Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
You are designing a multi-region deployment for a critical application on GKE. The application must withstand a regional outage and automatically redirect traffic to the healthy region. Which THREE components must be configured? (Choose 3)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is assuming that a regional database like Cloud SQL can be made multi-region or that Cloud NAT provides high availability. Candidates must recognize that true multi-region resilience requires globally distributed data and traffic management.
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
✓
Cloud Spanner
Option A (Cloud Spanner) is correct because it is a globally distributed, strongly consistent, multi-region database with automatic synchronous replication and 99.999% SLA, which lets the application survive a full regional outage without data loss or manual failover. Option B (Global HTTP(S) Load Balancer) is correct because it provides a single global anycast IP, health-check-based backend selection, and automatic traffic redirection to the healthy region when a regional backend fails. Option D (Multi-cluster Ingress) is correct because it is the GKE feature that registers multiple regional GKE clusters as backends of a Global HTTP(S) Load Balancer and performs cross-region failover based on cluster health. Option C (Regional Cloud SQL) is not appropriate because a regional instance is confined to one region and cannot serve traffic after that region fails. Option E (Cloud NAT) is not relevant because it only provides outbound internet access for private GKE nodes and does not contribute to cross-region failover or traffic redirection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Cloud Spanner
Why this is correct
Cloud Spanner provides a globally distributed, strongly consistent database with multi-region replication, so application data survives a full regional outage. Its synchronous replication across regions satisfies the durability constraint that the critical application must keep serving from the healthy region.
- ✓
Global HTTP(S) Load Balancer
Why this is correct
A global HTTP(S) Load Balancer uses a single anycast IP and health-checked backends across regions, automatically steering traffic away from an unhealthy region. This directly satisfies the requirement to redirect traffic to the healthy region without manual intervention.
- ✗
Regional Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Regional Cloud SQL confines its primary and replica to one region, so a regional outage takes the database offline. It is tempting because it offers in-region HA, but surviving a regional failure requires a multi-region database such as Cloud Spanner or Cloud SQL with a cross-region replica.
- ✓
Multi-cluster Ingress
Why this is correct
Multi-cluster Ingress extends the global load balancer to GKE clusters in multiple regions, registering each cluster's pods as backends. It provides the health checking and failover that redirect traffic to the surviving region during a regional outage.
- ✗
Cloud NAT
Why it's wrong here
Cloud NAT supplies outbound internet access for private GKE nodes; it neither balances nor redirects inbound traffic between regions. It is tempting because multi-region clusters need egress, but automatic failover depends on a global external load balancer with health checks, not address translation.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Migration and Transfer Services
Key term
Ingress
Ingress is a Kubernetes API object that manages external access to services within a cluster, typically via HTTP or HTTPS routing rules.
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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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
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