Cloud Digital Leader Scaling with Google Cloud operations Practice Question
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of scaling with google cloud operations. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 runs a web application on Compute Engine instances behind a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization. After a marketing campaign, traffic spikes and the autoscaler adds instances quickly, but the application becomes slow. What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Autoscaler uses CPU utilization but the application is memory-bound
The autoscaler adds instances based on CPU utilization, but if the application is memory-bound, adding more instances does not alleviate memory pressure. Each new instance still runs the same memory-intensive workload, so CPU may remain low while memory is exhausted, causing slowdowns. The autoscaler fails to address the actual bottleneck, leading to poor performance despite scaling out.
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.
✓
Autoscaler uses CPU utilization but the application is memory-bound
Why this is correct
If the application is memory-bound, adding instances based on CPU does not help; the bottleneck remains memory.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Instances are in different zones causing inter-zone latency
Why it's wrong here
Inter-zone latency is usually low and not the primary cause of application slowness.
✗
Autoscaling cooldown period is too short
Why it's wrong here
A short cooldown would cause rapid scaling, not slowness.
✗
Health check interval is too long
Why it's wrong here
Long health check intervals would delay detection of unhealthy instances, not cause slowness after scaling.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume CPU utilization is always the correct metric for scaling, but the question tests the understanding that autoscaling only works well when the chosen metric matches the actual bottleneck of the application.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Compute Engine autoscalers use a target CPU utilization metric (default 0.6 or 60%) to decide when to add or remove instances. However, if the application is memory-bound, memory pressure can cause swapping or OOM kills, which degrade performance without raising CPU. In real-world scenarios, this is common with in-memory caches or databases where scaling on CPU alone is insufficient; using custom metrics like memory usage or request latency would be more appropriate.
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: Autoscaler uses CPU utilization but the application is memory-bound — The autoscaler adds instances based on CPU utilization, but if the application is memory-bound, adding more instances does not alleviate memory pressure. Each new instance still runs the same memory-intensive workload, so CPU may remain low while memory is exhausted, causing slowdowns. The autoscaler fails to address the actual bottleneck, leading to poor performance despite scaling out.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
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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