GCP-ADP Practice Question: Your team runs a Cloud Composer 2 environment that processes financial data
Your team runs a Cloud Composer 2 environment that processes financial data. A critical DAG must run exactly once per day at 02:00 UTC, and the Airflow scheduler must not backfill missed runs from the previous week when the DAG is unpaused. You need to configure the DAG so that only future scheduled runs execute. What should you set in the DAG definition?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that changing start_date or limiting concurrency prevents backfill, when only catchup=False disables historical run creation.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Set catchup=False in the DAG constructor and define schedule='0 2 * * *'.
The requirement is a daily 02:00 UTC run with no historical backfill. In Cloud Composer, catchup=False suppresses the creation of runs for intervals that elapsed before the DAG was enabled, while the cron schedule controls future timing. Other parameters such as max_active_runs or start_date adjustments do not disable backfill, and schedule=None removes the automatic cadence entirely.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set catchup=True and use a TimeDeltaSchedule with timedelta(days=1).
Why it's wrong here
catchup=True explicitly enables backfilling of all missed intervals between start_date and the current time. Using a timedelta schedule of one day would still generate a run for each missed day, which is exactly the behavior the scenario prohibits. This option produces the opposite of the desired outcome and would flood the environment with historical runs.
- ✗
Set start_date to the current date and schedule_interval=None in the DAG constructor.
Why it's wrong here
Setting schedule_interval=None (or schedule=None in Airflow 2.4+) creates a DAG that is only triggered manually or via external triggers, never on a cron schedule. The requirement is a daily 02:00 UTC run, so this configuration would prevent the automatic daily execution entirely. Changing start_date alone does not control backfill behavior in Cloud Composer.
- ✗
Set max_active_runs=1 and schedule='0 2 * * *' in the DAG constructor.
Why it's wrong here
max_active_runs=1 limits concurrent DAG runs but does not prevent the scheduler from queuing historical intervals. When the DAG is unpaused, Airflow would still create runs for every missed interval since start_date, one after another. This option controls concurrency, not backfill, so it fails the requirement to avoid previous-week runs.
- ✓
Set catchup=False in the DAG constructor and define schedule='0 2 * * *'.
Why this is correct
Setting catchup=False tells the Airflow scheduler to skip all historical intervals that elapsed before the DAG was enabled, so only runs from the current time forward are created. Combined with the cron expression '0 2 * * *', the DAG fires daily at 02:00 UTC without backfilling the previous week. This directly satisfies the requirement of no historical runs.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Security Systems Architect · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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