← SOA-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 50 of 1,546

Cost and Performance Optimization →easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is to purchase a 1-year Standard Reserved Instance for c5.xlarge in us-east-1 with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment. This is correct because a Standard Reserved Instance provides a 30-40% discount over On-Demand pricing for a steady-state workload that runs 24/7, and the one-year term matches the stable, predictable nature of the workload without over-committing. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this question tests your ability to match purchasing options to workload characteristics, specifically distinguishing Standard RIs from Convertible RIs (which offer flexibility but at a lower discount) and Spot Instances (which risk interruption). A common trap is choosing a three-year term for a deeper discount, but that increases financial risk if the workload changes. For a reserved instance for always-on workload, remember the rule: steady-state equals Standard RI, and match the term to the commitment window. Memory tip: “Standard for steady, Convertible for change.”

SOA-C02 Practice Question: Reserved Instances for predictable workload to…

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cost and performance optimization. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. A key principle to apply: reserved Instances. 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.

An application runs on c5.xlarge EC2 instances 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in us-east-1. The workload is stable and will not change instance type for at least 12 months. The team wants to reduce compute costs by 30 to 40 percent compared to On-Demand pricing. Which purchasing option achieves this with the lowest financial risk?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

Question 1easymultiple choice

Full question →

A
Purchase a 1-year Standard Reserved Instance for c5.xlarge in us-east-1 with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment
A 1-year Standard RI matches the 12-month stability horizon and delivers 30–40 percent savings versus On-Demand. All Upfront provides the deepest discount; Partial Upfront reduces the upfront cash requirement with a slightly lower overall saving. The 1-year commitment limits risk compared to a 3-year commitment for an uncertain future period.
B
Use Spot Instances with an interruption tolerance of 5 minutes for the workload
Why wrong: Spot Instances can be interrupted with 2-minute warning when EC2 capacity is needed. A 24/7 production workload that cannot tolerate interruption is not suitable for Spot Instances. Spot is appropriate for fault-tolerant, flexible workloads such as batch processing or stateless web tiers.
C
Enable EC2 Auto Scaling with a target tracking policy to scale down to zero instances during off-peak hours
Why wrong: The workload runs 24/7 and does not have off-peak hours. Scaling to zero is not applicable for a continuously running application. Auto Scaling with target tracking optimizes capacity for variable workloads, not for reducing costs on a continuously required instance.
D
Purchase a 3-year Convertible Reserved Instance to maximize the discount percentage
Why wrong: A 3-year commitment maximizes discount but introduces risk over a 36-month period for a workload only confirmed stable for 12 months. The question asks for the lowest financial risk — a 1-year RI minimizes the commitment period while still achieving the target savings.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Purchase a 1-year Standard Reserved Instance for c5.xlarge in us-east-1 with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment

A 1-year Standard Reserved Instance (RI) with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment offers a 30-40% discount over On-Demand pricing for a stable, always-on workload. This option provides the lowest financial risk because it commits to a fixed instance type and region for only one year, matching the workload's stable nature without the flexibility premium of Convertible RIs or the interruption risk of Spot Instances.

Key principle: Reserved Instances

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
Purchase a 1-year Standard Reserved Instance for c5.xlarge in us-east-1 with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment
Why this is correct
A 1-year Standard RI matches the 12-month stability horizon and delivers 30–40 percent savings versus On-Demand. All Upfront provides the deepest discount; Partial Upfront reduces the upfront cash requirement with a slightly lower overall saving. The 1-year commitment limits risk compared to a 3-year commitment for an uncertain future period.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Reserved Instances
✗
Use Spot Instances with an interruption tolerance of 5 minutes for the workload
Why it's wrong here
Spot Instances can be interrupted with 2-minute warning when EC2 capacity is needed. A 24/7 production workload that cannot tolerate interruption is not suitable for Spot Instances. Spot is appropriate for fault-tolerant, flexible workloads such as batch processing or stateless web tiers.
✗
Enable EC2 Auto Scaling with a target tracking policy to scale down to zero instances during off-peak hours
Why it's wrong here
The workload runs 24/7 and does not have off-peak hours. Scaling to zero is not applicable for a continuously running application. Auto Scaling with target tracking optimizes capacity for variable workloads, not for reducing costs on a continuously required instance.
✗
Purchase a 3-year Convertible Reserved Instance to maximize the discount percentage
Why it's wrong here
A 3-year commitment maximizes discount but introduces risk over a 36-month period for a workload only confirmed stable for 12 months. The question asks for the lowest financial risk — a 1-year RI minimizes the commitment period while still achieving the target savings.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates may choose the 3-year Convertible RI (Option D) for its higher discount percentage, overlooking the fact that the longer commitment and unnecessary flexibility introduce greater financial risk for a stable, unchanging workload.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Standard Reserved Instances provide a capacity reservation in a specific Availability Zone (if scoped to AZ) and a billing discount for a 1- or 3-year term. The discount for a 1-year Standard RI in us-east-1 for c5.xlarge typically ranges from 30-40% off On-Demand, with All Upfront offering the highest savings but requiring full payment upfront, while Partial Upfront spreads cost over time with a lower discount. This option avoids the 40-60% discount of 3-year RIs but also avoids the financial risk of a longer commitment for a stable workload.

KKey Concepts to Remember

Reserved Instances
1-year vs 3-year term
All Upfront vs No Upfront
Convertible vs Standard

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

Reserved Instances

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.

Review reserved Instances, then practise related SOA-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.

Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation.

Reliability and Business Continuity practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Reliability and Business Continuity.

Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation.

Security and Compliance practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Security and Compliance.

Networking and Content Delivery practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Networking and Content Delivery.

Cost and Performance Optimization practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to Cost and Performance Optimization.

SOA-C02 fundamentals practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to SOA-C02 fundamentals.

SOA-C02 scenario practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to SOA-C02 scenario.

SOA-C02 troubleshooting practice questions

Practise SOA-C02 questions linked to SOA-C02 troubleshooting.

Practice this exam

Start a free SOA-C02 practice session

Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.

10 questions 20 questions 30 questions 50 questions Timed 30

SOA-C02 practice-test guide →Study guide →Browse all practice tests

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

Cost and Performance Optimization — This question tests Cost and Performance Optimization — Reserved Instances.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Purchase a 1-year Standard Reserved Instance for c5.xlarge in us-east-1 with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment — A 1-year Standard Reserved Instance (RI) with All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment offers a 30-40% discount over On-Demand pricing for a stable, always-on workload. This option provides the lowest financial risk because it commits to a fixed instance type and region for only one year, matching the workload's stable nature without the flexibility premium of Convertible RIs or the interruption risk of Spot Instances.

What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?

Review reserved Instances, then practise related SOA-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Reserved Instances

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 →

How Courseiva writes practice questions · Editorial policy

Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on SOA-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 runs a batch processing job every night that takes exactly 2 hours to complete. The job is time-sensitive and cannot tolerate interruptions. The SysOps administrator needs to minimize compute costs for the Amazon EC2 instances used during this job. The job runs every day and has predictable resource requirements. Which purchasing option should the administrator choose?

medium

✓ A.Reserved Instances (Standard)
B.Spot Instances
C.On-Demand Instances
D.Dedicated Hosts

Why A: A Standard Reserved Instance is the best choice because the job runs every night for exactly 2 hours with predictable resource requirements, making it ideal for a 1-year or 3-year commitment that provides a significant discount (up to 72%) over On-Demand pricing. Since the job cannot tolerate interruptions, Reserved Instances offer capacity reservation and cost savings without the risk of termination that Spot Instances carry.

Keep practising

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.

Loading comments…

This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.