Cloud Digital Leader Scaling with Google Cloud operations Practice Question
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of scaling with google cloud operations. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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.
A company has a stateful application running on Compute Engine. They want to scale horizontally while preserving state. Which configuration should they use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Managed instance group with stateful configuration.
Option C is correct because a managed instance group (MIG) with stateful configuration preserves instance-specific state (such as disks, hostnames, and metadata) across autohealing and rolling updates. This allows the stateful application to scale horizontally while maintaining its persistent data, as each instance retains its unique state even when the group is resized or instances are recreated.
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.
✗
Use Cloud Run with volumes.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run is stateless; while it can mount volumes, it's not designed for stateful compute scaling.
✗
Unmanaged instance group.
Why it's wrong here
Unmanaged groups require manual scaling and do not support autoscaling or state preservation.
✓
Managed instance group with stateful configuration.
Why this is correct
Stateful MIGs preserve instance names, disks, and metadata, allowing horizontal scaling while maintaining state.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Managed instance group with autoscaling and no stateful configuration.
Why it's wrong here
Without stateful configuration, instances are treated as ephemeral and state is lost on scale-in.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume all managed instance groups automatically preserve state, but without explicit stateful configuration, MIGs treat instances as ephemeral and will delete persistent disks on instance deletion or during rolling updates.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, a stateful MIG uses instance templates with stateful disk configurations (preserved via `stateful-disks` in the API) and stateful metadata, ensuring that when an instance is autohealed or replaced, the original persistent disk is reattached to the new instance. This relies on the Compute Engine API's `setNamedPorts` and `updatePolicy` to maintain instance identity, and it works with regional MIGs for higher availability. A real-world scenario is a legacy database or a game server that requires each instance to retain its own data volume; without stateful configuration, autoscaling would destroy and recreate instances, losing critical state.
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 GCDL question in full detail.
Scaling with Google Cloud operations — This question tests Scaling with Google Cloud operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Managed instance group with stateful configuration. — Option C is correct because a managed instance group (MIG) with stateful configuration preserves instance-specific state (such as disks, hostnames, and metadata) across autohealing and rolling updates. This allows the stateful application to scale horizontally while maintaining its persistent data, as each instance retains its unique state even when the group is resized or instances are recreated.
What should I do if I get this GCDL question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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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