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Google PCA Practice Question: Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability

An engineer needs to troubleshoot a production issue on a Compute Engine instance. They suspect the instance is running out of memory. Which THREE actions should they take to diagnose the problem? (Choose THREE.)

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

SSH into the instance and run 'free -m' to check memory usage

Common troubleshooting involves checking instance metrics (Cloud Monitoring), analyzing logs (Cloud Logging), and connecting to the instance to run commands.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

  • SSH into the instance and run 'free -m' to check memory usage

    Why this is correct

    Running commands directly on the instance gives real-time memory usage.

  • Check Cloud Logging for OOM (out-of-memory) kernel messages

    Why this is correct

    OOM messages are logged in Cloud Logging and can confirm memory exhaustion.

  • Increase the instance's memory by changing the machine type

    Why it's wrong here

    Changing the machine type is a fix, not a diagnostic action.

  • Create a snapshot of the boot disk

    Why it's wrong here

    Snapshot is for backup, not troubleshooting memory issues.

  • View the instance's memory utilization metric in Cloud Monitoring

    Why this is correct

    Cloud Monitoring provides memory utilization metrics for Compute Engine.

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JA

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.