SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A DevOps engineer notices that an EC2 instance's CPU utilization is consistently above 90%. They need to optimize costs without affecting performance. What should they do?
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
✓
Add more EC2 instances behind a load balancer.
Adding more EC2 instances behind a load balancer allows you to distribute the workload across multiple smaller instances, which can be more cost-effective than a single large instance. This approach (scaling out) can improve performance and availability without necessarily increasing costs, as you can use smaller, cheaper instance types. Option B is wrong because rightsizing to a larger instance typically increases cost, contrary to the goal of cost optimization. Option C is wrong because purchasing a Reserved Instance reduces cost but does not address the high CPU utilization performance issue. Option D is wrong because launching a new instance of the same type does not solve the performance problem.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Add more EC2 instances behind a load balancer.
Why this is correct
Adding more EC2 instances behind a load balancer allows scaling out, which can distribute the workload across smaller, cheaper instances, optimizing cost while maintaining or improving performance.
- ✗
Rightsize the instance to a larger instance type.
Why it's wrong here
Rightsizing to a larger instance increases cost, which contradicts the goal of cost optimization. This option might address performance but not cost effectively.
- ✗
Purchase a Reserved Instance for the current instance type.
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing a Reserved Instance reduces the hourly cost but does not solve the immediate high CPU utilization issue. It commits to the current instance type, which may still be underpowered or overprovisioned.
- ✗
Terminate the instance and launch a new one of the same type.
Why it's wrong here
Terminating and launching a new instance of the same type does not change the instance's resources; it simply restarts the instance, so the performance problem remains.
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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.