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Question 364 of 1,000

Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Google PCA Practice Question: Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture

This PCA practice question tests your understanding of designing and planning a cloud solution architecture. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A media company stores raw video files in a Cloud Storage bucket with Standard storage class. The files are accessed frequently for the first 30 days after upload, then rarely after that. Compliance requires retention of all files for 7 years. They want to minimise storage costs while ensuring files are retrievable within 24 hours of a request. Which storage strategy meets these requirements?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "first"
Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.

A
Keep objects in Standard for 7 years and use object versioning to reduce costs.
Why wrong: Standard is most expensive; versioning adds cost, not reduce.
B
Use a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Coldline after 30 days, then to Archive after 1 year, and keep them for 7 years.
Coldline after 30 days (meets 30-day access pattern), then Archive after 1 year (cheapest for long-term with 24-hour retrieval). Compliant.
C
Use a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Nearline after 30 days, then to Coldline after 1 year, and delete after 7 years.
Why wrong: Nearline and Coldline have 30-day and 90-day minimums, but Nearline is more expensive than Coldline for rare access; deletion violates compliance.
D
Use a lifecycle policy to move objects to Archive immediately, as it is the cheapest storage class.
Why wrong: Archive has a 365-day minimum and early deletion fee; frequent access in first 30 days incurs high retrieval costs.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Coldline after 30 days, then to Archive after 1 year, and keep them for 7 years.

Option B is correct because it uses a Cloud Storage lifecycle policy to transition objects from Standard to Coldline after 30 days (when access drops), then to Archive after 1 year, minimizing costs while meeting the 7-year retention requirement. Archive storage is the cheapest option for long-term data, and objects can be retrieved within 24 hours (typical restore time for Archive), satisfying the compliance and retrieval SLA.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Keep objects in Standard for 7 years and use object versioning to reduce costs.
Why it's wrong here
Standard is most expensive; versioning adds cost, not reduce.
✓
Use a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Coldline after 30 days, then to Archive after 1 year, and keep them for 7 years.
Why this is correct
Coldline after 30 days (meets 30-day access pattern), then Archive after 1 year (cheapest for long-term with 24-hour retrieval). Compliant.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Nearline after 30 days, then to Coldline after 1 year, and delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Nearline and Coldline have 30-day and 90-day minimums, but Nearline is more expensive than Coldline for rare access; deletion violates compliance.
✗
Use a lifecycle policy to move objects to Archive immediately, as it is the cheapest storage class.
Why it's wrong here
Archive has a 365-day minimum and early deletion fee; frequent access in first 30 days incurs high retrieval costs.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

A common trap in Google PCA is that candidates assume Archive storage is always the optimal choice for cost savings, but they overlook the retrieval time requirement (24 hours) and the need to match storage class transitions to actual access patterns.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Cloud Storage lifecycle management uses rules based on object age or creation date to transition between classes. The Archive storage class has a default retrieval time of 24 hours (though it can be expedited at extra cost), making it suitable for compliance scenarios where data is rarely accessed. Coldline storage offers a lower-cost option for data accessed less than once a quarter, bridging the gap between Standard and Archive. Note that lifecycle transitions are free for moving to colder classes, but early deletion fees apply if objects are deleted before 90 days (Coldline) or 365 days (Archive).

KKey Concepts to Remember

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.

TExam Day Tips

Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.

Quick reference

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Storage Class	Min Duration	Retrieval	Use Case
S3 Standard	None	Immediate	Frequently accessed data
S3 Standard-IA	30 days	Immediate	Infrequent access, rapid retrieval
S3 One Zone-IA	30 days	Immediate	Non-critical infrequent data
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	None	Immediate–hours	Unknown or changing access patterns
S3 Glacier Instant	90 days	Milliseconds	Archive with instant retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible	90 days	Minutes–hours	Archive, flexible retrieval
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	180 days	Hours	Long-term compliance archive

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this PCA question test?

Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture — This question tests Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Use a lifecycle policy to transition objects to Coldline after 30 days, then to Archive after 1 year, and keep them for 7 years. — Option B is correct because it uses a Cloud Storage lifecycle policy to transition objects from Standard to Coldline after 30 days (when access drops), then to Archive after 1 year, minimizing costs while meeting the 7-year retention requirement. Archive storage is the cheapest option for long-term data, and objects can be retrieved within 24 hours (typical restore time for Archive), satisfying the compliance and retrieval SLA.

What should I do if I get this PCA question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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