Cloud Digital Leader Fundamental Cloud Concepts Practice Question
A company wants to run a stateful application that requires persistent, high-performance block storage attached to a single Compute Engine instance. The application needs consistent low latency. Which storage solution should they use?
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
✓
Persistent Disk
Persistent Disk provides durable block storage with consistent performance attached to a single VM. Local SSDs are ephemeral and not suitable for stateful data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Local SSD
Why it's wrong here
Local SSDs are physically attached to the host server that runs your VM, offering extreme IOPS and ultra-low latency. However, they are ephemeral by design: data is lost whenever the VM is stopped, rescheduled, or the host undergoes maintenance. For a stateful application that must maintain durable state across VM restarts and live migrations, this lack of persistence makes Local SSDs unsuitable.
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Filestore
Why it's wrong here
Filestore is a managed network-attached file storage service that provides shared POSIX-compliant file systems via NFS. It is designed for multiple VMs or on-premises clients to access the same files concurrently, not as a raw block device for a single VM. A stateful application expecting a mounted block disk with its own filesystem and direct low-level I/O control cannot work with Filestore's file-level interface and network semantics.
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Cloud Storage
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage is a scalable object storage service with a global namespace, accessed via HTTP/S APIs and not as a block device. It cannot be attached to a VM as a disk, booted from, or used for transactional reads and writes that a stateful application requires. While it provides excellent durability for backup and archival data, it lacks the block-level access and low latency needed for an application that must read/write directly to persistent disk storage.
- ✓
Persistent Disk
Why this is correct
Persistent Disk is a network-attached block storage service that can be attached to a single VM as a raw device, providing durable and high-performance storage. It is independent of the VM lifecycle, so data persists even when the VM is stopped or terminated, and it supports snapshots and regional replication for added durability. This makes it the correct choice for a stateful application that needs reliable block storage while allowing the VM to be restarted or migrated.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Compute Options on Google Cloud
Key term
Persistent Disk
Persistent Disk is a durable, high-performance block storage service for Google Cloud virtual machines that retains data even after the VM is shut down or deleted.
Key term
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This GCDL 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 GCDL exam.