Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A team is running a GKE cluster with a workload that has variable CPU and memory usage. They want to automatically adjust pod resource requests and limits based on historical usage to improve resource efficiency. Which feature should they use?
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
✓
Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA)
Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) automatically adjusts CPU and memory requests and limits of pods based on historical usage, making it ideal for right-sizing. Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) scales the number of pods based on metrics, but does not modify resource requests. Cluster Autoscaler adjusts the number of nodes. PodDisruptionBudget controls pod disruptions during maintenance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA)
Why this is correct
VPA adjusts CPU and memory requests/limits based on usage, improving resource efficiency.
- ✗
PodDisruptionBudget (PDB)
Why it's wrong here
PDB ensures a minimum number of pods are available during voluntary disruptions, but does not adjust resource requests.
- ✗
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)
Why it's wrong here
HPA scales the number of pods, not the resource requests of individual pods.
- ✗
Cluster Autoscaler
Why it's wrong here
Cluster Autoscaler adjusts the number of nodes in the cluster, not pod resources.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Resource Hierarchy and Organization
Key term
Pod
A pod is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers that share storage, network, and a specification for how to run.
Key term
GKE
GKE is Google's managed Kubernetes service that automates deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications in the cloud.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.