Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
A company deploys a microservices application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Pods in one deployment are frequently OOMKilled. The team sets memory requests and limits, but pods still crash. What is the most likely remaining cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse OOMKilled (per-container limit) with node-pressure eviction (node-level memory), or assume that setting requests/limits automatically fixes all memory issues, ignoring application-level bugs like memory leaks.
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
✓
The application has a memory leak that eventually exceeds the limit.
OOMKilled errors occur when a container exceeds its memory limit. Setting memory requests and limits prevents unbounded usage, but if the application has a memory leak, it will continue to consume memory until it hits the configured limit, causing the kernel's Out-Of-Memory (OOM) killer to terminate the pod. The fact that pods still crash after setting limits indicates the application itself is the root cause, not resource configuration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
CPU requests are too low, causing throttling and eventual crash.
Why it's wrong here
CPU throttling does not cause OOMKill; it slows the pod but memory is the issue.
- ✗
The node pool is too small, causing memory pressure on the node.
Why it's wrong here
Node memory pressure can cause pod eviction, but if limits are set, pods are killed due to limit, not node pressure.
- ✗
Memory limits are set higher than the node's allocatable memory.
Why it's wrong here
The scheduler will not place a pod with limits exceeding node capacity, so this would prevent scheduling, not cause crashes.
- ✓
The application has a memory leak that eventually exceeds the limit.
Why this is correct
A memory leak causes continuous memory growth until the limit is hit, resulting in OOMKill.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
Key term
Pod
A pod is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers that share storage, network, and a specification for how to run.
Key term
Google Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a managed Kubernetes service on Google Cloud that lets you deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications without having to operate the underlying cluster control plane.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCA 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 PCA exam.