PCDE Practice Question: Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud
A company runs a critical application on Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL with a 5-minute RPO and 30-minute RTO. They have a cross-region read replica for disaster recovery. During a planned failover test, what is the expected RPO and RTO when promoting the read replica?
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
✓
RPO = replication lag, RTO = minutes
Cross-region read replica promotion has an RPO equal to the replication lag (data not yet replicated) and an RTO of minutes (time to promote and make writable).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
RPO = 0, RTO = less than 1 minute
Why it's wrong here
RPO=0 and RTO<1 min would require a synchronous HA configuration, not a cross-region read replica.
- ✓
RPO = replication lag, RTO = minutes
Why this is correct
Correct: cross-region read replicas are asynchronous, so promotion results in loss of unsynchronized data (RPO = lag) and takes minutes to promote (RTO).
- ✗
RPO = 0, RTO = minutes
Why it's wrong here
RPO=0 is not possible with an asynchronous replica.
- ✗
RPO = backup age, RTO = hours
Why it's wrong here
This describes restore from backup, not read replica promotion.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCDE question from scratch — 1,446 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.