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GCDL Practice Question: A company's cloud team is asked to reduce the…
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of a company's cloud team is asked to reduce the…. 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 company's cloud team is asked to reduce the cost of a batch data processing workload that runs for 4–6 hours each night and can tolerate interruptions. The workload currently uses standard on-demand Compute Engine VMs. Which pricing option should the team evaluate first?
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
Committed Use Discounts (CUDs), by committing to 1 or 3 years of VM usage
CUDs provide 37–55% discounts for committed 1 or 3-year terms. They are appropriate for stable, continuous workloads — not nightly batch jobs that only run a few hours. Spot VMs provide larger discounts with no commitment for interruptible batch workloads.
B
Distractor review
Sustained Use Discounts (SUDs), which automatically apply when VMs run for more than 25% of a month
Sustained Use Discounts automatically apply to VMs that run for extended periods (25%+ of a month). A nightly batch job running 4–6 hours may accrue some SUD but far less than Spot VM savings, and there's no maximum discount for Spot-sized savings from SUDs alone.
C
Distractor review
Reserved Instances, by purchasing capacity reservation for the nightly batch window
Capacity Reservations ensure capacity is available but don't automatically reduce price. They're for ensuring capacity in specific zones, not for cost optimization of interruptible batch workloads.
D
Best answer
Spot VMs, which offer up to 91% discount for workloads that can tolerate interruption and checkpoint/resume their work
Spot VMs are the optimal choice for this scenario. The workload is batch (can checkpoint), runs nightly (predictable schedule), and tolerates interruption. Up to 91% discount is a dramatic cost reduction. The 30-second notice for Spot VM preemption is sufficient for batch jobs to save state.
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
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
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: Spot VMs, which offer up to 91% discount for workloads that can tolerate interruption and checkpoint/resume their work — Spot VMs (formerly preemptible VMs) offer up to 91% discount compared to standard on-demand pricing. The trade-off is that Google may reclaim Spot VMs with a 30-second notice when capacity is needed elsewhere. Batch workloads that can checkpoint state and resume after interruption are the ideal use case for Spot VMs, and a 4–6 hour nightly batch job typically can be designed to handle interruption gracefully.
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.