- A
Configure a 'canary' strategy with a single phase of 10% and rely on external traffic management
Why wrong: A single phase only deploys 10% without proceeding to 100%. Manual approval must be part of the pipeline to promote.
- B
Define a 'canary' strategy with a first phase of 10% and a second phase of 90% with an approval gate
Canary strategy in Cloud Deploy allows multiple phases. An approval gate can be placed before proceeding to the next phase.
- C
Set the rollout strategy to 'standard' and use skaffold.yaml for traffic splitting
Why wrong: Standard strategy deploys all at once; skaffold.yaml does not manage Cloud Deploy phases.
- D
Use a 'blueGreen' strategy with a 10% preview phase
Why wrong: Blue/green strategy switches all traffic at once, not canary percentages.
PCDE Practice Question: Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service
This PCDE practice question tests your understanding of building and implementing ci/cd pipelines for a service. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses Cloud Deploy to manage deployments to multiple GKE clusters across environments. They want to implement a canary deployment strategy where 10% of traffic goes to the new version initially, and after manual approval, the remaining 90% rolls out. What should be included in the delivery pipeline configuration?
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
Define a 'canary' strategy with a first phase of 10% and a second phase of 90% with an approval gate
Option B is correct because Cloud Deploy's 'canary' strategy allows defining multiple phases with incremental traffic percentages, and an approval gate can be inserted between phases to require manual sign-off before proceeding. This directly matches the requirement: a first phase sending 10% traffic to the new version, then a manual approval, followed by a second phase rolling out the remaining 90%.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 a 'canary' strategy with a single phase of 10% and rely on external traffic management
Why it's wrong here
A single phase only deploys 10% without proceeding to 100%. Manual approval must be part of the pipeline to promote.
- ✓
Define a 'canary' strategy with a first phase of 10% and a second phase of 90% with an approval gate
Why this is correct
Canary strategy in Cloud Deploy allows multiple phases. An approval gate can be placed before proceeding to the next phase.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Set the rollout strategy to 'standard' and use skaffold.yaml for traffic splitting
Why it's wrong here
Standard strategy deploys all at once; skaffold.yaml does not manage Cloud Deploy phases.
- ✗
Use a 'blueGreen' strategy with a 10% preview phase
Why it's wrong here
Blue/green strategy switches all traffic at once, not canary percentages.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse the 'canary' strategy with a single-phase deployment or mistakenly think 'standard' or 'blueGreen' strategies can achieve incremental traffic splitting with manual approval, when only a multi-phase canary with an approval gate satisfies the requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud Deploy's canary strategy leverages Kubernetes Service mesh or ingress controllers (e.g., Istio, GKE Ingress) to split traffic at the network level using percentage-based weights. The approval gate is implemented as a Cloud Deploy 'approval' resource that pauses the rollout pipeline until a user manually approves via the Cloud Console or gcloud command, ensuring the 90% phase only proceeds after validation.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All PCDE questions
1,000 questions across all exam domains
- →
Google Professional Cloud Database Engineer study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
PCDE practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related PCDE practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service.
Bootstrapping a Google Cloud Organisation for DevOps practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Bootstrapping a Google Cloud Organisation for DevOps.
Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service.
Implementing Service Monitoring Strategies practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Implementing Service Monitoring Strategies.
Optimising Service Performance practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Optimising Service Performance.
Plan and manage database infrastructure practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Plan and manage database infrastructure.
Define data structures and implement SQL for Business Intelligence practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Define data structures and implement SQL for Business Intelligence.
Design and implement database schemas practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Design and implement database schemas.
Monitor and optimize database performance practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to Monitor and optimize database performance.
PCDE fundamentals practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to PCDE fundamentals.
PCDE scenario practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to PCDE scenario.
PCDE troubleshooting practice questions
Practise PCDE questions linked to PCDE troubleshooting.
Practice this exam
Start a free PCDE practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCDE question test?
Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service — This question tests Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Define a 'canary' strategy with a first phase of 10% and a second phase of 90% with an approval gate — Option B is correct because Cloud Deploy's 'canary' strategy allows defining multiple phases with incremental traffic percentages, and an approval gate can be inserted between phases to require manual sign-off before proceeding. This directly matches the requirement: a first phase sending 10% traffic to the new version, then a manual approval, followed by a second phase rolling out the remaining 90%.
What should I do if I get this PCDE question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Keep practising
More PCDE practice questions
- A company stores sensor data in BigQuery. They have a table 'sensor_readings' with columns: sensor_id, reading_time, val…
- Which THREE are valid considerations when designing BigQuery tables for BI reporting?
- A company uses Cloud Build to build Docker images. They want to cache intermediate layers to speed up subsequent builds.…
- A company is adopting GitOps for their GKE clusters using Config Sync. They need to meet the following requirements: (1)…
- A team is migrating an on-premises PostgreSQL database to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. The existing schema uses a large num…
- A DevOps engineer is setting up Docker credential helper for Artifact Registry on a Cloud Build worker. They want the bu…
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.