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Google PCA Practice Question: A company runs a latency-sensitive web…
A company runs a latency-sensitive web application on Compute Engine with a managed instance group (MIG) behind an HTTP load balancer. They want to reduce latency for users in Europe and Asia. Which THREE actions should they take?
⚠ Common exam trap
PCA often tests the distinction between regional and global load balancers — candidates pick regional LBs thinking 'closer to users,' but only a global external HTTP(S) LB with multi-region backends actually routes users to the nearest region.
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
✓
Enable Cloud CDN to cache static content
Option B is correct because enabling Cloud CDN on the HTTP(S) load balancer caches static content at Google's globally distributed edge points of presence, serving users in Europe and Asia from nearby locations and reducing round-trip latency. Option C is correct because a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer uses a single global anycast IP and routes each user to the closest healthy backend region, which is the standard architecture for lowering latency for a geographically dispersed audience. Option E is correct because deploying managed instance groups in multiple regions such as europe-west1 and asia-east1 places application capacity close to European and Asian users, so requests terminate in-region instead of crossing the globe. Option A is not appropriate because separate regional external load balancers would fragment traffic across multiple IPs and lack the global anycast routing and single-IP simplicity of a global load balancer. Option D is not appropriate because preemptible VMs are a cost optimization, not a latency optimization, and their preemption can hurt the availability of a latency-sensitive application.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a regional external load balancer for each region
Why it's wrong here
A regional external load balancer distributes traffic only within a single Google Cloud region, so deploying one per region would not provide a single anycast IP address that routes users to the nearest healthy backend. The scenario requires global latency reduction across Europe and Asia, which demands a global external load balancer with anycast frontend IPs. This option is tempting because regional load balancers are the correct choice when all users are concentrated in one region and cross-region failover is unnecessary.
- ✓
Enable Cloud CDN to cache static content
Why this is correct
Cloud CDN caches static assets at Google's edge points of presence, so European and Asian users fetch content from nearby locations rather than the origin MIG. This directly reduces round-trip latency for cacheable content, satisfying the stem's requirement to cut latency for those user regions.
- ✓
Use a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer
Why this is correct
A global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer uses Google's premium-tier network to terminate TCP connections at the edge closest to each user, then forwards traffic over Google's backbone. This directly satisfies the latency-reduction constraint for European and Asian users, rather than backhauling them to a single regional entry point.
- ✗
Use preemptible VMs to reduce costs in non-primary regions
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible VMs can be terminated, risking latency-sensitive workload.
- ✓
Deploy managed instance groups in multiple regions (e.g., europe-west1, asia-east1)
Why this is correct
Multi-region deployment reduces distance to users.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Compute Options Overview
Key term
IPS
An Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is a network security device that monitors traffic in real time and automatically blocks threats before they reach your systems.
Key term
Global load balancer
A global load balancer distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers located in different geographic regions to improve performance, reliability, and availability.
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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.