- A
Store session state in memory
Why wrong: Not durable; lost on failure.
- B
Use a global load balancer with health checks
Distributes traffic and fails over.
- C
Use a single zone instance group
Why wrong: Single zone is not HA.
- D
Use persistent disks with regional persistent disks
Replicates data across zones.
- E
Use a managed instance group across multiple zones
Distributes instances across zones.
Question 917 of 1,000
Google PCA Manage implementation of cloud architecture Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage implementation of cloud architecture. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 is designing a highly available architecture for a stateful application on Compute Engine. They need to protect against zonal failures. Which THREE steps should they take?
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
✓
Use a global load balancer with health checks
A global load balancer with health checks distributes traffic across healthy instances in multiple zones, automatically routing requests away from failed zones. This ensures that if a zone fails, traffic is redirected to instances in other zones, maintaining availability for the stateful application.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Store session state in memory
Why it's wrong here
Not durable; lost on failure.
- ✓
Use a global load balancer with health checks
Why this is correct
Distributes traffic and fails over.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use a single zone instance group
Why it's wrong here
Single zone is not HA.
- ✓
Use persistent disks with regional persistent disks
Why this is correct
Replicates data across zones.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Use a managed instance group across multiple zones
Why this is correct
Distributes instances across zones.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
A common misconception is that in-memory session state (Option A) is sufficient for high availability, but it fails because state is lost on instance failure; instead, external session stores (e.g., Cloud Memorystore or Cloud Spanner) are needed for stateful applications on Google Cloud.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Regional persistent disks provide synchronous replication of data across two zones within a region, ensuring data durability and availability even if one zone fails. Managed instance groups (MIGs) across multiple zones automatically heal failed instances and distribute instances evenly, working with the global load balancer to reroute traffic based on health check results (e.g., HTTP 200 responses or TCP connection success).
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.
TExam Day Tips
- 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.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCA question test?
Manage implementation of cloud architecture — This question tests Manage implementation of cloud architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a global load balancer with health checks — A global load balancer with health checks distributes traffic across healthy instances in multiple zones, automatically routing requests away from failed zones. This ensures that if a zone fails, traffic is redirected to instances in other zones, maintaining availability for the stateful application.
What should I do if I get this PCA question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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