Google PCA Practice Question: Analyze and optimize technical and business processes
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of analyze and optimize technical and business processes. 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 uses Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL for their transactional database. They need a disaster recovery solution that provides cross-region failover with a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 1 minute. Which solution meets these requirements?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a cross-region read replica and promote it during failover
A cross-region read replica in Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL can be promoted to a standalone instance during a disaster, enabling failover to another region. The replica uses PostgreSQL's native streaming replication, which typically provides an RPO of less than 1 minute because changes are replicated asynchronously but with very low latency. This meets the stated RPO requirement without needing to redesign the application for global consistency.
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.
✓
Create a cross-region read replica and promote it during failover
Why this is correct
Cross-region read replicas replicate data asynchronously with low RPO.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use Cloud Spanner for global strong consistency
Why it's wrong here
Spanner is a different database service requiring migration.
✗
Use a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance with multiple zones
Why it's wrong here
Zonal HA does not protect against regional failures.
✗
Take daily automated backups and restore in another region
Why it's wrong here
Daily backups result in up to 24 hours of data loss.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between high availability (within a region) and disaster recovery (cross-region), and the trap here is that candidates confuse multi-zone (regional) instances with cross-region failover, or assume that automated backups can meet a sub-minute RPO.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL cross-region read replicas use PostgreSQL's built-in streaming replication over TLS, where the replica continuously applies WAL (Write-Ahead Log) records from the primary. The RPO is typically sub-second under normal conditions, but can increase if the network latency between regions is high or if the primary has a sudden spike in write volume. In a real-world scenario, promoting a read replica makes it a writable primary, but any unreplicated transactions are lost, so the actual RPO depends on replication lag at the moment of failure.
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 PCA question in full detail.
Analyze and optimize technical and business processes — This question tests Analyze and optimize technical and business processes — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a cross-region read replica and promote it during failover — A cross-region read replica in Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL can be promoted to a standalone instance during a disaster, enabling failover to another region. The replica uses PostgreSQL's native streaming replication, which typically provides an RPO of less than 1 minute because changes are replicated asynchronously but with very low latency. This meets the stated RPO requirement without needing to redesign the application for global consistency.
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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