Google PCA Practice Question: Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability
A retail company runs a web application on Compute Engine instances behind an external HTTP(S) load balancer. During a flash sale, the operations team notices that the load balancer is returning HTTP 502 errors for a subset of requests. The backend service health checks are passing, and the instances are not under heavy CPU load. The team wants to identify the root cause quickly and prevent recurrence. Which action should they take first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is jumping to configuration changes like increasing timeouts or enabling CDN without first diagnosing the actual cause of the 502 errors.
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
✓
Review the load balancer's logs in Cloud Logging for HTTP 502 status codes and examine the backend service's health check logs.
The most effective first step is to use Cloud Logging to examine load balancer logs and health check logs. These logs provide detailed information about the 502 errors, including which backend instances are involved and any error messages. By analyzing this data, the team can pinpoint the root cause, such as a misconfigured backend, an application error, or a network issue. Only after identifying the cause should they take corrective action to prevent recurrence.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a Cloud Armor security policy to block traffic from suspicious IP addresses.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Armor can block malicious traffic, but the scenario does not suggest a security attack. The 502 errors are occurring during a flash sale, which is a legitimate traffic spike. Blocking IPs could inadvertently block legitimate customers and does not address the underlying cause of the 502 errors. This action is not appropriate as a first troubleshooting step and could harm the business.
- ✓
Review the load balancer's logs in Cloud Logging for HTTP 502 status codes and examine the backend service's health check logs.
Why this is correct
The first step in troubleshooting is to gather data. Cloud Logging captures load balancer logs that include the status code, backend instance, and error details. By filtering for 502 errors, the team can identify patterns such as a specific instance or a particular request path. Examining health check logs can reveal if health checks are flapping or if instances are being marked unhealthy intermittently. This data-driven approach identifies the root cause before making changes.
- ✗
Enable Cloud CDN on the backend service to cache static content and reduce load on the instances.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN can reduce load by caching content, but the scenario does not indicate that the instances are overloaded. The 502 errors are likely due to a specific issue such as a backend instance crashing or a network problem. Enabling CDN does not address the root cause and may not prevent 502 errors if they are generated by the backend. This action is a performance optimization, not a troubleshooting step.
- ✗
Increase the backend service's timeout setting from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the timeout might reduce 502 errors if the backend is slow to respond, but the scenario states that health checks are passing and CPU load is not high. A timeout increase does not address the root cause and could mask an underlying issue. The first step should be to diagnose the cause of the 502 errors, not to change configuration blindly. Without evidence of timeouts, this action is premature and may not prevent recurrence.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Resource Monitoring and Logging with Cloud Operations
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
Key term
Load balancer
A load balancer is a device or software that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers so no single server gets overwhelmed.
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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.