AWS - Certified Solutions Architect EC2 Instance Types and Cost Questions and Answers

Question 1

A company is running a high-performance computing (HPC) workload for complex scientific simulations.
The workload is CPU-bound and requires the best possible processor performance.
Which EC2 instance family is the MOST cost-effective choice for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Compute Optimized (C-series)

Answer

General Purpose (M-series)

Answer

Memory Optimized (R-series)

Answer

Storage Optimized (I-series)

Question 2

A startup is launching a new web application with unpredictable traffic patterns. They need a flexible EC2 purchasing option that allows them to pay for compute capacity by the second with no long-term commitment. Which purchasing option should they choose?

Accepted Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

Savings Plans

Question 3

A financial services company runs a critical, stateful application that must be available 24/7 for the next three years. The workload is stable and predictable. To achieve the highest possible discount on their EC2 costs, which purchasing option offers the best savings for this long-term, predictable workload?

Accepted Answer

EC2 Instance Savings Plans

Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Compute Savings Plans

Question 4

A media company needs to run a large-scale video transcoding job. The job can be broken down into many parallel tasks, is fault-tolerant, and can be stopped and restarted without significant impact. The primary goal is to minimize the cost of this batch processing workload. Which EC2 purchasing model is the MOST suitable?

Accepted Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Question 5

A company is migrating a large in-memory database to AWS. The application requires extremely high memory performance to process large datasets in real-time. Which EC2 instance family is specifically designed for this type of workload?

Accepted Answer

Memory Optimized (R-series)

Answer

Compute Optimized (C-series)

Answer

General Purpose (T-series)

Answer

Accelerated Computing (G-series)

Question 6

A company has a steady-state workload and wants to commit to a certain amount of compute usage (e.g., $10/hour) for a 1-year term to receive a discount. However, they need the flexibility to change instance families, sizes, and even regions over time. Which AWS purchasing option provides this level of flexibility while still offering significant savings over On-Demand pricing?

Accepted Answer

Compute Savings Plans

Answer

Standard Reserved Instances

Answer

EC2 Instance Savings Plans

Answer

Convertible Reserved Instances