Google ACE Planning and configuring a cloud solution Practice Question
This ACE practice question tests your understanding of planning and configuring a cloud solution. Examine the command output carefully: the correct answer depends on what the output actually shows, not on general recall alone. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your application runs on Compute Engine instances behind a regional external HTTP(S) load balancer. Users report intermittent timeouts during periods of high traffic. Health checks show all instances as healthy. Which two configuration parameters should you review first?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "first"
Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Review connection draining and session affinity settings
B is correct because connection draining (drain mode) and session affinity settings directly affect how the load balancer handles in-flight requests and distributes traffic during high load. Connection draining ensures existing connections complete before an instance is removed, preventing abrupt timeouts. Session affinity (sticky sessions) can cause uneven traffic distribution if misconfigured, leading to overloaded instances and intermittent timeouts even when health checks pass.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Check SSL certificate expiration
Why it's wrong here
Would cause persistent failures, not intermittent timeouts.
✓
Review connection draining and session affinity settings
Why this is correct
Connection draining timeouts and session affinity misconfigurations are common causes of intermittent timeouts under load.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Increase instance machine type (size)
Why it's wrong here
Addresses capacity, not timeout behavior.
✗
Enable Cloud CDN
Why it's wrong here
Caches static content but does not affect backend connection timeouts.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that health check status alone guarantees application availability, but candidates must understand that load balancer configuration parameters like connection draining and session affinity can cause timeouts even when all instances are healthy.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Connection draining uses a configurable timeout (default 300 seconds) to allow in-flight requests to complete before an instance is removed from the load balancer's backend service. Session affinity can be set to 'CLIENT_IP', 'GENERATED_COOKIE', or 'HTTP_COOKIE', and if misconfigured (e.g., using CLIENT_IP behind a NAT), it can cause all traffic from a large user base to hash to the same instance, overwhelming it. The regional external HTTP(S) load balancer uses Google's Maglev software-defined load balancing, which relies on consistent hashing for session affinity, and uneven distribution can cause timeouts even when health checks report all instances as healthy.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this ACE question in full detail.
Planning and configuring a cloud solution — This question tests Planning and configuring a cloud solution — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Review connection draining and session affinity settings — B is correct because connection draining (drain mode) and session affinity settings directly affect how the load balancer handles in-flight requests and distributes traffic during high load. Connection draining ensures existing connections complete before an instance is removed, preventing abrupt timeouts. Session affinity (sticky sessions) can cause uneven traffic distribution if misconfigured, leading to overloaded instances and intermittent timeouts even when health checks pass.
What should I do if I get this ACE question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
This ACE 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 ACE exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.