Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A logistics company is deploying a new three-tier application on Google Cloud. The architecture team must choose a managed database for the order-processing tier that provides automatic failover across zones with no application connection string changes, and they must also ensure that the database can scale read traffic independently of writes. (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse asynchronous read replicas with a synchronous high-availability standby, so a replica is mistakenly treated as an automatic failover target.
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 Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL with a regional instance and a high-availability configuration.
A regional Cloud SQL instance with high availability keeps a standby in a second zone and fails over automatically while the application continues using the same connection endpoint. Adding read replicas lets reporting and read-heavy queries run against separate copies, scaling reads independently of writes. Together these two choices meet the failover, connection stability, and read-scaling requirements without over-engineering the deployment.
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 Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL with a regional instance and a high-availability configuration.
Why this is correct
A regional Cloud SQL instance maintains a standby in a second zone and performs automatic failover to it if the primary zone fails, while the application keeps using the same connection endpoint. This satisfies the automatic cross-zone failover and no connection string change requirement, and read replicas can be added separately to offload read traffic.
- ✓
Attach read replicas to the Cloud SQL instance to serve read-heavy reporting queries.
Why this is correct
Cloud SQL read replicas replicate asynchronously from the primary and serve read-only queries, which lets the team scale read traffic independently of the write path. Combined with a regional high-availability primary, this addresses the requirement to scale reads without changing how the application connects for writes, and reporting traffic no longer competes with order processing.
- ✗
Use a Memorystore for Redis instance as the primary order database and persist snapshots to Cloud Storage.
Why it's wrong here
Memorystore for Redis is an in-memory cache, not a durable transactional database for order processing. Persistence snapshots are periodic and can lose recent writes, and the service does not provide the relational integrity or automatic cross-zone failover semantics a three-tier order system requires, so it is unsuitable as the system of record.
- ✗
Use Cloud SQL for MySQL with a single-zone instance and configure a read replica in another zone for failover.
Why it's wrong here
A read replica is an asynchronous copy intended for read scaling, not automatic failover. If the primary zone fails, promoting the replica is a manual operation, it may lose recent transactions, and the application would typically need to be repointed to the new instance, violating both the automatic failover and unchanged connection string requirements.
- ✗
Use Cloud Spanner with a regional configuration and rely on its built-in replication for failover.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Spanner regional configuration does replicate across zones and fails over automatically, but it is designed for globally distributed, horizontally scalable relational workloads and carries a cost and complexity profile that is usually unjustified for a single-region three-tier order system. It is a plausible but heavier choice than the scenario calls for.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cloud SQL and Managed Data Stores
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.
Key term
High availability
High availability is a system design approach that aims to keep applications and services operational and accessible with minimal downtime, even when some components fail.
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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.