PDE Storing the Data Practice Question
Which Google Cloud database offers global distribution, strong consistency, and a 99.999% SLA?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates may confuse Firestore's multi-region eventual consistency with the strong consistency required for the 99.999% SLA, or assume Cloud Bigtable's high throughput implies strong consistency. Spanner's external consistency with TrueTime is unique to Google Cloud.
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 Spanner
Cloud Spanner is the only Google Cloud database that provides global distribution (horizontally scaling across regions), strong consistency (external consistency with TrueTime), and a 99.999% SLA. It combines the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale, making it ideal for globally distributed, strongly consistent workloads.
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 Spanner
Why this is correct
Cloud Spanner synchronously replicates across regions using TrueTime, delivering externally consistent reads globally plus a 99.999% availability SLA. Regional Cloud SQL and Firestore cannot match that combination, and Bigtable offers neither strong consistency nor that SLA.
- ✗
Cloud Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable offers high availability but not 99.999% SLA or strong consistency across regions.
- ✗
Firestore
Why it's wrong here
Firestore delivers multi-region replication with eventual consistency in its default mode and a 99.999% SLA only in specific configurations, not strong consistency globally. It tempts as a serverless document store, but Spanner is the database offering global distribution with strong consistency.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL provides regional, not global, distribution and carries a 99.95% SLA, so it cannot meet the 99.999% requirement. It is tempting because Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational service, and would be the right pick for a single-region MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server workload needing routine availability.
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