Google ACE Planning and configuring a cloud solution Practice Question
This ACE practice question tests your understanding of planning and configuring a cloud solution. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 company uses BigQuery for analytics. Users frequently run queries against a large, date-partitioned table containing sales data. The table has 10 TB of data and is partitioned by the 'order_date' column. Queries often filter on the 'customer_id' and 'region' columns in addition to the date range. You observe that queries are slow and expensive, even when scanning only a few partitions. Which optimization should you implement 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
✓
Enable clustering on the 'customer_id' and 'region' columns.
Clustering on 'customer_id' and 'region' organizes the data within each partition based on these filter columns, allowing BigQuery to perform block-level pruning and skip irrelevant data even when scanning only a few partitions. This directly addresses the slowness and cost by reducing the amount of data read per query, without requiring additional storage or maintenance overhead.
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.
✓
Enable clustering on the 'customer_id' and 'region' columns.
Why this is correct
Clustering organizes data for efficient filtering, reducing scanned data per query.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create materialized views for common queries.
Why it's wrong here
Beneficial for repeated queries, but not the first optimization for ad-hoc filtering.
✗
Create views for each combination of filters.
Why it's wrong here
Views do not improve query performance; they only provide logical abstraction.
✗
Change partitioning to use ingestion time instead of 'order_date'.
Why it's wrong here
Would change partitioning key; ingestion time partitioning is for append-only data.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that partitioning alone is sufficient for all filter optimization, but the trap here is that clustering is needed to optimize queries that filter on non-partition columns within already-selected partitions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Clustering in BigQuery uses a sort-based algorithm to co-locate rows with similar cluster column values into the same storage blocks, and the metadata tracks the min/max values per block. When a query filters on clustered columns, BigQuery can skip entire blocks that don't match the filter, reducing the bytes billed. This is especially effective for high-cardinality columns like 'customer_id' and 'region' within a date-partitioned table, as it complements partition pruning with finer-grained data skipping.
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
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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: Enable clustering on the 'customer_id' and 'region' columns. — Clustering on 'customer_id' and 'region' organizes the data within each partition based on these filter columns, allowing BigQuery to perform block-level pruning and skip irrelevant data even when scanning only a few partitions. This directly addresses the slowness and cost by reducing the amount of data read per query, without requiring additional storage or maintenance overhead.
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.
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Question Discussion
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