PCDE Practice Question: Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud
A Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance needs to achieve a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 1 minute and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 2 minutes in the event of a zone failure. Which disaster recovery strategy should be used?
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
✓
Configure Cloud SQL HA (high availability) with a standby in a different zone.
Cloud SQL HA configuration provides automatic failover to a standby in a different zone within the same region, with RPO near zero and RTO typically under 60 seconds. Cross-region read replicas have RPO equal to replication lag (could be minutes) and RTO of minutes due to manual promotion. Cross-region backup restore has RPO equal to backup age (hours) and RTO of hours. Point-in-time recovery (PITR) is for within-region data recovery, not zone failure 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.
- ✗
Perform regular backups to Cloud Storage and restore in a different zone.
Why it's wrong here
Backup restore has RPO = backup interval (hours) and RTO = hours (restore time). Not acceptable.
- ✗
Enable cross-region replication using a read replica.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region read replicas have RPO = replication lag (could exceed 1 minute during peak) and RTO = minutes (manual promotion). Not best for <2 min RTO.
- ✗
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) with transaction log backups.
Why it's wrong here
PITR is used for recovering to a specific point in time, not for zone failover. It does not provide automatic failover to a different zone.
- ✓
Configure Cloud SQL HA (high availability) with a standby in a different zone.
Why this is correct
Cloud SQL HA provides automatic failover to a standby in a different zone within same region, RPO near zero, RTO <60 seconds, meeting both requirements.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCDE 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 PCDE exam.