Question 149 of 1,446
PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
Your company runs a global e-commerce platform on Cloud Spanner. You need to capture real-time changes to a table (e.g., orders) and stream them to a downstream analytics pipeline in near real-time. Which TWO Google Cloud features or services should you combine to achieve this? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Cloud Pub/Sub as a required component for streaming, but Cloud Spanner change streams can be read directly by Dataflow without Pub/Sub, making Pub/Sub an unnecessary intermediate step for this specific use case.
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
✓
Dataflow streaming pipeline
A Dataflow streaming pipeline can consume Cloud Spanner change streams in near real-time, process the data (e.g., transform, filter, aggregate), and write it to a downstream analytics system. Dataflow provides exactly-once processing semantics and auto-scaling, making it ideal for continuous change data capture (CDC) pipelines.
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 Functions
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions can be triggered by Pub/Sub but is not the standard approach for change streams.
- ✓
Dataflow streaming pipeline
Why this is correct
Dataflow is the recommended service to read and process Spanner change streams.
- ✗
Cloud Pub/Sub
Why it's wrong here
While Pub/Sub can be used, the primary integration for change streams is with Dataflow.
- ✗
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is a different database; not relevant for Spanner.
- ✓
Cloud Spanner change streams
Why this is correct
Change streams provide the mechanism to capture data changes in Spanner.
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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.
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