AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Practice Question
An AWS-hosted web application experiences unpredictable, short-lived request spikes that trigger additional compute capacity through Auto Scaling. The solutions architect wants to reduce the cost impact of these bursts while keeping the application responsive.
What is the primary cost-optimization benefit of applying a throttling (rate-limiting) strategy to incoming API requests?
It limits sudden demand spikes so that Auto Scaling (or pay-per-request services) do not provision extra capacity, avoiding the associated cost.
It converts the application's pricing model to a predictable flat-rate charge.
It substantially decreases latency, and lower latency directly reduces compute pricing in AWS.
It primarily enhances monitoring capabilities, and the improved visibility itself generates cost savings.
Throttling smooths out sudden traffic bursts by temporarily rejecting or slowing excess requests (for example, via Amazon API Gateway usage plans or custom logic). This keeps average request volume within the baseline that existing instances or functions can handle, preventing unnecessary scale-out events or additional pay-per-request charges. Although throttling may slightly increase individual response time or return HTTP 429 errors, its main financial advantage is limiting demand so that you do not provision-and pay for-extra capacity that is rarely needed.
Latency may increase; cost savings come from stable resource consumption.
AWS pricing is usage-based, so throttling does not convert charges to a flat rate.
Monitoring alone provides visibility but no direct savings.
Reference: AWS Well-Architected Framework, Cost Optimization Pillar, BEST PRACTICE COST09-BP02 - "Implementing throttling has the advantage of limiting the maximum amount of resources and costs of the workload."
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