mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCD Practice Question: A team wants to monitor custom application…
A team wants to monitor custom application metrics from a Compute Engine instance. They use the Cloud Monitoring agent. Which metric type should they use to report a gauge measurement like current memory usage?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between metric types by presenting a scenario where a value can go up or down, and candidates mistakenly choose cumulative because they associate it with 'total usage' over time, forgetting that cumulative metrics must be monotonically increasing.
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
✓
gauge
A gauge metric type is specifically designed to report a value that can arbitrarily increase or decrease over time, such as current memory usage. The Cloud Monitoring agent supports gauge metrics for point-in-time measurements, and they are reported as a single data point without any aggregation window, making them ideal for snapshot-like observations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
histogram
Why it's wrong here
Histogram records distribution of values.
- ✗
delta
Why it's wrong here
Delta reports changes between time intervals.
- ✗
cumulative
Why it's wrong here
Cumulative tracks increasing totals.
- ✓
gauge
Why this is correct
Gauge metric type reports instantaneous values.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This PCD question is part of Courseiva's 964-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 by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCD 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 PCD exam.