Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy application to Google Cloud. The application requires a shared file system that can be accessed by multiple Compute Engine instances simultaneously. The file system must be POSIX-compliant, highly available, and scalable. The company wants to minimize management overhead. Which solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that Cloud Storage FUSE or Persistent Disk multi-writer can serve as a POSIX-compliant shared file system, but they have limitations.
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
✓
Filestore
Filestore is a managed NFS file system that provides POSIX-compliant shared storage for Compute Engine instances. It is highly available, scalable, and requires minimal management. Cloud Storage FUSE is not fully POSIX-compliant, Persistent Disk multi-writer is not for shared file systems, and Local SSD is not shared.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Storage with a Cloud Storage FUSE mount
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage FUSE allows mounting a bucket as a file system, but it is not fully POSIX-compliant and has limitations with concurrent writes and file locking. It is not suitable for applications requiring strict POSIX semantics. It also does not provide the performance of a dedicated file system. This option does not meet the POSIX compliance requirement.
- ✓
Filestore
Why this is correct
Filestore is a fully managed, POSIX-compliant file system service that provides shared file storage for Compute Engine instances. It offers high availability and scalability, and requires minimal management overhead. It supports NFSv3 and is ideal for legacy applications that need a shared file system. This meets all requirements.
- ✗
Persistent Disk with multi-writer mode
Why it's wrong here
Persistent Disk multi-writer mode allows a disk to be attached to multiple instances, but it is only supported for read-only or specific use cases and does not provide a shared file system with POSIX semantics. It is not designed for concurrent read-write access. This option fails to provide a scalable, highly available shared file system.
- ✗
Local SSD
Why it's wrong here
Local SSD provides high-performance, ephemeral storage attached to a single instance. It is not shared and does not provide a file system accessible by multiple instances. It is not POSIX-compliant for shared access and data is lost if the instance stops. This option does not meet the shared file system requirement.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
VPC Peering and Shared VPC
Key term
NFS
Network File System (NFS) is a protocol that allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its own local hard drive.
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
About these practice questions
This PCA question is part of Courseiva's 807-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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.