- A
Use Spot Instances for compute.
Spot Instances are cost-effective and suitable for fault-tolerant batch jobs.
- B
Purchase Reserved Instances (RI) for a 1-year term.
Why wrong: RIs require upfront commitment and are not ideal for variable workloads.
- C
Configure Auto Scaling to scale out during the job and scale in after.
Auto Scaling ensures you only pay for what you use.
- D
Use On-Demand Instances to ensure availability.
Why wrong: On-Demand is more expensive.
- E
Use Dedicated Hosts for compliance.
Why wrong: Dedicated Hosts are costly and unnecessary.
Question 701 of 1,746
SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. 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 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?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"minimum / minimize"Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
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.
Spot Instances (Option A) are ideal for this batch processing job because the job can tolerate interruptions and requires significant compute power for only a few hours nightly. Spot Instances offer up to 90% cost savings compared to On-Demand Instances by leveraging unused AWS EC2 capacity, making them the most cost-effective choice for fault-tolerant, time-flexible workloads.
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.
- ✓
Use Spot Instances for compute.
Why this is correct
Spot Instances are cost-effective and suitable for fault-tolerant batch jobs.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Purchase Reserved Instances (RI) for a 1-year term.
Why it's wrong here
RIs require upfront commitment and are not ideal for variable workloads.
- ✓
Configure Auto Scaling to scale out during the job and scale in after.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling ensures you only pay for what you use.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use On-Demand Instances to ensure availability.
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand is more expensive.
- ✗
Use Dedicated Hosts for compliance.
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Hosts are costly and unnecessary.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that 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.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Spot Instances are reclaimed by AWS with a 2-minute warning when EC2 needs the capacity back, so the batch job must be designed to checkpoint progress and resume from the last saved state. Auto Scaling (Option C) complements Spot Instances by dynamically launching the required number of instances at job start and terminating them after completion, ensuring no idle compute costs. In practice, combining Spot Instances with a mixed instances policy and a fallback to On-Demand (via a capacity-optimized allocation strategy) can further improve reliability without significantly increasing costs.
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.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Design for New Solutions — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Design for New Solutions practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All SAP-C02 questions
1,746 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
SAP-C02 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related SAP-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity.
Design for New Solutions practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Design for New Solutions.
Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions.
Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization.
SAA-C03 VPC practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions
Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Start a free SAP-C02 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Spot Instances for compute. — Spot Instances (Option A) are ideal for this batch processing job because the job can tolerate interruptions and requires significant compute power for only a few hours nightly. Spot Instances offer up to 90% cost savings compared to On-Demand Instances by leveraging unused AWS EC2 capacity, making them the most cost-effective choice for fault-tolerant, time-flexible workloads.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 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: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Keep practising
More SAP-C02 practice questions
- A company wants to automate the migration of on-premises servers to AWS. The migration plan includes discovery, assessme…
- A company is using AWS Organizations with hundreds of accounts. The central IT team needs to deploy a common set of AWS…
- A multinational company operates a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team needs to enf…
- A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a centralized logging account. The security team needs to analyze VPC…
- A company has multiple AWS accounts and wants to centralize logging of all API calls. Which TWO services should be used…
- Match each AWS compute service to its use case.
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.