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PCDE Practice Question: Design innovative, scalable, and highly available cloud database solutions

Which Google Cloud database service is designed for hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) with a built-in columnar engine?

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

AlloyDB for PostgreSQL

AlloyDB for PostgreSQL is a fully managed database with a columnar engine that accelerates analytical queries on transactional data. Cloud Spanner offers an analytics interface, but AlloyDB explicitly mentions a columnar engine for HTAP.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • BigQuery

    Why it's wrong here

    BigQuery is purely analytical, not transactional.

  • Cloud SQL

    Why it's wrong here

    Cloud SQL does not have a built-in columnar engine for HTAP.

  • Cloud Spanner

    Why it's wrong here

    Spanner supports analytics via a separate interface, but lacks a columnar engine like AlloyDB.

  • AlloyDB for PostgreSQL

    Why this is correct

    AlloyDB includes a columnar engine for fast analytical queries on transactional data.

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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.