Cloud Digital Leader Practice Question: Google Cloud products, services, and solutions
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of google cloud products, services, and solutions. 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 is running a PostgreSQL database on Cloud SQL and needs to ensure high availability with automatic failover in the event of a zone failure. Which configuration should they use?
Enable regional persistent disk and configure a standby instance in a different zone.
Cloud SQL provides regional persistent disk storage that replicates data across zones, and a standby instance automatically fails over if the primary zone fails.
B
Use point-in-time recovery.
Why wrong: PITR is for data recovery to a specific time, not for zone failover.
C
Configure connection pooling.
Why wrong: Connection pooling improves performance, not availability.
D
Set up a cross-region read replica.
Why wrong: Cross-region replicas are for disaster recovery and read scaling, not automatic failover within the same region.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable regional persistent disk and configure a standby instance in a different zone.
Option A is correct because enabling regional persistent disk allows the primary and standby Cloud SQL instances to share the same underlying storage across zones. When a zone failure occurs, the standby instance in a different zone automatically takes over with no data loss, providing high availability with automatic failover.
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 regional persistent disk and configure a standby instance in a different zone.
Why this is correct
Cloud SQL provides regional persistent disk storage that replicates data across zones, and a standby instance automatically fails over if the primary zone fails.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use point-in-time recovery.
Why it's wrong here
PITR is for data recovery to a specific time, not for zone failover.
✗
Configure connection pooling.
Why it's wrong here
Connection pooling improves performance, not availability.
✗
Set up a cross-region read replica.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region replicas are for disaster recovery and read scaling, not automatic failover within the same region.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between high availability (automatic failover within a region) and disaster recovery (manual or cross-region failover), leading candidates to mistakenly choose cross-region read replicas for HA scenarios.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud SQL High Availability (HA) configurations use regional persistent disks that are synchronously replicated between two zones. The standby instance is kept in a warm state, receiving all writes from the primary via synchronous replication. In the event of a zone failure, the standby automatically promotes itself to primary, typically within 60 seconds, with no data loss because the disk is shared and writes are confirmed only after being written to both zones.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this GCDL question in full detail.
Google Cloud products, services, and solutions — This question tests Google Cloud products, services, and solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable regional persistent disk and configure a standby instance in a different zone. — Option A is correct because enabling regional persistent disk allows the primary and standby Cloud SQL instances to share the same underlying storage across zones. When a zone failure occurs, the standby instance in a different zone automatically takes over with no data loss, providing high availability with automatic failover.
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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