PDE Maintaining and Automating Data Workloads Practice Question
You need to schedule a BigQuery query to run every day at 6:00 AM and write the results to a new table. The query is simple and does not require complex dependencies. You want a low-maintenance, serverless solution with minimal configuration. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is over-engineering a simple scheduling requirement by choosing orchestration tools like Cloud Composer or custom code with Cloud Functions, when BigQuery's native scheduling suffices.
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 BigQuery scheduled queries to run the query daily and write to a destination table.
BigQuery scheduled queries are a built-in, serverless feature that lets you schedule SQL queries to run at specified intervals. They require no infrastructure management and can write results to a destination table. For a simple daily query, this is the most straightforward and low-maintenance solution, avoiding the overhead of Cloud Composer, Cloud Functions, or Dataflow.
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 BigQuery scheduled queries to run the query daily and write to a destination table.
Why this is correct
BigQuery scheduled queries are a native, serverless feature that allows you to schedule SQL queries with a specified frequency. They require minimal configuration and no infrastructure management. You can set the schedule, destination table, and even notifications. This is the simplest solution for a single daily query.
- ✗
Deploy a Cloud Function triggered by Cloud Scheduler to execute the query via the BigQuery API.
Why it's wrong here
This approach requires writing and deploying a Cloud Function, setting up Cloud Scheduler, and managing permissions, which is more complex than necessary. While serverless, it involves custom code and multiple services. It is not the lowest-maintenance option for a simple scheduled query.
- ✗
Create a Dataflow pipeline with a scheduled trigger to run the query and write results.
Why it's wrong here
Dataflow is designed for data processing pipelines, not for executing simple SQL queries on a schedule. Using Dataflow would require developing a pipeline, which is excessive for this use case. It is not a low-maintenance or serverless solution for a basic scheduled query.
- ✗
Create a Cloud Composer DAG with a BigQueryInsertJobOperator scheduled with a cron expression.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Composer is a managed Airflow service that provides orchestration but requires managing an environment, which includes costs and maintenance. For a simple daily query, it is overkill and not low-maintenance. While it can schedule the query, it introduces unnecessary complexity compared to serverless options.
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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Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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