Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
A media company stores 400 TB of video assets in a Cloud Storage bucket in the europe-west1 region. Editors in Tokyo and São Paulo complain about slow first-byte times when previewing assets. The architect must improve read latency for these global users while keeping a single canonical copy of each object and avoiding application changes that rewrite object paths. Which approach best meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Cloud Storage location options such as multi-region with actual edge caching, when only Cloud CDN places content near global readers.
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 on a global external Application Load Balancer with a backend bucket pointing at the existing Cloud Storage bucket.
Cloud CDN attached to a global external Application Load Balancer with a backend bucket serves Cloud Storage content from Google's globally distributed edge caches. Readers in Tokyo and São Paulo are answered by a nearby point of presence, improving first-byte latency, while the europe-west1 bucket remains the sole origin and canonical copy. Because requests still use the same object paths through the load balancer, no application rewrite is required.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable Cloud CDN on a global external Application Load Balancer with a backend bucket pointing at the existing Cloud Storage bucket.
Why this is correct
A backend bucket on a global external Application Load Balancer with Cloud CDN caches objects at Google's global edge, so editors in Tokyo and São Paulo fetch from a nearby point of presence. The bucket remains the single canonical source, object paths are unchanged, and no application rewrite is needed.
- ✗
Use Storage Transfer Service to copy objects into regional buckets in asia-northeast1 and southamerica-east1, and update the application to select the closest bucket.
Why it's wrong here
This creates multiple divergent copies rather than one canonical copy, and it forces application changes to choose a bucket per user location. It also adds ongoing transfer and storage cost, whereas the requirement explicitly asks to avoid rewriting object paths and to keep a single source of truth.
- ✗
Change the bucket's default storage class to Standard and enable Autoclass so objects are served from the nearest edge cache.
Why it's wrong here
Autoclass transitions objects between storage classes based on access patterns, but it does not replicate data to other regions or add edge caching. Latency for Tokyo and São Paulo readers would remain tied to the europe-west1 location, so first-byte times would not materially improve for those users.
- ✗
Create a multi-region bucket and migrate the objects, then serve reads from the same object names in the new bucket.
Why it's wrong here
A multi-region bucket replicates data across regions in a geography such as eu or asia, but the existing europe-west1 regional bucket's objects are not automatically served globally, and choosing one multi-region location still may not place copies near both Tokyo and São Paulo. It also requires migration and does not use a single canonical bucket name without path changes.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cloud SQL and Managed Data Stores
Key term
Cloud storage
Cloud storage is a service that lets you save data on remote servers accessed over the internet instead of on your computer's hard drive.
Key term
Cloud CDN
A Cloud CDN is a network of servers spread around the world that stores copies of your website or app content so it loads faster for users no matter where they are.
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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.