PCDOE Implementing service monitoring strategies Practice Question
An alerting policy for high CPU utilization on a VM is firing even when CPU is not high. The team suspects a misconfiguration. Which two possible issues should they check? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that a low threshold (Option B) is the cause of false positives, but the real issue is the alignment period and aggregation settings that amplify transient spikes, not the threshold value itself.
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
✓
The alert condition is using the average aggregation with a short alignment period.
Using a short alignment period with average aggregation can cause the alert to fire on brief spikes in CPU utilization that do not represent sustained high usage. If the alignment period is too short (e.g., 1 minute), the alerting policy may trigger on transient bursts, even when the overall CPU load is low. This is a common misconfiguration in Google Cloud Monitoring (formerly Stackdriver) where the alignment period and aggregator settings must match the expected workload pattern.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The alert condition is using the average aggregation with a short alignment period.
Why this is correct
A short alignment period makes the alert sensitive to brief spikes, causing false positives.
- ✗
The threshold is set too low compared to actual CPU usage.
Why it's wrong here
A low threshold would cause alerts when CPU is genuinely high, not false positives.
- ✓
The metric is being duplicated because multiple agents are running.
Why this is correct
Duplicate metrics can cause the aggregate CPU metric to exceed the threshold even if real usage is low.
- ✗
The alerting policy was created in a different project and not imported.
Why it's wrong here
Policies are per project; cross-project imports are not automatic but do not cause false positives.
- ✗
The VM is reporting metrics from a custom namespace instead of the standard agent.
Why it's wrong here
Custom namespace would not affect standard CPU alerts; it would be a different metric.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCDOE 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 PCDOE exam.