Google PCA Practice Question: Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability
Your organization wants to use Cloud SQL for a MySQL database with automatic failover in the event of a zone outage. Which configuration should you choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
PCA often tests the difference between HA (regional instance with standby for automatic failover) and read replicas (for scaling/DR) — candidates pick cross-region replicas thinking they provide automatic failover.
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
✓
Create a regional Cloud SQL instance (high availability) with a primary and standby zone
A regional Cloud SQL instance (high availability) provisions a primary and a standby instance in two zones within the same region, with automatic failover to the standby if the primary zone fails. This is the native Cloud SQL HA configuration for zone-outage resilience. Cross-region read replicas and external replication are for read scaling or DR, not automatic same-region failover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up Cloud SQL with external replication to a VM in another zone
Why it's wrong here
External replication to a VM requires manual promotion and custom failover scripting, so it cannot deliver automatic failover during a zone outage. It suits read scaling or migrations, not the high-availability requirement stated in the scenario.
- ✗
Create a Cloud SQL instance with a cross-region read replica
Why it's wrong here
A cross-region read replica is for disaster recovery and read offloading; it does not provide automatic failover for a zone outage and promotion is manual. It is correct when surviving a whole-region failure, not a single-zone event.
- ✗
Create a single-zone Cloud SQL instance with automatic backups enabled
Why it's wrong here
Automatic backups restore data after corruption or deletion but do not fail over a running instance, so a zone outage still causes downtime. Backups are correct for point-in-time recovery, not for the automatic failover the scenario demands.
- ✓
Create a regional Cloud SQL instance (high availability) with a primary and standby zone
Why this is correct
A regional instance maintains a standby in a different zone within the same region, with synchronous replication and automatic failover. This satisfies the zone-outage requirement, whereas a zonal instance has no standby and cannot fail over automatically.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Resource Hierarchy and Organization
Key term
Organization
An Organization is a top-level container in Google Cloud that represents your company or entities and serves as the root node for all your cloud resources, policies, and access control.
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.
About these practice questions
This PCA question is part of Courseiva's 807-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.