PCDOE Optimizing performance and cost Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Refer to the exhibit. A DevOps engineer wants to reduce compute costs immediately. Which action is most effective?

Accepted Answer

Rightsize instance-2 from n1-standard-8 to n1-standard-4.. Rightsizing instance-2 from n1-standard-8 to n1-standard-4 reduces vCPUs from 8 to 4, directly lowering cost. The terminated instance incurs no cost, and the preemptible instance is already cost-effective. Zone changes do not affect cost.

Answer

Delete the terminated instance.

Answer

Change instance-1 to a non-preemptible instance.

Answer

Move instance-1 to a different zone.

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. The company received an alert when the threshold was triggered. What does this alert indicate?

Accepted Answer

The actual spend has reached 50% of the budget.. The threshold rule uses a CURRENT_SPEND basis, so the alert triggers when actual costs reach 50% of the budget. This corresponds to Option A. Option B describes exceeding the budget, Option C describes a forecasted exceedance, and Option D describes both thresholds, none of which are indicated by this alert.

Answer

The spend has exceeded the budget amount.

Answer

The forecasted spend is projected to exceed 50% of the budget.

Answer

Both actual and forecasted spend thresholds have been crossed.

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. What does this recommendation suggest?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade the instance.. The description explicitly states to upgrade the instance from n1-standard-2 to n1-standard-4, indicating a need for more resources.

Answer

Change the instance to preemptible.

Answer

Delete the instance.

Answer

Downgrade the instance.

Question 4

A startup wants to reduce their Google Cloud costs for a batch processing job that runs nightly for 3 hours. The job is fault-tolerant and can tolerate interruptions. What is the most cost-effective compute option?

Accepted Answer

Preemptible VM. Preemptible VMs (Option D) are the most cost-effective because they offer up to 60-91% discount and are suitable for fault-tolerant, interruptible batch jobs. Standard VMs (Option A) are more expensive. Shielded VMs (Option B) provide security features but no cost savings. Sole-tenant nodes (Option C) provide isolation but are more costly.

Answer

Standard VM

Answer

Shielded VM

Answer

Sole-tenant node

Question 5

A company has multiple projects in an organization. They want to set a budget of $5000 per month on a specific project and receive notifications when spending reaches 50% and 90%. What should they do?

Accepted Answer

Create a budget at the project level with alert thresholds of 50% and 90%. Budgets can be created at the project level with alert thresholds, allowing you to set a $5000 budget on a specific project and receive notifications at 50% and 90%. Option A is incorrect because while the Cloud Billing API can be used to monitor spending and send custom alerts, it is more complex and not the recommended or simplest approach for this requirement. Option B is incorrect because a budget at the organization level would apply to all projects, not just the specific project. Option C is incorrect because although a Pub/Sub topic and cloud function could be configured to check spending daily, it is overengineering; the built-in budget alerts are simpler and more appropriate.

Answer

Use the Cloud Billing API to monitor spending and send custom alerts

Answer

Create a budget at the organization level with alert thresholds of 50% and 90%

Answer

Configure a Pub/Sub topic and set up a cloud function to check spending daily

Question 6

A large enterprise manages costs across multiple GCP projects using a shared billing account. They want to apply a 10% discount on all committed use discounts (CUDs) to specific departments based on resource labels. How should they allocate the CUD savings?

Accepted Answer

Enable 'CUD cost attribution' in the billing account settings to automatically distribute savings based on project labels. The 'CUD cost attribution' feature in the billing account settings automatically distributes committed use discount (CUD) savings based on project labels, allowing departments to receive their share of the discount without manual effort. Option A is incorrect because 'Cost Attribution' is a feature for custom cost allocation using tags, not for CUD savings. Option C is possible using BigQuery, but it is not a built-in automated feature like CUD cost attribution. Option D is incorrect because manual calculation and journal entries are error-prone and not recommended for automated discount allocation.

Answer

Use the Cloud Billing report's 'Cost Attribution' feature to assign CUD savings based on labels

Answer

Use the Cloud Billing cost table in BigQuery with the CUD cost data and allocate using custom queries

Answer

Manually calculate CUD savings and distribute via journal entries

Question 7

A DevOps engineer is reviewing GCP costs and notices high network egress charges. Which two actions can help reduce network egress costs? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Use Cloud CDN to cache content closer to users. Correct answers are C and D. Using Cloud CDN reduces egress by caching content at edge locations, minimizing data transferred from origin. Keeping resources in the same region avoids inter-region egress charges. Option A (preemptible VMs) reduces compute costs, not network egress. Option B (single zone) does not reduce egress; resources in the same zone still incur egress if they communicate across regions. Option E (external load balancers with global access) can increase egress by routing traffic globally.

Answer

Use preemptible VMs

Answer

Migrate all workloads to a single zone

Answer

Use external load balancers with global access

Question 8

A company wants to set budgets and alerts for a GCP project. Which two steps are required to enable budget notifications via email? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Create a budget alert threshold in the Cloud Console. Options B and C are required. You must create a budget alert threshold in the Cloud Console to define the spending limit, and then add email recipients in the budget configuration to receive notifications. Option A (Enabling the Cloud Billing API) is not a prerequisite for email notifications; it is needed for programmatic access. Options D and E are for programmatic notifications, not email.

Answer

Enable the Cloud Billing API for the project

Answer

Create a Pub/Sub topic and subscribe to it

Answer

Set up a Cloud Function to send emails

Question 9

An organization wants to optimize BigQuery costs. Which three practices should they implement? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Set a maximum bytes billed per query at the project level. Options B, C, and E are correct. Setting a maximum bytes billed per query at the project level prevents cost overruns. Table partitioning and clustering reduce the amount of data scanned per query, lowering costs. Authorized views allow controlled access without duplicating data, avoiding storage costs. Option A is incorrect because storing data in multiple tables without partitioning increases data scanned and costs. Option D is incorrect because purchasing flat-rate reservations for all queries may not be cost-effective for variable workloads; on-demand pricing can be cheaper.

Answer

Store data in multiple tables per day without partitioning

Answer

Purchase BigQuery flat-rate reservations for all queries

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. A DevOps engineer noticed that the nightly batch processing costs are higher than expected. After running the above command, what is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The instances are not preemptible, leading to higher compute costs. The instances are not preemptible, leading to higher compute costs. For batch jobs that tolerate interruptions, preemptible VMs are more cost-effective. Option B is incorrect because instances in different zones within the same region do not significantly increase egress costs for batch processing. Option C is incorrect because the n2-standard-4 machine type is standard and cost-effective for batch jobs; the issue is the pricing model (on-demand vs preemptible). Option D is incorrect because automatic restart does not incur additional charges.

Answer

The instances are running in different zones, increasing egress costs

Answer

The instances are using the n2-standard-4 machine type, which is expensive

Answer

The instances have automatic restart enabled, incurring additional charges

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. A DevOps engineer configured a budget alert with Pub/Sub notifications. However, the team is not receiving alerts. The Pub/Sub subscription is set up correctly and messages can be published manually. What is the most likely reason the budget alerts are not being sent?

Accepted Answer

The budget filter excludes credits, so actual spend might be lower than threshold. The budget filter excludes credits. If credits significantly reduce actual spend, the threshold might not be met, and alerts may not fire. Option A is incorrect because the notificationsRule can be configured without email recipients if Pub/Sub is used. Option B is incorrect because budget amounts are specified in whole units; fractional cents are not relevant. Option C is incorrect because using different spend bases (CURRENT vs FORECASTED) is allowed and does not cause inconsistency in alerting.

Answer

The notificationsRule does not include email recipients

Answer

The budget amount is specified in units without considering fractional cents

Answer

The threshold rules use different spend basis (CURRENT vs FORECASTED), causing inconsistency

Question 12

Refer to the exhibit. A DevOps engineer wants to reduce compute costs immediately. Which action is most effective?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

roles/billing.viewer. Roles/billing.viewer provides read-only access to billing data for all projects in the organization when granted at the organization level. Option A (roles/billing.admin) is too permissive as it allows modifying billing settings. Option B (roles/billing.creator) is used to create billing accounts and does not grant view access to cost reports. Option D (roles/billing.user) is not a valid predefined role for viewing billing data; it only allows linking projects to billing accounts.

Answer

roles/billing.admin

Answer

roles/billing.creator

Answer

roles/billing.user

Question 13

A company uses BigQuery on-demand pricing. To control costs, they want to prevent any single query from scanning more than 1 TB of data. How can they enforce this?

Accepted Answer

Use the maximum bytes billed parameter in the query settings. BigQuery allows setting a maximum bytes billed parameter per query, which limits the amount of data scanned. Option A is a budget alert, not a per-query limit. Option C uses reservations, which allocate slots but don't limit per-query data scanned. Option D refers to quotas, which are not per-query data limits.

Answer

Set a custom cost budget with alert at 1 TB

Answer

Use BigQuery reservations with 1 TB slot capacity

Answer

Set a query quota in the GCP Console quota page

Question 14

A DevOps engineer is responsible for cost optimization of GKE clusters. They have identified that many nodes are underutilized. What is the best approach to reduce costs without impacting availability?

Accepted Answer

Enable cluster autoscaler to automatically scale down nodes. Cluster autoscaler automatically scales down nodes when they are underutilized. Option B is manual and not scalable. Option C may cause disruptions. Option D reduces availability.

Answer

Use spot VMs for all node pools

Answer

Delete underutilized nodes manually

Answer

Migrate to a single zone cluster

Question 15

A company has purchased Compute Engine committed use discounts (CUD) for 1 year for vCPU and memory. After 3 months, they need to upgrade some VMs to a larger machine type. What happens to the CUD coverage?

Accepted Answer

The CUD continues to apply to the original resource, and any additional usage is charged at on-demand rates. Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) apply to resource usage (vCPU, memory) rather than specific machine types. When upgrading to a larger machine type, the original committed resources are still used; any additional usage beyond the committed amount is charged at on-demand rates. Option A is incorrect because CUDs are not automatically adjusted. Option C is incorrect because CUDs do cover upgrades as long as the resource types match. Option D is incorrect because CUDs are not voided or refunded.

Answer

The CUD is automatically adjusted to cover the new machine type

Answer

The CUD applies only to the specific machine types in the commitment, so upgrades are not covered

Answer

The CUD is voided and a refund is issued