PDE Storing the Data Practice Question
A company is designing a data lake on Cloud Storage with different zones. They need to enforce data retention so that objects in the 'raw' zone are automatically deleted after 1 year. Which TWO actions should they take? (Choose 2 correct options)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse retention policies (which prevent deletion) with lifecycle rules (which trigger deletion), leading candidates to incorrectly select Option A thinking it enforces deletion rather than preventing it.
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
✓
Configure a Cloud Storage object lifecycle rule with a Delete action
Cloud Storage object lifecycle management allows you to set rules that automatically delete objects after a specified age. By configuring a lifecycle rule with a Delete action and setting the condition to 'Age: 365 days', objects in the 'raw' zone will be automatically removed after 1 year, meeting the retention requirement without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a bucket retention policy with a retention period of 1 year
Why it's wrong here
Retention policy prevents deletion, not enforce it.
- ✓
Configure a Cloud Storage object lifecycle rule with a Delete action
Why this is correct
Lifecycle rules can delete objects automatically based on age.
- ✗
Set an IAM policy to prevent deletion of objects
Why it's wrong here
Opposite of what is needed.
- ✗
Create a Cloud Function to check object age and delete them
Why it's wrong here
A Cloud Function that checks object age and deletes them would require continuous execution to scan all objects, creating latency and cost inefficiencies for a data lake with high-volume ingestion. The correct approach uses Object Lifecycle Management rules, which apply declarative policies directly on the bucket without compute overhead. This option is tempting because Cloud Functions are a common tool for custom event-driven processing, such as transforming or archiving objects upon creation, where lifecycle rules cannot execute arbitrary logic.
- ✓
Apply a lifecycle rule that deletes objects with the prefix 'raw/'
Why this is correct
Targets only objects in the raw zone.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This PDE question is part of Courseiva's 890-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PDE 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 PDE exam.