Google PCA Practice Question: Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes
Your company runs a stateful application on Compute Engine instances in a managed instance group. The application requires that each instance maintains a unique identity and persistent storage. You need to ensure that instances can be recreated without data loss and that they retain their identities. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a stateless MIG with shared storage can replace a stateful MIG, but it does not preserve instance identity or provide the same persistence guarantees.
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 stateful managed instance group (MIG) with instance names and persistent disks.
A stateful managed instance group (MIG) preserves instance names, persistent disks, and metadata across recreations, ensuring that each instance retains its identity and data. It is the recommended solution for stateful workloads on Compute Engine. Other options either use ephemeral storage, lack automation, or do not preserve identity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure the MIG to use preemptible instances and attach a local SSD to each instance.
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible instances can be terminated at any time, which is unsuitable for a stateful application that requires persistence. Local SSDs are ephemeral and data is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated. This combination would lead to data loss and does not preserve instance identity. It does not meet the requirements for persistent storage and identity retention.
- ✗
Create a separate unmanaged instance group and manually attach persistent disks to each instance.
Why it's wrong here
An unmanaged instance group does not provide autohealing or managed instance lifecycle. You would need to manually manage instance recreation and disk attachment, which increases operational overhead and risk of data loss. It does not automatically preserve instance names or disks upon recreation. This approach lacks the automation and reliability of a stateful MIG.
- ✗
Use a stateless MIG and store application state in a shared Cloud Storage bucket.
Why it's wrong here
A stateless MIG is designed for instances that do not require persistent local state. Storing state in Cloud Storage may work for some applications, but it does not provide the same performance and consistency as attached persistent disks. It also does not preserve instance identity. This approach requires application redesign and may not meet the requirement for persistent storage per instance.
- ✓
Use a stateful managed instance group (MIG) with instance names and persistent disks.
Why this is correct
A stateful MIG allows you to preserve instance names, persistent disks, and metadata when instances are recreated or restarted. This ensures that each instance maintains its unique identity and persistent storage. It is designed for stateful workloads and supports autohealing and updates without losing state. This directly meets the requirements for identity and data persistence.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Virtual Machine Instances in Compute Engine
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
Key term
Managed instance group
A managed instance group is a collection of identical virtual machine instances that are automatically managed as a single unit to ensure high availability and scalability.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCA question from scratch — 807 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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
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.