Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A company is deploying a critical application on GKE and wants to ensure high availability during node upgrades and failures. Which TWO configurations should they implement? (Choose 2.)
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
✓
Configure a PodDisruptionBudget for the deployment
PodDisruptionBudgets (PDBs) ensure that a minimum number of pods remain available during voluntary disruptions like node upgrades. Multi-zonal node pools distribute pods across zones, protecting against zone failures. Cluster Autoscaler adds nodes when needed but does not directly ensure availability. HPA scales pods but does not handle disruptions. Workload Identity is for authentication, not availability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable Workload Identity for the service account
Why it's wrong here
Workload Identity is used for pod-to-GCP authentication, not for availability.
- ✓
Configure a PodDisruptionBudget for the deployment
Why this is correct
PDB ensures that voluntary disruptions (e.g., upgrades) do not bring all pods down.
- ✓
Create a multi-zonal node pool to spread nodes across multiple zones
Why this is correct
Multi-zonal node pools provide resilience against zone failures.
- ✗
Use a HorizontalPodAutoscaler with high target utilization
Why it's wrong here
HPA scales pods horizontally based on metrics; it does not protect against node failures or upgrades.
- ✗
Enable Cluster Autoscaler on the node pool
Why it's wrong here
Cluster Autoscaler adjusts node count based on resource demands, but does not directly improve availability during disruptions.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Key term
Autoscaler
An Autoscaler is a cloud service that automatically increases or decreases the number of virtual machines (instances) or resources based on real-time demand, so your application always has enough capacity without wasting money on idle servers.
Key term
Zonal
Zonal refers to the practice of grouping computing resources within a single geographic area to improve fault isolation, reduce latency, and meet compliance requirements.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCA question from scratch — 955 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.