SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to reduce costs for a batch processing workload that runs nightly on Amazon EMR. The workload is fault-tolerant and can handle interruptions. Which TWO strategies should they implement? (Choose TWO.)
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
✓
Right-size the cluster by analyzing resource utilization metrics.
Spot Instances are ideal for fault-tolerant, interruptible workloads like batch processing, significantly reducing costs (Option E). Right-sizing the cluster by analyzing resource utilization ensures that you are not over-provisioning, which directly lowers costs (Option B). On-Demand Instances (A) are more expensive and unnecessary given fault tolerance. Reserved Instances (C) are for steady-state workloads, not nightly batch jobs. Dedicated Instances (D) add cost and do not improve performance for this use case.
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 On-Demand Instances for all nodes.
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand is more expensive.
- ✓
Right-size the cluster by analyzing resource utilization metrics.
Why this is correct
Right-sizing prevents over-provisioning and reduces cost.
- ✗
Purchase Reserved Instances for the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances require commitment and are not ideal for variable workloads.
- ✗
Use Dedicated Instances to improve performance.
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Instances are more expensive and not necessary.
- ✓
Use Spot Instances for task nodes.
Why this is correct
Spot Instances are cost-effective for fault-tolerant workloads.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
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 company is running a batch processing job on an EC2 instance that processes data from an S3 bucket and writes results to another S3 bucket. The job runs once per hour and takes about 20 minutes. The company wants to optimize costs by only paying for compute time when the job is running. Which solution is MOST cost-effective?
medium- A.Convert the batch job into an AWS Lambda function.
- B.Purchase a Reserved Instance for the EC2 instance to reduce hourly cost.
- C.Use a t3.micro instance and keep it running 24/7 since it's low cost.
- ✓ D.Use AWS Batch with spot instances to run the job only when needed.
Why D: AWS Batch automatically provisions and terminates EC2 instances based on job queue requirements, and it can use Spot Instances for significant cost savings. Option A (AWS Lambda) is wrong because the batch job takes 20 minutes, exceeding the 15-minute maximum execution time for Lambda functions. Option B (Reserved Instance) is wrong because it requires a 1-year commitment and still incurs costs for idle hours when the job is not running. Option C (t3.micro running 24/7) is wrong because while it is low-cost, it still charges for idle time, making it less cost-effective than only paying for compute during job execution.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.