easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PDE Practice Question: Process real-time clickstream data and store it…
A company needs to process real-time clickstream data and store it in a data warehouse for SQL-based analytics. The data volume is moderate. Which combination of Google Cloud services is most cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that Cloud Storage is a suitable destination for analytics-ready data, but it lacks native SQL querying, forcing candidates to overlook BigQuery's direct integration with Dataflow for real-time analytics.
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
✓
Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataflow, BigQuery
Cloud Pub/Sub ingests real-time clickstream data, Cloud Dataflow processes it with low latency, and BigQuery provides a serverless, SQL-based data warehouse that is cost-effective for moderate data volumes due to its pay-per-query pricing and automatic scaling. This combination avoids the overhead of managing clusters (Dataproc) or expensive storage (Cloud Spanner) while directly supporting SQL analytics.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataproc, Cloud Storage
Why it's wrong here
Dataproc overhead.
- ✗
Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud Spanner
Why it's wrong here
Spanner expensive for analytics.
- ✓
Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataflow, BigQuery
Why this is correct
Best for real-time SQL analytics.
- ✗
Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud Storage
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage not SQL-queryable.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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