Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud
A company uses Cloud Bigtable for real-time analytics. They need to implement disaster recovery across regions with a recovery point objective (RPO) of no more than 5 minutes and recovery time objective (RTO) under 10 minutes. Which approach should they take?
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
✓
Configure Bigtable replication with a secondary cluster in a different region and use Cloud DNS health checks to update routing policy on failover.
Bigtable replication allows creating secondary clusters in different regions. Asynchronous replication has typical lag of a few seconds to minutes, meeting RPO of 5 minutes. For failover, the application's routing policy must be updated to point to the secondary cluster. Cloud DNS health checks can detect primary failure and automatically update routing policy. Backups have RPO equal to backup interval (hours) and RTO of hours. Exporting to Cloud Storage is manual and slow. Using Cloud Spanner is a different service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure Bigtable replication with a secondary cluster in a different region and use Cloud DNS health checks to update routing policy on failover.
Why this is correct
Bigtable replication provides asynchronous replication across regions (RPO seconds to minutes). Cloud DNS with health checks can automate routing to the secondary cluster, achieving RTO <10 minutes.
- ✗
Perform daily exports of Bigtable data to Cloud Storage and import into a new cluster in case of failure.
Why it's wrong here
Daily backups have RPO of up to 24 hours, exceeding 5 minutes. Importing takes hours, exceeding 10-minute RTO.
- ✗
Migrate the workload to Cloud Spanner multi-region for built-in disaster recovery.
Why it's wrong here
Migrating is a major effort and may not be necessary. Bigtable replication already meets requirements.
- ✗
Use Cloud Scheduler to trigger a script that takes a Bigtable snapshot every hour.
Why it's wrong here
Hourly snapshots have RPO of up to 1 hour, exceeding 5 minutes. Restoring from snapshot also takes time, likely exceeding 10-minute RTO.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on PCDE
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A team is designing a disaster recovery strategy for Cloud SQL. They need to be able to recover the database in a different region with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than 30 minutes. What should they configure?
medium- A.Use on-demand backups every 30 minutes and store them in a multi-regional bucket.
- B.Enable binary logging and configure a cross-region replica for PITR.
- ✓ C.Create a cross-region read replica and promote it to standalone during a disaster.
- D.Create automated backups with a retention of 7 days and restore to a new instance in the desired region.
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.