Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions →easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions
A company is running analytical queries on large datasets (terabytes) that involve aggregations, joins, and window functions. The data is updated daily via batch loads. The queries must complete in seconds to minutes. Which Google Cloud database service is BEST suited for this workload?
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
✓
BigQuery
BigQuery is a serverless data warehouse designed for large-scale analytics with fast SQL queries. It handles terabytes to petabytes, charges by query usage, and is ideal for OLAP 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.
- ✗
Cloud SQL for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is for OLTP and not designed to handle terabyte-scale analytical queries efficiently.
- ✗
Cloud Spanner
Why it's wrong here
Spanner is for OLTP, not for complex analytical queries on large datasets.
- ✗
Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is for low-latency NoSQL workloads, not analytical SQL queries.
- ✓
BigQuery
Why this is correct
BigQuery is purpose-built for analytics, with fast SQL on large datasets.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.