Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
A company runs a stateful application on GKE using StatefulSets. Which THREE practices improve reliability?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that horizontal autoscaling can be based on any arbitrary metric like disk usage, but the HPA only supports CPU, memory, and custom/external metrics that must be exposed through the Metrics Server or a custom metrics adapter.
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
✓
Use headless services.
A headless service (clusterIP: None) allows direct pod-to-pod communication without load balancing, which is essential for stateful applications like databases that require stable network identities. Each pod in a StatefulSet gets a unique DNS name (e.g., pod-0.service.namespace.svc.cluster.local), enabling reliable discovery and ordering for replication, leader election, and failover. This ensures that clients always reach the correct pod instance, improving overall reliability.
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 headless services.
Why this is correct
Provides stable network identities for stateful workloads.
- ✗
Use horizontal autoscaling based on disk usage.
Why it's wrong here
Not a standard practice; scaling stateful workloads is complex.
- ✓
Use volume snapshots for backup.
Why this is correct
Enables data recovery and migration.
- ✓
Use pod disruption budgets.
Why this is correct
Limits the number of pods that can be disrupted simultaneously.
- ✗
Use persistent volumes with reclaim policy Delete.
Why it's wrong here
Deletes volumes on pod deletion, risking data loss.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Load Balancing and Autoscaling
Key term
Service
A service is a software component or system that performs a specific function and is available to be used by other programs or users over a network.
Key term
Pod
A pod is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers that share storage, network, and a specification for how to run.
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.