Question 1,221 of 1,446
Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PCDE Practice Question: Manage a solution that can span multiple database technologies
Your team manages a Cloud SQL for MySQL instance used by a critical application. You need to ensure the instance is recoverable to any point within the last 4 days, with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of under 5 minutes. What configuration steps are required?
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
✓
Enable automated backups and binary logging. Set the transaction log retention period to 4 days.
Point-in-time recovery (PITR) in Cloud SQL for MySQL requires both automated backups and binary logging to be enabled. The transaction log retention period (set via transactionLogRetentionDays) determines how far back you can perform PITR, with a maximum of 7 days. Enabling automated backups alone (option A) does not provide PITR because binary logging is needed. Option B is incorrect because automated backups are required for PITR, and binary logging only without backups does not meet the recovery window. Option C with on-demand daily backups cannot provide an RPO under 5 minutes because binary logging captures ongoing changes. Therefore, option D is correct: enable automated backups, binary logging, and set the transaction log retention to 4 days to meet the 4-day recovery window and RPO under 5 minutes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable automated backups and set the backup retention to 4 days. Binary logging is not required because automated backups already capture all changes.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups alone only provide recovery to the time of backup, not point-in-time. Binary logging is required for PITR.
- ✗
Enable binary logging and set the binary log retention to 4 days. Automated backups are optional and not needed for PITR.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups are required as a baseline; binary logs alone cannot restore without a base backup.
- ✗
Create an on-demand backup daily and set binary log retention to 4 days. This provides the same RPO as automated backups with binary logging.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand backups are not incremental and do not integrate with binary logging for continuous recovery.
- ✓
Enable automated backups and binary logging. Set the transaction log retention period to 4 days.
Why this is correct
Automated backups plus binary logging (with appropriate retention) enables PITR with a 4-day window.
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Same concept, more angles
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Variation 1. A database administrator needs to restore a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance to a specific point in time within the last 3 hours. Which configurations must be enabled to perform a point-in-time recovery (PITR)?
easy- A.Automated backups and binary logging
- B.On-demand backups and binary logging
- ✓ C.Automated backups and WAL archiving with a retention period
- D.Automated backups and cross-region replicas
Why C: PITR in Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL requires automated backups enabled and write-ahead log (WAL) archiving with a specified transaction log retention period (1-7 days). Binary logging is for MySQL, not PostgreSQL.
Variation 2. A company runs an e-commerce platform on Cloud SQL for MySQL. They need to comply with a policy that requires database backups to be retained for 365 days. They also need to restore to any point within the last 30 days. How should they configure their backup settings?
medium- A.Use export to Cloud Storage daily and store exports for 365 days
- B.Enable automated backups with retention set to 365 days and enable binary logging for PITR
- C.Enable automated backups with retention set to 365 days and set transaction log retention to 365 days
- ✓ D.Enable automated backups with retention set to 30 days and create on-demand backups daily to cover the 365-day retention
Why D: Cloud SQL supports automated backups and point-in-time recovery (PITR) using binary logs. The maximum automated backup count is 365, and you can set the transaction log retention for PITR up to 35 days. For 365-day retention, you need to use on-demand backups (snapshots) which can be retained indefinitely. For PITR within 30 days, enable automated backups and binary logging with a log retention of 30 days.
Variation 3. A company is using Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL and needs to perform point-in-time recovery (PITR) to recover from a logical error that occurred 30 minutes ago. They have already configured automated backups. What additional configuration is required?
medium- A.Create a cross-region backup replica to enable PITR.
- ✓ B.Set the 'transaction log retention' to a value between 1 and 7 days.
- C.Enable binary logging on the instance.
- D.Increase the storage size to accommodate logs.
Why B: Cloud SQL PITR requires write-ahead log (WAL) archiving, which is enabled by setting the 'transaction log retention' in days (1-7). Automated backups alone do not capture continuous transaction logs.
Variation 4. A company wants to ensure point-in-time recovery for their PostgreSQL database on Cloud SQL. What must they enable?
easy- A.Query insights
- ✓ B.Automatic backups
- C.Write-ahead logging (WAL) archiving
- D.Binary logging
Why B: Automatic backups in Cloud SQL enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) by maintaining transaction logs that allow you to restore the database to any specific time within the backup retention period. Without automatic backups enabled, Cloud SQL only supports restoring from a full backup snapshot, which does not provide the granularity needed for PITR.
Variation 5. A retail company uses Cloud SQL for MySQL with point-in-time recovery (PITR) enabled. They need to recover the database to a specific second from 2 days ago. The backup retention is set to 7 days. Which action should the engineer take to perform the recovery?
medium- ✓ A.Use gcloud sql instances restore-backup with the --point-in-time flag and specify the timestamp, restoring to a new instance.
- B.Use mysqldump to export the binary logs and replay them from the backup.
- C.Use gcloud sql instances restore-backup with the --async flag and specify the timestamp.
- D.Create an on-demand backup from the source instance and restore that backup to a new instance.
Why A: Point-in-time recovery (PITR) in Cloud SQL uses binary logs to recover to any time within the configured retention period. The engineer can restore to a new instance using gcloud sql instances restore-backup with the --point-in-time flag and specify the exact timestamp. Restoring to the same instance is not supported; only to a new instance. The --async flag is optional but not required. The recovery is not limited to full backups; binary logs allow precise time recovery.
Variation 6. Which TWO actions are required to set up point-in-time recovery (PITR) for Cloud SQL for MySQL? (Choose 2)
medium- ✓ A.Enable binary logging.
- B.Set the 'log_bin' flag to ON in the database flags.
- C.Create a read replica in a different region.
- D.Configure a cross-region backup replica.
- ✓ E.Enable automated backups with a retention period between 1 and 7 days.
Variation 7. A company is running a production Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance and wants to implement point-in-time recovery (PITR) with a 7-day retention window. They also need to ensure that automated backups are taken daily. Which two configurations must be enabled? (Choose TWO.)
medium- ✓ A.Set the database flag 'archive_mode' to 'on' for WAL archiving
- B.Enable binary logging by setting 'log_bin' flag
- ✓ C.Configure automated backups via Cloud SQL backup settings
- D.Create a cross-region backup replica
- E.Set the backup retention to 7 days using gcloud sql instances patch --backup-start-time
Why A: PITR requires WAL archiving, which is enabled by setting the 'archive_mode' to 'on' (or 'always') in the database flags. Automated backups are scheduled via the backup configuration in Cloud SQL. The retention period for PITR is set separately under backup settings.
Variation 8. A company is running a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance for an e-commerce application. They need to enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) with a 7-day retention period. What configuration steps must be taken?
medium- A.Create a cross-region backup replica with a 7-day retention.
- ✓ B.Enable WAL archiving and configure backup retention to 7 days using gcloud sql instances patch --backup-retention-days 7.
- C.Enable binary logging and set backup retention to 7 days.
- D.Enable automated backups with a 7-day retention; WAL archiving is automatic.
Why B: Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL uses Write-Ahead Log (WAL) archiving to enable point-in-time recovery (PITR). You must enable automated backups (which automatically enables WAL archiving) and then set the backup retention period to 7 days using the `gcloud sql instances patch --backup-retention-days 7` command. This ensures that WAL logs are retained for the specified duration, allowing PITR within that window.
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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