PCDE Instance Health Metrics Practice Question
Which THREE metrics should you set up alerts for to proactively monitor the health of a Cloud SQL for MySQL instance? (Choose 3)
⚠ Common exam trap
Google often tests the distinction between metrics that indicate instance health (e.g., replication lag, CPU utilization, disk usage) versus metrics that indicate performance or throughput (e.g., queries per second, network throughput), leading candidates to select the latter as health indicators.
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
✓
Replication lag (for instances with replicas)
Replication lag (for instances with replicas) is critical because high lag can cause stale reads and data inconsistency. CPU utilization above 80% indicates resource exhaustion, leading to performance degradation. Disk usage must be monitored to prevent storage full conditions that can cause instance downtime. These three metrics directly reflect instance health, whereas queries per second and network throughput are more related to workload performance, not health.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Replication lag (for instances with replicas)
Why this is correct
Replication lag indicates data consistency and is a key health metric for instances with replicas.
- ✗
Number of queries per second
Why it's wrong here
Queries per second measures workload, not health; it can be high without causing issues.
- ✓
CPU utilization > 80%
Why this is correct
CPU utilization above 80% suggests resource pressure and potential performance degradation.
- ✗
Network throughput
Why it's wrong here
Network throughput is a performance metric, not a direct indicator of instance health.
- ✓
Disk usage
Why this is correct
Disk usage must be monitored to avoid full storage, which can cause instance downtime.
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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.