AWS (Amazon Web Services) Certification Practice Exam

Which purchasing option requires payment regardless of usage during the scheduled time frame?

1. On-Demand Instances

2. Reserved Instances

3. Spot Instances

4. Scheduled Instances

The correct answer is: Scheduled Instances

The purchasing option that requires payment regardless of usage during the scheduled time frame is Scheduled Instances. This model is designed for customers who have predictable workloads with specific time frames. When you commit to using Scheduled Instances, you pay for the capacity in advance for a recurring schedule, such as specific days of the week or specific hours in a day, regardless of whether you actually use the instance during those scheduled periods. In contrast, On-Demand Instances allow you to pay for compute capacity by the hour or second, with no long-term commitments, making this option flexible but costlier if used continuously. Reserved Instances provide a significant discount compared to On-Demand pricing in exchange for committing to use a certain instance type in a specific region for a one or three-year term, but they still allow you to modify or remove instances without losing funds for unused capacity. Spot Instances provide access to spare computing capacity at a lower cost but are subject to availability and do not guarantee capacity or pricing, which means you pay only when you actually use them. Therefore, among all the options, Scheduled Instances are unique in their requirement for payment regardless of actual usage during the scheduled time.