Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions
A company is migrating their on-premises Oracle OLTP workload to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. The database currently supports 500 concurrent connections and has a working set of 8 GB. What is the minimum memory required for the Cloud SQL instance based on the max_connections formula (max_connections = RAM_MB/16)?
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
✓
8 GB
Using the formula, RAM = max_connections * 16 = 500 * 16 = 8000 MB = 8 GB. However, this is only for connection overhead; additional memory is needed for buffer pool and working set. The question asks for minimum memory based on the formula alone, so 8 GB is the answer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
16 GB
Why it's wrong here
16 GB would support 1024 connections, which is more than needed but not the minimum.
- ✗
4 GB
Why it's wrong here
4 GB would only support 250 connections.
- ✓
8 GB
Why this is correct
8 GB supports 500 connections by the formula.
- ✗
32 GB
Why it's wrong here
32 GB is excessive for 500 connections.
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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.