A tightly-coupled HPC workload needs the lowest possible network latency between its EC2 instances within a single AZ. Which EC2 placement group should be used?
A.Spread placement group
Spread groups deliberately isolate instances on separate hardware for availability, not latency.
B.Cluster placement group
Correct. Cluster groups maximize network performance for latency-sensitive workloads.
C.Partition placement group
Partition groups isolate partitions for large distributed systems like Kafka/HDFS.
D.Dedicated hosts
Dedicated hosts address licensing/compliance, not network latency.
Why this answer
Cluster placement groups pack instances close together in one AZ for low-latency, high-throughput networking — ideal for tightly-coupled HPC. Spread and partition groups do the opposite (isolation).
Correct answer: B · Last reviewed 2026-10-25
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