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PDE Practice Question: The exhibit shows a Cloud Logging query result

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

```
resource.type="dataflow_step"
resource.labels.job_id="2023-01-01_000000-12345678"
"worker pool exhausted"
```

The exhibit shows a Cloud Logging query result. A data engineer sees this log for a streaming Dataflow job. What is the most likely cause?

⚠ Common exam trap

Google Cloud often tests the distinction between resource quotas and permissions, so the trap here is that candidates confuse a quota limit (which is a hard resource cap) with an IAM permissions issue (which would produce a different error).

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

✓

The job has reached the maximum number of workers allowed by the project quota.

The log shows that the Dataflow job is not scaling up despite pending work. This typically occurs when the job has reached the maximum number of workers allowed by the project quota. Dataflow uses the Compute Engine default worker quota, and if the job attempts to exceed that limit, it will stop scaling and log messages indicating that it cannot add more workers.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • ✗

    The job is experiencing network latency.

    Why it's wrong here

    Would show different error.

  • ✗

    The job is using too much memory per worker.

    Why it's wrong here

    Would show OOM error.

  • ✗

    The job has insufficient permissions to scale.

    Why it's wrong here

    Would show permission error.

  • ✓

    The job has reached the maximum number of workers allowed by the project quota.

    Why this is correct

    Worker pool exhausted indicates quota limit.

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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.