PCDE Plan and manage database infrastructure Practice Question
A gaming company uses Memorystore for Redis to cache player session data. They need to ensure high availability with automatic failover in case of a zone failure. Which configuration should the Database Engineer choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between Basic and Standard tiers in Memorystore for Redis, where candidates mistakenly assume Basic tier offers replication or failover, but it is a single-node configuration with no high availability.
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
✓
Deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones.
Memorystore for Redis Standard tier provides cross-zone replication with automatic failover, ensuring high availability during a zone failure. The Standard tier uses a primary and replica instance in different zones, and if the primary fails, the replica is automatically promoted. This meets the requirement for automatic failover without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones.
Why this is correct
Standard tier provides replication and automatic failover.
- ✗
Deploy a Basic tier Redis instance with multiple read replicas.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier does not support read replicas.
- ✗
Deploy a Memcached cluster with multiple nodes.
Why it's wrong here
Memcached has no replication or failover.
- ✗
Deploy a Basic tier Redis instance in a single zone.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier has no replication or failover.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on PCDE
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Variation 1. A company uses Memorystore for Redis as a cache. They need to survive a zone failure. Which configuration should they choose?
medium- A.Cluster tier with multiple shards
- B.Basic tier with a single node
- C.Standard tier cross-region
- ✓ D.Standard tier with replication
Why D: Standard tier with replication (Option D) provides a primary-replica pair in the same region but across two zones, ensuring automatic failover if one zone fails. This meets the requirement to survive a zone failure while maintaining low-latency access within a single 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.