Google PCA Design and plan a cloud solution architecture Practice Question
A company hosts a web application on Compute Engine behind a global HTTP(S) load balancer. They notice that some users experience high latency from certain regions. They want to improve performance without adding complexity. What should they do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse network optimization (Premium Tier) with content caching (CDN), assuming that faster routing alone solves geographic latency, but only caching eliminates the need for long-distance round trips.
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
✓
Enable Cloud CDN
Enabling Cloud CDN caches content at Google's globally distributed edge caches, reducing latency for users in regions far from the origin Compute Engine instances. This directly addresses the high-latency issue without adding complexity, as it requires no changes to the application architecture and is a simple configuration toggle on the load balancer backend bucket or backend service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add more instances in the same region
Why it's wrong here
Adding instances in the same region only scales capacity there; it cannot reduce latency for users in distant regions, because traffic still traverses the same network path to that region. Regional managed instance groups suit horizontal scaling for capacity or availability, not global latency reduction.
- ✗
Use Premium Tier networking
Why it's wrong here
Premium Tier already carries traffic on Google's global backbone, so it cannot address latency caused by users being far from the backend. It is tempting because it improves routing quality, and it would be correct when traffic currently uses Standard Tier rather than an already-premium global load balancer.
- ✗
Enable Cloud Armor
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Armor provides WAF and DDoS filtering at the edge; it does not reduce latency for distant regions. It is tempting because it attaches to the same load balancer, and it would be correct when the requirement is blocking malicious traffic rather than improving regional response times.
- ✓
Enable Cloud CDN
Why this is correct
Cloud CDN caches content at Google's globally distributed edge points of presence, so users in distant regions fetch objects from a nearby cache rather than the origin. This reduces latency without adding architectural complexity, satisfying the stem's constraint.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
IAM Policies, Service Accounts, and Auditing
Key term
Service
A service is a software component or system that performs a specific function and is available to be used by other programs or users over a network.
Key term
HTTP(S) Load Balancer
A network device or software that distributes incoming web traffic across multiple servers using HTTP or HTTPS protocols to ensure high availability, reliability, and performance.
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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.