easyMultiple Choice
Google PCA Practice Question: Store archival data that is accessed less than…
A company needs to store archival data that is accessed less than once a year. They want the lowest storage cost possible, but they can accept a retrieval time of up to 24 hours. Which Cloud Storage class should they use?
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
✓
Archive
Archive storage is the lowest-cost storage class for long-term archival with retrieval times in hours (typically 24 hours). Coldline is for data accessed less than once a quarter. Nearline is for monthly access. Standard is for frequently accessed data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Nearline
Why it's wrong here
Nearline suits data accessed less than once a month, not less than once a year, and its retrieval cost and minimum storage duration are lower than the archival tier. It fails the lowest-cost requirement here. Nearline would be correct for monthly backups or data read a few times per year.
- ✓
Archive
Why this is correct
Archive is the coldest Cloud Storage class, priced lowest per gigabyte, and its retrieval latency of hours up to roughly a day fits the acceptable 24-hour window. Nearline and Coldline cost more and retrieve faster than this rarely accessed archival data requires.
- ✗
Standard
Why it's wrong here
Standard has no minimum storage duration and the highest per-gigabyte cost, so it cannot deliver the lowest cost for data accessed less than yearly. It suits frequently accessed, latency-sensitive data where retrieval must be immediate.
- ✗
Coldline
Why it's wrong here
Coldline targets data accessed less than once a quarter, so its per-gigabyte price and minimum storage duration exceed the archival tier required for sub-annual access. It fails the lowest-cost requirement. Coldline would be correct for disaster-recovery copies or data read roughly once every few months.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Billing, Budgets, and Cost Management
Key term
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
Key term
CAN
A CAN (Controller Area Network) is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other without a host computer.
About these practice questions
One of 807 original PCA practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.