PCNE Configuring Network Services Practice Question
An e-commerce website uses Cloud CDN to cache static content. The origin is an external HTTP load balancer. What is the benefit of enabling Cloud CDN in this scenario?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that CDN replaces security features like SSL or DDoS protection, but the trap here is that candidates confuse caching benefits with infrastructure scaling or security capabilities.
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
✓
It reduces latency by serving content from edge locations.
Cloud CDN caches content at Google's global edge locations, which are geographically closer to end users. By serving static content from these edge caches instead of the origin HTTP load balancer, the request latency is significantly reduced because the data travels a shorter distance over the network.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It eliminates the need for SSL certificates.
Why it's wrong here
SSL is still needed between CDN and clients, and between CDN and origin.
- ✗
It provides DDoS protection only.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN provides some DDoS protection, but the main benefit is latency reduction; Cloud Armor is for advanced DDoS protection.
- ✗
It increases compute instance capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN does not increase compute capacity; it offloads requests from origin.
- ✓
It reduces latency by serving content from edge locations.
Why this is correct
Content is cached at edges closer to users, reducing round-trip time.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNE 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 PCNE exam.