Serverless is a small topic with a big payoff — the EC2-versus-Lambda choice recurs all over the exam. Six questions, 2026 edition.
Here are 6 typical AWS Lambda questions in the exam's own style — free, with the answer explained, no sign-up.
Straight to the 6 free questions ↓AWS Lambda is a small topic that pays off far beyond its own questions, because the choice it represents — run your own server, or let AWS run your code — shows up all over the Cloud Technology and Services domain. Learn Lambda well and you also answer a lot of questions that never mention it by name.
Lambda is serverless compute. You give AWS a function; AWS runs it when something triggers it, scales it automatically, and charges you only while it runs. There is no server for you to choose, launch, patch or keep online. That is the entire pitch, and it is also the boundary that separates Lambda from EC2: with EC2 you control a server and its operating system; with Lambda you control only your code.
Because it is fully managed, the shared responsibility line sits high — AWS operates the servers and their OS, and your responsibility is essentially just the function and its configuration. Any question that hands you “who patches the OS for Lambda” is testing exactly this: the answer is AWS.
Two facts carry most Lambda questions:
Just as useful as knowing when to pick Lambda is knowing when not to. If a workload needs OS-level control, or must run continuously around the clock, Lambda is the wrong fit and a server — EC2 — is right. The exam frames this as a clean fork: short and event-driven points to Lambda; long-running or OS-controlling points to EC2. Reading the scenario for those two signals resolves the choice almost every time.
Answer each one before you reveal the explanation, and when you miss, read past the correct letter to why the other three fail. Lambda distractors tend to be other real compute and storage services — EC2, S3, CloudFront — offered where serverless belongs, or Lambda offered where a server belongs. Separating those on sight is the skill the exam rewards, and the reasoning below is built to train it.
What is AWS Lambda?
Lambda runs your code on demand with no servers for you to provision, patch or scale — you supply the function, AWS runs it. Why not the others: a virtual server you size and control is EC2. A managed relational database is RDS. Object storage is S3. Lambda is the 'just my code, no server' option.
How are you charged for AWS Lambda?
Lambda billing is per request plus the duration the code actually runs, measured in milliseconds — if it is not running, you pay nothing. Why not the others: there is no flat monthly fee and no hourly charge for merely existing, which is the whole appeal versus a server you pay for around the clock. And there is no EC2 instance you manage or pay for underneath; that is what 'serverless' means here.
Which scenario is the best fit for AWS Lambda?
A short task triggered by an event — an upload arrives, a function runs, then stops — is exactly what Lambda is built for. Why not the others: a constantly running server with OS-level control is an EC2 job. A relational database belongs on RDS. Long-term file storage belongs in S3. Lambda shines for short, event-driven work, not for anything that must run continuously.
Under the shared responsibility model, who patches the underlying operating system for AWS Lambda?
Because Lambda is serverless, AWS manages the servers and their operating systems entirely — you are responsible only for your function code and its configuration. Why not the others: unlike EC2, there is no guest OS handed to the customer. Responsibility is not split for the OS here. And the code does of course run on infrastructure — the point is simply that AWS, not you, operates it.
What causes an AWS Lambda function to run?
Lambda is event-driven: an event source invokes the function — a file landing in S3, an HTTP request via API Gateway, a scheduled event, and many others. Why not the others: it does not run continuously; that is precisely what distinguishes it from a server. It is not limited to manual invocation, and it does not depend on anything running on your own machine.
A workload needs full control over the operating system and must run continuously around the clock. Which service suits it better than Lambda?
When you need OS-level control and a process that stays up continuously, a server — Amazon EC2 — is the right tool. Why not the others: stretching Lambda's timeout does not change that it is designed for short, event-driven tasks, not always-on workloads with OS access. S3 is storage and CloudFront is content delivery; neither runs your application. This EC2-versus-Lambda fork is one the exam returns to repeatedly.
That is exactly how every question in the course works — answer, explanation, why-not. The real set continues in the practice player: 10 free questions, no sign-up.
Continue with the 10 free questions →The exam does not test whether you recognise a term — it tests whether you can rule out three plausible answers under time pressure. That is what the explanations above are for, and there are 390 more questions built exactly like them.
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Updated for CLF-C02 (July 2026). The sample questions above are our own work in the style of the exam — not real exam items. The exam itself is set and marked by the certification body.