Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →Question 25 of 300
hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
GCDL Practice Question: A company's SRE team is debating whether to…
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of a company's sre team is debating whether to…. 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 SRE team is debating whether to automate a frequently performed manual operational task. The automation would take 4 weeks of engineering time to build. The manual task takes 30 minutes per occurrence and happens approximately 20 times per month. Using the SRE concept of 'toil,' how should the team approach this decision?
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
The team cannot make this decision without knowing the exact annual salary cost of the engineers who perform the manual task
While cost calculations are relevant, the SRE framework provides a clear principle: eliminate automatable toil. The decision doesn't require precise salary data — the direction (build automation) is clear from SRE principles.
B
Distractor review
Do not automate — the manual task is only 10 hours per month and the 4-week build cost is too high to justify
SRE philosophy strongly favors eliminating toil through automation. 10 hours/month of toil is significant, and the automation investment pays back within ~16 months and then provides permanent relief. The long-term value far exceeds the short-term cost.
C
Best answer
Build the automation: eliminating toil permanently is a core SRE principle, and the 4-week investment pays back within approximately 16 months while freeing engineers for higher-value reliability work indefinitely
This is the SRE-aligned answer. Toil elimination is a core SRE value. The math: 10 hours/month saved, 160 hours invested → 16 month payback. But the more important point is that automation eliminates the toil permanently and scales with service growth, while manual toil grows proportionally. SREs should invest in eliminating toil even with moderate payback periods.
D
Distractor review
Hire an additional junior engineer to perform the manual task more efficiently instead of automating
Hiring more people to do toil is the opposite of SRE philosophy. It scales costs proportionally with growth and doesn't address the root cause. SRE explicitly avoids 'throwing people at the problem' when automation is feasible.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Key takeaway
NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
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?
Practice this exam
Start a free GCDL practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this GCDL question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Build the automation: eliminating toil permanently is a core SRE principle, and the 4-week investment pays back within approximately 16 months while freeing engineers for higher-value reliability work indefinitely — In SRE, 'toil' is manual, repetitive, automatable operational work that scales with service growth. The SRE principle is to keep toil below 50% of work time and invest in eliminating it. The math: 20 occurrences × 0.5 hours = 10 engineer-hours of toil per month. 4 weeks of automation ≈ 160 engineer-hours. Break-even at ~16 months. SRE culture strongly favors building the automation because it eliminates the toil permanently and frees engineers for higher-value work.
What should I do if I get this GCDL question wrong?
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related GCDL NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Discussion
Loading comments…
Sign in to join the discussion.
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.