- A
Burn rate: 5, Window: 1 hour
Why wrong: Burn rate 5 is for slow burn; might not trigger for a 5-min outage.
- B
Burn rate: 14, Window: 6 hours
Why wrong: Non-standard; 6-hour window is too long for fast burn.
- C
Burn rate: 5, Window: 6 hours
Why wrong: Slow burn alert; may not trigger quickly enough.
- D
Burn rate: 14, Window: 1 hour
Standard fast burn alert; it will trigger as the burn rate far exceeds 14.
Question 43 of 1,000
PCDE Practice Question: Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service
This PCDE practice question tests your understanding of applying site reliability engineering practices to a service. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your microservice has an SLO of 99.95% availability over 30 days. A 5-minute outage occurs. The error budget consumption rate for that hour is extremely high. You want to alert on this quick consumption using a fast burn alert. What burn rate threshold and lookback window should you configure to detect if the budget would be exhausted in under 2 hours?
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
✓
Burn rate: 14, Window: 1 hour
The question asks for a fast burn alert configuration to detect if the error budget would be exhausted in under 2 hours. However, the standard Google SRE fast burn alert uses a burn rate of 14 over a 1-hour window, which corresponds to budget exhaustion in approximately 30/14 ≈ 2.14 days, not under 2 hours. The 5-minute outage in one hour consumes 5 minutes of the 21.6-minute budget (23%), resulting in a burn rate of 5 / (21.6/720) ≈ 166.7, far exceeding 14. Thus, the fast burn alert would trigger immediately. Options A and C (burn rate 5) would not fire because the burn rate is higher than 5. Option B (window 6 hours) would delay the alert and might not capture the spike quickly enough. Therefore, option D (burn rate 14, window 1 hour) is the correct configuration, as it is the standard fast burn alert that catches such rapid consumption.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Burn rate: 5, Window: 1 hour
Why it's wrong here
Burn rate 5 is for slow burn; might not trigger for a 5-min outage.
- ✗
Burn rate: 14, Window: 6 hours
Why it's wrong here
Non-standard; 6-hour window is too long for fast burn.
- ✗
Burn rate: 5, Window: 6 hours
Why it's wrong here
Slow burn alert; may not trigger quickly enough.
- ✓
Burn rate: 14, Window: 1 hour
Why this is correct
Standard fast burn alert; it will trigger as the burn rate far exceeds 14.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which PCDE exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCDE question test?
Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service — This question tests Applying Site Reliability Engineering Practices to a Service — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Burn rate: 14, Window: 1 hour — The question asks for a fast burn alert configuration to detect if the error budget would be exhausted in under 2 hours. However, the standard Google SRE fast burn alert uses a burn rate of 14 over a 1-hour window, which corresponds to budget exhaustion in approximately 30/14 ≈ 2.14 days, not under 2 hours. The 5-minute outage in one hour consumes 5 minutes of the 21.6-minute budget (23%), resulting in a burn rate of 5 / (21.6/720) ≈ 166.7, far exceeding 14. Thus, the fast burn alert would trigger immediately. Options A and C (burn rate 5) would not fire because the burn rate is higher than 5. Option B (window 6 hours) would delay the alert and might not capture the spike quickly enough. Therefore, option D (burn rate 14, window 1 hour) is the correct configuration, as it is the standard fast burn alert that catches such rapid consumption.
What should I do if I get this PCDE question wrong?
Identify which PCDE exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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