GCDL Practice Question: An e-commerce company plans its infrastructure…
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of an e-commerce company plans its infrastructure…. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
An e-commerce company plans its infrastructure for peak shopping events (e.g., Black Friday) which drive 50× normal traffic. On-premises, they must maintain 50× capacity year-round. In the cloud, they provision 50× capacity only during peak periods. Which cloud characteristic enables this cost optimization?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Distractor review
Measured service — metering and reporting resource consumption.
Measured service refers to usage monitoring and billing transparency, not the ability to scale resources up and down on demand.
Distractor review
Resource pooling — the provider's resources are shared among many customers.
Resource pooling describes the multi-tenant nature of cloud infrastructure. Elasticity (dynamic scaling) is the characteristic that enables the described cost optimization.
Best answer
Elasticity — the ability to rapidly scale resources up during peak demand and release them when no longer needed.
Cloud elasticity lets the company provision 50× capacity for Black Friday (days) then scale back to 1× base capacity, paying only for what's used — eliminating year-round over-provisioning costs.
Distractor review
Broad network access — accessing resources from any internet-connected device.
Broad network access refers to multi-device accessibility, not the ability to scale resources dynamically based on demand.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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Question 2
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Question 3
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Question 4
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Question 5
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Question 6
Which term describes the model where the cloud provider is responsible for the security of the cloud infrastructure, while the customer is responsible for security within their own cloud environment (data, applications, access management)?
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this GCDL question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Elasticity — the ability to rapidly scale resources up during peak demand and release them when no longer needed. — Cloud elasticity allows resources to be scaled up rapidly for peak demand and scaled back down (or released entirely) during off-peak periods. The company only pays for 50× capacity during the days it's actually needed, rather than maintaining it year-round. This is fundamentally different from on-premises where over-provisioning for peak is the only option, resulting in expensive idle capacity most of the year.
What should I do if I get this GCDL question wrong?
Identify which GCDL exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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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.