Google PCA Practice Question: Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes
A company runs batch analytics workloads on Compute Engine that can tolerate interruptions. They want to reduce compute costs by up to 60-90%. Which compute option is the most cost-effective?
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
✓
Preemptible VMs
Preemptible VMs offer significant discounts (60-90%) for interruptible workloads. Spot VMs are the newer equivalent with same discounts but no max runtime limit.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
On-demand VMs
Why it's wrong here
On-demand is the most expensive option, with no discounts.
- ✗
Committed use discounts (1-year)
Why it's wrong here
CUDs offer up to 57% discount but require a 1-year commitment; preemptible/spot offers higher discounts for interruptible workloads.
- ✓
Preemptible VMs
Why this is correct
Preemptible VMs provide up to 90% discount and are suitable for batch workloads that can be interrupted.
- ✗
Sustained use discounts
Why it's wrong here
Sustained use discounts are automatic for running instances over 25% of a month, but max out at 30% — far less than 60-90%.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Compute Options Overview
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.
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.
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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.