Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of ensure solution and operations reliability. 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.
A company is migrating a critical database to Cloud SQL for MySQL. Which TWO actions ensure high availability?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable automatic backups.
Option C is correct because enabling automatic backups in Cloud SQL for MySQL ensures that point-in-time recovery (PITR) and daily backups are automatically taken, which is a fundamental requirement for high availability. While backups alone do not provide instant failover, they are essential for data durability and recovery in case of a disaster, and the question asks for actions that 'ensure high availability'—backups are a core component of a high-availability strategy by enabling recovery from data loss or corruption.
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 read replicas in multiple zones.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas do not failover automatically.
✗
Configure a failover replica with a different IP.
Why it's wrong here
Requires manual promotion, not automatic.
✓
Enable automatic backups.
Why this is correct
Allows point-in-time recovery in case of data loss.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Enable high availability with a standby in another zone.
Why this is correct
Provides automatic failover within the region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Enable multi-region failover.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL MySQL does not support multi-region failover.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse read replicas (which are for read scaling) with high-availability standby instances (which are for automatic failover), and they may also mistakenly think that multi-region failover is a built-in Cloud SQL feature when it is not supported for MySQL.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud SQL for MySQL high availability (HA) uses a synchronous replication mechanism between the primary and a standby instance in a different zone within the same region, ensuring zero data loss during zonal failures. The standby is not a read replica; it is a passive instance that automatically takes over with the same IP address when the primary fails, using a regional persistent disk that is replicated synchronously. Automatic backups, combined with binary log retention, enable PITR to any point within the backup retention period, which is critical for recovering from logical errors or accidental data deletion—a scenario that HA failover alone cannot address.
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 PCA question in full detail.
Ensure solution and operations reliability — This question tests Ensure solution and operations reliability — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable automatic backups. — Option C is correct because enabling automatic backups in Cloud SQL for MySQL ensures that point-in-time recovery (PITR) and daily backups are automatically taken, which is a fundamental requirement for high availability. While backups alone do not provide instant failover, they are essential for data durability and recovery in case of a disaster, and the question asks for actions that 'ensure high availability'—backups are a core component of a high-availability strategy by enabling recovery from data loss or corruption.
What should I do if I get this PCA 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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