When you run containers on ECS or EKS, you choose a launch type: EC2 or Fargate. The exam tests which fits based on how much control and operational overhead you want.
The difference
EC2 launch type — you manage the EC2 instances the containers run on (patching, scaling, capacity), giving more control and sometimes lower cost at scale. Fargate — serverless; AWS runs the containers with no servers for you to manage. “No infrastructure to manage” → Fargate; “full control / cost tuning at scale” → EC2.
Test yourself
A team wants to run containers on ECS with zero server management and pay only for the resources each task uses. Which launch type?
- EC2 launch type
- AWS Fargate
- EKS self-managed nodes
- EC2 with Spot only
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Fargate is serverless — no instances to manage, pay per task resource. The EC2 launch type (A) and self-managed EKS nodes (C) require managing servers; Spot (D) is a pricing choice, still on the EC2 launch type.
Related topics
ECS vs EKS vs Fargate · Amazon ECS · Amazon EC2
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