SAA-C03 practice question 4 of 35

A company wants a flexible compute solution that includes Amazon EC2 instances and AWS Fargate. The company does not want to commit to multi-year…

Choose your answer, then check it against the explanation and the full breakdown below.

Domain Design Secure Architectures

A company wants a flexible compute solution that includes Amazon EC2 instances and AWS Fargate. The company does not want to commit to multi-year contracts. Which purchasing option will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

The requirement is for a flexible compute solution covering both Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate, which must be the most cost-effective option without a multi-year commitment. A Compute Savings Plan is the most suitable choice as it provides flexibility across instance families, regions, and compute services, including EC2 and Fargate. Among the payment options for a 1-year term, the All Upfront option provides the highest discount, making it the most cost-effective choice as requested by the question.

Why Incorrect

A. An EC2 Instance Savings Plan does not apply to AWS Fargate usage, so it fails to meet the requirements of the scenario.

B. The No Upfront option provides the lowest discount for a Savings Plan, making it less cost-effective than the Partial or All Upfront options.

C. The Partial Upfront option offers a lower discount than the All Upfront option, and therefore is not the MOST cost-effective solution.

References

1. AWS Savings Plans User Guide

"What are Savings Plans?": This document distinguishes between the types of Savings Plans. It states

"Compute Savings Plans provide the most flexibility and help to reduce your costs by up to 66%. These plans automatically apply to EC2 instance usage regardless of instance family

size

Region

OS or tenancy. These plans also apply to Fargate and Lambda usage." This confirms a Compute Savings Plan is necessary to cover both EC2 and Fargate.

2. AWS Savings Plans User Guide

"Getting started with Savings Plans": Under the "Commitment and payment options" section

the guide explains the payment models: "You can choose to pay for your Savings Plans with No Upfront

Partial Upfront

or All Upfront payment options. The Partial Upfront and All Upfront options provide a larger discount." This confirms that All Upfront is the most discounted

and thus most cost-effective

option.

3. AWS Compute Savings Plans

Official Webpage: The pricing section details the payment options and their corresponding savings. It explicitly shows that for any given term

the All Upfront option yields the highest percentage of savings compared to Partial Upfront and No Upfront.

Question 4 of 35

Question breakdown

Tests: Choose cost-optimized purchasing options for compute
Difficulty: Easy

Key idea: Compute Savings Plans cover EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, and All Upfront payment yields the deepest discount for a given term.

How to reach the answer

Clue: coverage must include both EC2 and Fargate, so EC2 Instance Savings Plans are out.
Clue: no multi-year contracts, so a 1-year term is required.
Among No, Partial, and All Upfront, All Upfront gives the largest discount.
Therefore 1-year Compute Savings Plan, All Upfront.

Each option

AIncorrect. EC2 Instance Savings Plans do not apply to Fargate usage.
BIncorrect. No Upfront has the smallest discount of the three payment options.
CIncorrect. Partial Upfront saves less than All Upfront for the same term.
DCorrect. Covers EC2 and Fargate on a 1-year term with the highest discount.

Common trap: Reading 'flexible' as payment flexibility and picking No Upfront, when flexibility here refers to service coverage.

In practice: FinOps teams buy Compute Savings Plans to cover mixed EC2/Fargate/Lambda baselines, choosing upfront payment when cash flow permits.

Remember: EC2 plus Fargate means Compute Savings Plan; 'most cost-effective' means All Upfront.

Official documentation: What are Savings Plans?

Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the answer key.

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