PCDE Practice Question: Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud
A company needs to ensure that their Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance can recover from a zonal failure within 60 seconds with minimal data loss. Which feature should they enable?
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
✓
High availability (HA) configuration
Cloud SQL HA configuration automatically fails over to a standby instance in a different zone within the same region. This failover is automatic and typically completes in under 60 seconds, with near-zero data loss (synchronous replication). Cross-region replicas are manual and have longer RTO. Backups are not suitable for quick recovery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Automated backups with PITR
Why it's wrong here
Backups restore in hours, not seconds.
- ✗
Cross-region read replica
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region read replicas require manual promotion, with RTO in minutes, not seconds.
- ✗
Enable deletion protection
Why it's wrong here
Deletion protection prevents accidental deletion, but does not provide failover.
- ✓
High availability (HA) configuration
Why this is correct
HA provides automatic zonal failover with RTO <60 seconds and near-zero data loss.
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JA
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.