PDE Ingesting and Processing the Data Practice Question
You need to stream real-time user click events from your application into BigQuery for immediate analysis. The events must be available for query within seconds. Which approach is recommended?
⚠ Common exam trap
PDE often tests the difference between the legacy streaming API and the Storage Write API, and candidates may incorrectly choose the simpler Pub/Sub to BigQuery subscription without considering throughput and exactly-once requirements.
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 Pub/Sub to Dataflow to BigQuery with the Storage Write API for high-throughput streaming.
The recommended approach is to use Pub/Sub to Dataflow to BigQuery with the Storage Write API. Dataflow provides a managed stream processing service that can handle high-throughput, low-latency ingestion, and the Storage Write API offers exactly-once semantics and is optimized for streaming inserts into BigQuery. This combination ensures events are available for query within seconds and scales well.
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 Pub/Sub to Dataflow to BigQuery with the Storage Write API for high-throughput streaming.
Why this is correct
Pub/Sub with Dataflow and the Storage Write API delivers true streaming ingestion, satisfying the seconds-level latency constraint. Dataflow handles windowing and exactly-once processing, while the Storage Write API commits rows directly into BigQuery without the batching delays of load jobs or legacy streaming inserts.
- ✗
Use Cloud Data Fusion to ingest streaming data from Pub/Sub into BigQuery.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Data Fusion is a managed CDAP pipeline tool for batch and micro-batch ETL orchestration, not a low-latency streaming sink; its pipeline scheduling adds latency that breaches the seconds-level requirement. It would suit scheduled batch or CDC replication into BigQuery, where sub-second availability is not needed.
- ✗
Use Cloud Functions to receive events from Pub/Sub and insert them into BigQuery using the legacy streaming API.
Why it's wrong here
The legacy streaming API has been deprecated in favour of the Storage Write API, and per-row Cloud Functions inserts add invocation overhead and cost, so events do not land within seconds reliably. Cloud Functions suits lightweight event-driven glue logic, not sustained high-throughput streaming ingestion.
- ✗
Use Pub/Sub with a BigQuery subscription to directly write events into BigQuery.
Why it's wrong here
Pub/Sub does not have a BigQuery subscription; it can push to a Cloud Function or Dataflow.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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.