Placement groups control how EC2 instances are physically placed to optimize for either performance or resilience. The exam tests which type matches the goal.
The three types
Cluster — packs instances close together in one AZ for the lowest latency and highest throughput (great for HPC), but a single failure can take them all out. Spread — puts instances on distinct hardware to minimize correlated failures (max resilience). Partition — groups into partitions on separate racks, for large distributed systems like Hadoop.
Test yourself
A high-performance computing job needs the lowest possible network latency between its EC2 instances. Which placement group?
- Spread
- Cluster
- Partition
- No placement group
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. A Cluster placement group packs instances close together for the lowest latency and highest throughput — ideal for HPC. Spread (A) prioritizes resilience by separating instances; Partition (C) suits large distributed data systems; none (D) gives no latency benefit.
Related topics
EC2 Instance Types · Amazon EC2 · Auto Scaling
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