Question 1easymultiple choice
Full question →Question 266 of 300
easymultiple choiceObjective-mapped
GCDL Practice Question: What does 'high availability' mean in the context…
This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of what does 'high availability' mean in the context…. 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.
What does 'high availability' mean in the context of cloud services, and how is it typically measured?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Best answer
High availability means a system is operational for a very high percentage of time, typically measured as a percentage (e.g., 99.9% uptime).
HA is quantified as an uptime percentage over a period. 99.9% = ~8.7 hours downtime/year; 99.99% = ~53 minutes/year. Achieved through redundancy and automatic failover.
B
Distractor review
High availability requires manual intervention to restart failed services within 30 minutes.
HA implies automated recovery, not manual intervention. Requiring humans to restart services would result in outages far exceeding HA thresholds like 99.9% (which allows only ~43 minutes/month).
C
Distractor review
High availability means a system is fast — it responds to requests in under 100 milliseconds.
Response latency measures performance, not availability. High availability is about uptime — the percentage of time the system is operational and accessible, not how fast it responds.
D
Distractor review
High availability means a system stores data in multiple geographic locations for disaster recovery.
Geographic redundancy supports disaster recovery and some forms of HA, but HA is specifically about operational uptime percentage — not solely about where data is stored.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- 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.
Related practice questions
Related GCDL practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A traditional retailer currently maintains its own data centers, purchasing servers every 3–5 years and paying for facilities, power, and staff regardless of demand. When it migrates its workloads to the public cloud, which change in cost model does it experience?
Question 2
An e-commerce company plans its infrastructure for peak shopping events (e.g., Black Friday) which drive 50× normal traffic. On-premises, they must maintain 50× capacity year-round. In the cloud, they provision 50× capacity only during peak periods. Which cloud characteristic enables this cost optimization?
Question 3
Which term describes the process by which organizations integrate digital technology into all areas of their business, fundamentally changing how they operate and deliver value to customers?
Question 4
When a company moves from maintaining its own data center to using Google Cloud, which operational responsibility does Google assume that the company previously managed?
Question 5
A hospital runs a patient records system that must remain on-premises due to strict regulatory data residency requirements. However, they also want to use cloud-based AI for diagnostic imaging analysis. Which cloud deployment model best describes their architecture?
Question 6
What is virtualization in the context of cloud computing, and why is it fundamental to how cloud providers deliver services?
Practice this exam
Start a free GCDL practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this GCDL question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: High availability means a system is operational for a very high percentage of time, typically measured as a percentage (e.g., 99.9% uptime). — High availability (HA) refers to a system's ability to remain operational and accessible for a very high percentage of time, minimizing unplanned downtime. It is typically measured as a percentage of uptime over a period (e.g., 99.9% = 'three nines'). HA is achieved through redundancy — multiple instances, availability zones, and health checks that automatically route traffic away from failed components. Cloud providers publish SLAs that define their HA commitments.
What should I do if I get this GCDL question wrong?
Identify which GCDL exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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 →
Discussion
Loading comments…
Sign in to join the discussion.
This GCDL 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 GCDL exam.