PCSE Practice Question: Managing Operations in a Cloud Solution Environment
A security engineer needs to archive Cloud Audit Logs for regulatory compliance for 7 years. The logs should be immutable and cost-effective. Which solution should they choose?
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
✓
Export logs to Cloud Storage using a sink, and enable Bucket Lock with retention policy.
Cloud Storage with the Archive storage class and retention policy using Bucket Lock provides immutable, low-cost storage for long-term archival. Logging exports can be configured via a sink to write logs to a bucket with these settings. BigQuery is not suitable for long-term archival due to cost; Pub/Sub is for streaming; Cloud Spanner is transactional and expensive.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Export logs to Pub/Sub and store them in a Cloud Spanner table with 7-year TTL.
Why it's wrong here
Spanner is not designed for archival; cost is high and TTL does not enforce immutability.
- ✓
Export logs to Cloud Storage using a sink, and enable Bucket Lock with retention policy.
Why this is correct
This provides immutable, durable, and low-cost archival storage for the required duration.
- ✗
Export logs to BigQuery and set a 7-year table expiration.
Why it's wrong here
BigQuery is for analytics, not cost-effective archival; retention policies do not enforce immutability at row level.
- ✗
Use the default log retention of 400 days and copy logs to a persistent disk snapshot.
Why it's wrong here
Default retention is insufficient, and disk snapshots are not a scalable or auditable log archival solution.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCSE 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 PCSE exam.