Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
A startup runs a web application on App Engine standard environment. They want to ensure the application can handle sudden traffic spikes without manual intervention. Which App Engine feature should they configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse 'basic scaling' with 'automatic scaling' because both involve dynamic instance creation, but basic scaling does not maintain idle instances and is unsuitable for handling sudden traffic spikes without latency.
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
✓
Automatic scaling with a maximum number of idle instances.
App Engine's automatic scaling with a maximum number of idle instances is designed to handle sudden traffic spikes by dynamically creating and removing instances based on request load. This configuration allows the application to scale up quickly when traffic increases, ensuring responsiveness without manual intervention, while the maximum idle instances setting prevents over-provisioning and controls costs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Manual scaling with a fixed number of instances.
Why it's wrong here
Manual scaling does not automatically handle spikes.
- ✗
Basic scaling with automatic instance creation.
Why it's wrong here
Basic scaling is for request-based but not ideal for web apps.
- ✗
Resident instances with a minimum number of always-on instances.
Why it's wrong here
Resident instances are always on but do not scale automatically.
- ✗
Custom scaling based on CPU utilization.
Why it's wrong here
Custom scaling is not a built-in App Engine feature.
- ✓
Automatic scaling with a maximum number of idle instances.
Why this is correct
Automatic scaling dynamically creates instances to handle traffic spikes.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Virtual Machine Instances in Compute Engine
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
App Engine
App Engine is a fully managed serverless platform from Google Cloud that lets developers build and deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
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