Google PCA Practice Question: Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes
A company runs a critical application on Compute Engine with a 1-year commitment for cost savings. They want to also optimize for performance by using machine types with more memory. They plan to update to a different machine series during the commitment term. Which committed use discount type allows this flexibility?
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
✓
Spend-based committed use discount
Spend-based committed use discounts apply to a dollar amount of spend on eligible instance types, allowing flexibility to change machine types as long as the spend commitment is met. Resource-based committed use discounts are tied to specific machine types (e.g., n1-standard-4) and cannot be changed without breaking the commitment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Preemptible discount
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible VMs cannot be used for critical applications due to potential termination.
- ✗
Sustained use discount
Why it's wrong here
Sustained use discounts are automatic and do not require a commitment, but they don't provide the same level of savings as CUDs.
- ✓
Spend-based committed use discount
Why this is correct
Spend-based discounts provide commitment to a dollar amount, allowing flexible selection of machine types as long as the spend is maintained.
- ✗
Resource-based committed use discount
Why it's wrong here
Resource-based discounts are tied to specific machine types and cannot be changed during the term.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Resource Hierarchy and Organization
Key term
Committed use discount
A pricing model where you agree to use a minimum amount of cloud resources for a set term in exchange for lower rates.
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 955-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 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.