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Google ACE Practice Question: Store structured data with strong consistency and…
A company needs to store structured data with strong consistency and global distribution for a global user base. Which Google Cloud database service is best suited?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Firestore's multi-region mode with strong global consistency, not realizing that Firestore sacrifices consistency for availability in that configuration, while Cloud Spanner is the only option that guarantees strong consistency across globally distributed regions.
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
✓
Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is the correct choice because it provides strong consistency, horizontal scalability, and global distribution via synchronous replication across regions. It supports SQL queries and ACID transactions, making it ideal for structured data that requires both consistency and global access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is a wide-column NoSQL database designed for massive scale and high throughput, but it does not provide strong consistency across replicas. In a multi-cluster configuration, Bigtable offers eventual consistency for replicated data, which fails the requirement for strong consistency. Even in single-cluster mode, it is not optimized for transactional or relational workloads, so it is not the right fit for this requirement.
- ✓
Cloud Spanner
Why this is correct
Cloud Spanner is Google's globally distributed relational database that combines horizontal scalability with full ACID transactions and strong consistency. It uses the TrueTime API with atomic clocks and GPS to order transactions consistently across regions, delivering external consistency. This makes it the only option here that meets both strong consistency and global distribution, so it is the correct choice.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL provides fully managed relational databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server with strong consistency and ACID guarantees within a single region. However, it is regionally scoped and does not replicate data across multiple geographic locations by default, so it cannot serve as a globally distributed database. While consistent, it lacks the global scaling and failover requirements implied by the question.
- ✗
Firestore
Why it's wrong here
Firestore is a NoSQL document database that offers strong consistency for individual document reads and writes, but its queries are eventually consistent in multi-region mode. This means that in a globally distributed setup, read results may not reflect the latest committed state across replicas, violating the strong consistency requirement. It is designed for mobile and web apps at scale, not for globally consistent relational data.
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Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides infrastructure, platform, and software solutions over the internet.
Key term
Service
A service is a software component or system that performs a specific function and is available to be used by other programs or users over a network.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ACE exam.