Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A media company streams video from a global user base. The architect must provision a load balancer that terminates TLS, routes requests by URL path to different backend services, and provides a single global anycast IP address. The backend services run on managed instance groups in three regions. Which Google Cloud load balancer should the architect deploy?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the regional and global Application Load Balancer tiers, since both terminate TLS and route by URL path, but only the global tier provides a single anycast IP spanning multiple regions.
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
✓
Global external Application Load Balancer
A single global anycast IP, edge TLS termination, and URL path routing to backends in three regions all point to the global external Application Load Balancer. Its layer 7 proxy architecture inspects HTTP requests and uses URL maps to direct traffic, while the Google front end absorbs TLS and distributes requests across regional managed instance groups without requiring a separate IP per region.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
External passthrough Network Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
An external passthrough Network Load Balancer operates at layer 4 and forwards TCP or UDP traffic without terminating TLS or inspecting HTTP paths. It cannot perform URL path-based routing, and it does not provide a global anycast IP with cross-region backend distribution, so it fails the stated requirements entirely.
- ✗
Regional external Application Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
A regional external Application Load Balancer does perform layer 7 routing and TLS termination, but its IP address and frontend are scoped to a single region. It cannot present one global anycast IP that serves users across three regions, so it does not satisfy the global reach requirement in this scenario.
- ✓
Global external Application Load Balancer
Why this is correct
The global external Application Load Balancer is a layer 7 proxy that terminates TLS at the edge, supports URL map path-based routing to multiple backend services, and exposes a single global anycast IP. Backends in multiple regions are reached through the Google front end, so it matches every stated requirement for this global video workload.
- ✗
Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
An internal TCP/UDP Load Balancer distributes traffic only within a VPC or connected networks and is not reachable from the public internet. It also operates at layer 4, so TLS termination and path-based HTTP routing are unavailable. This makes it unsuitable for serving a global external audience of video viewers.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Migration and Transfer Services
Key term
IP address
An IP address is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
Key term
HTTP
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the set of rules web browsers and servers use to communicate and transfer web pages over the internet.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCA question from scratch — 807 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.