Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions →easyMultiple SelectObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions
A startup is building an IoT analytics platform that ingests sensor data at high velocity and needs to run real-time dashboards and ad-hoc queries on the data. Which TWO Google Cloud databases should they use together? (Choose 2)
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
✓
Cloud Bigtable
Bigtable is ideal for real-time ingestion and retrieval of sensor data with low latency. BigQuery is used for analytical queries and dashboards. Cloud SQL and Spanner are not optimized for high-velocity IoT ingestion. Firestore is more suited for mobile apps.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Cloud Bigtable
Why this is correct
Handles high write throughput and low-latency reads.
- ✗
Cloud Spanner
Why it's wrong here
Overkill for time-series data; high cost.
- ✓
BigQuery
Why this is correct
Used for analytical queries and dashboards.
- ✗
Firestore
Why it's wrong here
Not suitable for high-throughput time-series data.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Not designed for high-velocity IoT ingestion.
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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.