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GCDL Practice Question: A startup wants to deploy a web application…
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of a startup wants to deploy a web application…. 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.
A startup wants to deploy a web application globally and expects traffic to be unpredictable — sometimes very low, sometimes very high. Which cloud characteristic ensures the startup only pays for the compute resources it actually uses?
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.
A
Distractor review
Resource pooling, which allows the startup to share physical hardware with other tenants
Resource pooling is the mechanism by which cloud providers serve many customers from shared hardware. It enables cloud economics but is a provider characteristic, not the billing model that ensures the startup pays only for what it uses.
B
Distractor review
Broad network access, which allows the application to be reached from any device globally
Broad network access is about connectivity — reaching the application from anywhere. It does not describe the billing model or cost structure.
C
Distractor review
On-demand self-service, which allows the startup to provision resources through a web interface without calling a sales team
On-demand self-service enables instant provisioning without vendor interaction. While valuable, it's about access speed, not about the billing model that ensures payment only for actual usage.
D
Best answer
Measured service / pay-per-use pricing, where the startup is billed only for actual resource consumption with no payment for idle capacity
Measured service is the NIST cloud characteristic that directly answers this. The startup is metered — billed for actual CPU, memory, network, and storage consumed. During low-traffic periods, bills are low. During spikes, costs scale up. No capacity is pre-purchased and wasted.
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.
Related practice questions
Related GCDL practice-question pages
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More questions from this exam
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Question 1
A traditional retailer currently maintains its own data centers, purchasing servers every 3–5 years and paying for facilities, power, and staff regardless of demand. When it migrates its workloads to the public cloud, which change in cost model does it experience?
Question 2
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?
Question 3
Which term describes the process by which organizations integrate digital technology into all areas of their business, fundamentally changing how they operate and deliver value to customers?
Question 4
When a company moves from maintaining its own data center to using Google Cloud, which operational responsibility does Google assume that the company previously managed?
Question 5
A hospital runs a patient records system that must remain on-premises due to strict regulatory data residency requirements. However, they also want to use cloud-based AI for diagnostic imaging analysis. Which cloud deployment model best describes their architecture?
Question 6
What is virtualization in the context of cloud computing, and why is it fundamental to how cloud providers deliver services?
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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: Measured service / pay-per-use pricing, where the startup is billed only for actual resource consumption with no payment for idle capacity — The pay-per-use (or consumption-based) pricing model means customers are billed based on actual resource consumption — CPU seconds, GB-hours of memory, request counts — rather than paying for reserved capacity whether or not it's used. For unpredictable traffic, this is ideal: costs scale down during quiet periods and scale up only when needed, without over-provisioning.
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.