- A
Change the persistent disk type to standard persistent disk.
Why wrong: Standard persistent disks have lower IOPS and higher latency than SSDs, which would worsen performance.
- B
Increase the disk size to increase baseline IOPS.
Why wrong: While increasing disk size raises baseline IOPS, the improvement may not be enough for high IOPS workloads, and it increases cost without necessarily meeting latency requirements.
- C
Use local SSDs with RAID 0 configuration for the database data.
Local SSDs provide higher IOPS and lower latency than persistent disks. Using RAID 0 stripes data across multiple local SSDs for even higher performance.
- D
Enable disk encryption to improve I/O throughput.
Why wrong: Disk encryption does not improve I/O throughput; it may add a small overhead.
Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage and provision cloud infrastructure. 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 stateful application to Google Cloud. The application requires persistent disks with low latency and high IOPS for database workloads. They plan to use Compute Engine instances with SSD persistent disks. However, the database performance is lower than expected. Which action should the company take to improve disk performance?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Use local SSDs with RAID 0 configuration for the database data.
Option C is correct because local SSDs provide the highest IOPS and lowest latency of any disk option on Compute Engine, and striping them with RAID 0 aggregates their performance. This directly addresses the need for high IOPS and low latency for database workloads, unlike persistent disks which have performance ceilings tied to disk size and instance limits.
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.
- ✗
Change the persistent disk type to standard persistent disk.
Why it's wrong here
Standard persistent disks have lower IOPS and higher latency than SSDs, which would worsen performance.
- ✗
Increase the disk size to increase baseline IOPS.
Why it's wrong here
While increasing disk size raises baseline IOPS, the improvement may not be enough for high IOPS workloads, and it increases cost without necessarily meeting latency requirements.
- ✓
Use local SSDs with RAID 0 configuration for the database data.
Why this is correct
Local SSDs provide higher IOPS and lower latency than persistent disks. Using RAID 0 stripes data across multiple local SSDs for even higher performance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Enable disk encryption to improve I/O throughput.
Why it's wrong here
Disk encryption does not improve I/O throughput; it may add a small overhead.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume increasing persistent disk size is the only way to improve IOPS, overlooking that local SSDs provide dramatically higher performance by being directly attached to the instance, and that RAID 0 is a common technique to aggregate their performance.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Local SSDs are physically attached to the host server that runs the Compute Engine instance, bypassing the network storage stack used by persistent disks, which reduces latency to microseconds. RAID 0 striping across multiple local SSDs linearly increases IOPS and throughput, but offers no redundancy, so database replication or backups must be handled at the application layer. In real-world scenarios, databases like Cassandra or MongoDB often use local SSDs with RAID 0 for performance-critical data, while relying on replication for durability.
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.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCA question test?
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — This question tests Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use local SSDs with RAID 0 configuration for the database data. — Option C is correct because local SSDs provide the highest IOPS and lowest latency of any disk option on Compute Engine, and striping them with RAID 0 aggregates their performance. This directly addresses the need for high IOPS and low latency for database workloads, unlike persistent disks which have performance ceilings tied to disk size and instance limits.
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.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
This PCA 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 PCA exam.
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