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PDE Practice Question: A data warehouse team uses Cloud BigQuery for…
A data warehouse team uses Cloud BigQuery for analytics. They want to optimize query performance and reduce costs. Which three actions should they take? (Choose 3)
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between automatic reclustering as a passive maintenance feature versus an active optimization action, leading candidates to mistakenly select it as a cost-saving measure when it is actually a built-in behavior that does not require manual intervention.
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
✓
Use partitioned tables on time columns
Partitioning tables on time columns (e.g., DATE, TIMESTAMP) in BigQuery allows the query engine to perform partition pruning, scanning only the relevant partitions instead of the entire table. This directly reduces the amount of data read, lowering query costs and improving performance by limiting I/O to the necessary time range.
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 partitioned tables on time columns
Why this is correct
Partitioning allows queries to skip irrelevant partitions, reducing cost and improving speed.
- ✓
Use clustered tables on frequently filtered columns
Why this is correct
Clustering improves query performance by reducing scanned data.
- ✗
Use automatic reclustering
Why it's wrong here
Automatic reclustering is a default feature, not an explicit optimization action.
- ✓
Use materialized views for aggregations
Why this is correct
Materialized views store precomputed results, reducing query processing time and cost.
- ✗
Use BI Engine for all queries
Why it's wrong here
BI Engine is costly and intended for accelerating TPC-H styled queries, not all queries.
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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.