hardMultiple Choice
Google PCA Practice Question: A financial services company needs a globally…
A financial services company needs a globally distributed relational database that supports strong consistency across regions, with multi-region writes and sub-10ms latency for most queries. The database must also support SQL and ACID transactions. Which database should they choose?
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
✓
Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is the only Google Cloud database that offers global distribution, strong consistency, multi-region writes, SQL support, and ACID transactions. Cloud SQL is single-region. Bigtable is NoSQL and does not support SQL or ACID. Firestore is NoSQL with limited transactional support.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is regional, single-primary PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQL Server, so it cannot serve multi-region writes or sub-10ms global reads; cross-region replicas are read-only and asynchronous. It is tempting because it offers SQL and ACID transactions, which would suit a single-region transactional workload.
- ✗
Firestore
Why it's wrong here
Firestore provides multi-region strong consistency and ACID transactions, but its API is NoSQL document-based rather than relational SQL, so it fails the SQL requirement. It is tempting because it genuinely delivers global distribution with strong consistency, which would fit a document-oriented application.
- ✗
Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is a wide-column NoSQL store offering neither SQL nor multi-row ACID transactions, so it fails both relational requirements despite scaling globally with low latency. It is tempting because its global replication and sub-10ms reads suit high-throughput analytical or time-series workloads, not relational ones.
- ✓
Cloud Spanner
Why this is correct
Cloud Spanner is the only Google Cloud relational database offering synchronous, externally consistent multi-region writes with automatic replication, satisfying the strong consistency and multi-region write constraints. Its TrueTime-based commit timestamps deliver ACID transactions and SQL, while globally distributed reads typically return in single-digit milliseconds.
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Data Migration and Transfer Services
Key term
Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is a fully managed, globally distributed relational database service from Google Cloud that combines the benefits of relational database structure with horizontal scalability and strong consistency.
Key term
Firestore
Firestore is a flexible, scalable, serverless NoSQL database from Google Cloud that automatically syncs data across applications in real time.
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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.