hardMultiple Choice
Google PCA Practice Question: A company runs a global SaaS application on…
A company runs a global SaaS application on Google Cloud using Cloud Spanner. They need to ensure disaster recovery with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 5 seconds and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero. Which configuration should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
PCA often tests the confusion between backup/restore features (PITR, automated backups) and true high-availability replication (multi-region Spanner), tricking candidates into selecting a backup option when the question demands zero RPO and near-instant RTO.
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
✓
Deploy Cloud Spanner in a multi-region configuration
Cloud Spanner multi-region configurations synchronously replicate data across regions using Paxos, giving an RPO of zero (no committed data is ever lost) and an RTO of seconds because a regional failure triggers automatic leader re-election without manual intervention. This is the only option that satisfies both the zero-RPO and sub-5-second RTO requirements simultaneously.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy Cloud Spanner in a multi-region configuration
Why this is correct
Multi-region Cloud Spanner synchronously replicates writes across regions using Paxos quorums, so committed data survives a regional failure with zero data loss (RPO 0). Failover to a surviving replica is automatic and typically completes within seconds, satisfying the sub-5-second RTO without manual intervention.
- ✗
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR)
Why it's wrong here
PITR restores Spanner to a past timestamp, so recovery takes minutes and loses recent writes, breaching both the sub-5-second RTO and zero RPO. It is designed for recovering from accidental data corruption or deletion, where a rollback point is the goal rather than uninterrupted availability.
- ✗
Use read replicas in another region
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas serve low-latency reads and can be promoted, but promotion is a manual operation taking minutes, so the sub-5-second RTO fails. They are intended for read scaling and regional read locality, not automatic zero-data-loss failover.
- ✗
Configure automated backups with a 1-hour backup frequency
Why it's wrong here
Hourly backups give an RPO of up to one hour and restore into a new instance, so neither the zero RPO nor the sub-5-second RTO is met. Automated backups suit long-term retention and recovery from logical corruption, not continuous regional failover.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Migration and Transfer Services
Key term
Multi-region
Multi-region refers to a deployment strategy where IT resources, applications, or data are hosted in multiple geographic locations to improve availability, disaster recovery, and performance.
Key term
RPO
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, defining how recent data must be to resume operations after a disruption.
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 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.