SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A media company is designing a new video transcoding pipeline on AWS. The pipeline receives large video files in an Amazon S3 bucket, and each file must be transcoded into multiple formats. The transcoding jobs take between 10 and 45 minutes, and the company wants to minimize compute cost while ensuring that jobs are not interrupted. The solution must automatically scale based on the number of pending jobs. Which compute option should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that Spot Instances are always the cheapest and therefore best choice, ignoring the interruption risk that conflicts with the requirement that jobs not be interrupted.
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
✓
AWS Batch with a managed compute environment using On-Demand EC2 instances, scaling based on the number of jobs in the job queue.
AWS Batch with On-Demand instances provides a managed batch processing environment that scales based on job queue depth. It supports long-running jobs beyond the Lambda timeout and avoids the interruption risk of Spot Instances. The managed compute environment automatically provisions and terminates instances, reducing operational overhead while meeting the cost and reliability requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Lambda functions with a 15-minute timeout, triggered by S3 event notifications, scaling automatically with concurrency.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lambda has a maximum invocation timeout of 15 minutes, which is shorter than the 10-to-45-minute transcoding jobs. Even with provisioned concurrency, jobs would be terminated before completion, making Lambda unsuitable for this workload regardless of cost considerations.
- ✗
AWS Fargate tasks on Amazon ECS, triggered by an Application Load Balancer, scaling based on CPU utilization of the tasks.
Why it's wrong here
Fargate is serverless and can run long jobs, but scaling based on CPU utilization of tasks does not reflect the number of pending jobs and may not scale promptly. An Application Load Balancer is also unnecessary for a batch pipeline that pulls work from a queue, adding cost and complexity.
- ✓
AWS Batch with a managed compute environment using On-Demand EC2 instances, scaling based on the number of jobs in the job queue.
Why this is correct
AWS Batch is designed for batch computing workloads and can scale compute resources based on the number of runnable jobs in the queue. Using On-Demand instances ensures jobs are not interrupted, and the managed compute environment handles provisioning and scaling automatically, minimizing operational overhead.
- ✗
Amazon EC2 Spot Instances in an Auto Scaling group, with a launch template that installs transcoding software, scaling based on the SQS queue depth.
Why it's wrong here
Spot Instances can be reclaimed with a two-minute interruption notice, which violates the requirement that jobs not be interrupted. While Spot is cost-effective, the risk of interruption during a 45-minute job makes it unsuitable unless the application can checkpoint and resume, which is not stated.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.