are tempting because they give full control over socket and core visibility, which suits licensing and compliance-bound workloads, not cost-driven batch processing.
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