mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
PDE Practice Question: A Dataflow pipeline is processing a high-volume…
A Dataflow pipeline is processing a high-volume streaming data stream. The job is lagging behind by 30 minutes, and the Dataflow monitoring UI shows high system latency with low CPU utilization. Which action should be taken to improve throughput?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that low CPU utilization always means more workers are needed, but the trap here is that shuffle bottlenecks cause high latency without saturating CPU, so the correct fix is to offload shuffle operations rather than scale workers.
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
✓
Enable Dataflow Shuffle
High system latency with low CPU utilization indicates a bottleneck in data shuffling, not in processing capacity. Enabling Dataflow Shuffle offloads the shuffle operation to Google-managed resources, reducing disk I/O and network overhead, which directly improves throughput in streaming pipelines.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable Streaming Engine
Why it's wrong here
Streaming Engine is for improving streaming data handling, but the issue is shuffle, not streaming throughput.
- ✗
Increase the number of workers
Why it's wrong here
Increasing workers may help if the job is CPU-bound, but here CPU is low, suggesting a shuffle bottleneck.
- ✓
Enable Dataflow Shuffle
Why this is correct
Dataflow Shuffle offloads shuffle operations to a managed service, reducing worker overhead and improving throughput when shuffle is the bottleneck.
- ✗
Disable hot key detection
Why it's wrong here
Disabling hot key detection may allow unbalanced data distribution, worsening performance.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PDE question from scratch — 890 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.