PCDOE Practice Question: Applying site reliability engineering practices
During a post-mortem, you identify that an incident was caused by a configuration change that was not reviewed. Which of the following is the most effective preventive action?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between preventive controls (like peer review) and detective controls (like monitoring), leading candidates to mistakenly choose monitoring alerts because they seem proactive, when in fact they only detect failures after they happen.
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
✓
Implement a change management process with mandatory peer review.
A change management process with mandatory peer review directly addresses the root cause: a configuration change was made without oversight. By requiring at least one additional engineer to review and approve changes before implementation, the process catches misconfigurations, policy violations, or unintended side effects before they reach production. This is a preventive control, not a detective or corrective one, and aligns with ITIL best practices for change management.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add more monitoring alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Alerts detect issues but do not prevent them.
- ✓
Implement a change management process with mandatory peer review.
Why this is correct
Peer review catches misconfigurations before deployment.
- ✗
Schedule weekly meetings to review changes.
Why it's wrong here
Weekly reviews are too infrequent to prevent rapid changes.
- ✗
Use a configuration management database (CMDB).
Why it's wrong here
A CMDB tracks configurations but does not enforce review.
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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.