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PCDE Firestore Practice Question
A company is migrating a monolithic application to a microservices architecture and plans to use multiple Google Cloud databases. The application has the following workloads: (1) user profiles with high read/write concurrency, (2) product catalog with complex queries, (3) session data that requires low-latency access. Which three Google Cloud databases should be used? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Google often tests the misconception that Cloud Bigtable can handle both high concurrency and complex queries, but it is optimized for wide-column storage and simple key-based lookups, not relational queries or low-latency session caching.
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
✓
Firestore
Cloud SQL is correct for the product catalog with complex queries because it is a fully managed relational database that supports standard SQL, enabling complex joins and aggregations. Firestore is correct for user profiles with high read/write concurrency because it is a NoSQL document database that scales horizontally and provides strong consistency. Memorystore (Redis) is correct for session data requiring low-latency access because it is an in-memory cache delivering sub-millisecond response times. Cloud Bigtable is designed for high-throughput time-series or key-value data, not complex queries, and Cloud Spanner is more suited for globally distributed transactional workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Firestore
Why this is correct
Firestore handles high concurrency for user profiles.
- ✓
Cloud SQL
Why this is correct
Cloud SQL supports complex queries for the product catalog.
- ✗
Cloud Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is not ideal for user profiles or product catalog; it's for time-series.
- ✓
Memorystore (Redis)
Why this is correct
Memorystore provides low-latency access for session data.
- ✗
Cloud Spanner
Why it's wrong here
Spanner is for globally distributed transactions; not needed here.
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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.