Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
You are deploying a stateless web application on Compute Engine. Which TWO actions improve availability? (Choose 2)
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between cost optimization (committed use contracts, preemptible VMs) and availability improvements, leading candidates to mistakenly choose financial commitments or caching services as availability solutions.
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
✓
Use a regional managed instance group.
A regional managed instance group (MIG) distributes instances across multiple zones within a region, ensuring that if one zone fails, traffic is automatically routed to healthy instances in other zones. This provides high availability by eliminating a single zone of failure, which is critical for stateless web applications that can serve requests from any instance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use a regional managed instance group.
Why this is correct
Regional MIGs spread instances across zones; if one zone fails, other zones continue serving.
- ✗
Enable Cloud CDN for the static content.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN improves latency for static content but does not help with compute instance availability.
- ✗
Purchase 1-year committed use contracts for the instances.
Why it's wrong here
Committed use does not affect availability; it provides discounts.
- ✓
Enable automatic restart on the instance template.
Why this is correct
Auto restart recreates instances that crash due to hardware failure.
- ✗
Use preemptible VMs to reduce cost.
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible VMs can be terminated by Google at any time, reducing reliability.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Compute Options Overview
Key term
High availability
High availability is a system design approach that aims to keep applications and services operational and accessible with minimal downtime, even when some components fail.
Key term
Regional
Regional refers to a deployment strategy where cloud resources are distributed across multiple geographic areas to improve availability, reduce latency, and meet compliance requirements.
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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.