This PCA practice question tests your understanding of designing for security and compliance. 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 data engineer needs to scan a Cloud Storage bucket for personally identifiable information (PII) and de-identify the data before loading it into BigQuery. Which Google Cloud service should they use?
Cloud DLP
Cloud DLP is designed for inspecting and de-identifying sensitive data.
Cloud Dataprep
Why wrong: Cloud Dataprep is for data preparation and cleaning, but not specifically for PII detection.
Cloud Composer
Why wrong: Cloud Composer is a workflow orchestration service, not a PII scanner.
Cloud Data Fusion
Why wrong: Cloud Data Fusion is a data integration service, not specifically for PII detection.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Cloud DLP
Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) API can inspect data for PII and de-identify it using techniques like masking, tokenization, or bucketing.
Key principle: Count usable hosts — not total addresses — and remember that the network and broadcast addresses are not available to hosts in standard IPv4 subnets.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Cloud DLP
Why this is correct
Cloud DLP is designed for inspecting and de-identifying sensitive data.
Related concept
CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
Cloud Dataprep
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Dataprep is for data preparation and cleaning, but not specifically for PII detection.
Cloud Composer
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Composer is a workflow orchestration service, not a PII scanner.
Cloud Data Fusion
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Data Fusion is a data integration service, not specifically for PII detection.
Common exam traps
Subnetting questions often tempt you into counting all addresses. In normal IPv4 subnets, the network and broadcast addresses are not usable host addresses.
Detailed technical explanation
Subnetting questions test whether you can identify the network, broadcast address, usable range, mask and correct subnet. Slow down enough to calculate the block size correctly.
Key takeaway
Count usable hosts — not total addresses — and remember that the network and broadcast addresses are not available to hosts in standard IPv4 subnets.
Real-world example
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.
What to study next
Review block sizes, usable host formulas (2^n − 2), and how to find network and broadcast addresses for /24 through /30. Then practise related PCA subnetting questions on CIDR, address ranges, and subnet selection.
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FAQ
Designing for Security and Compliance — This question tests Designing for Security and Compliance — CIDR notation defines the prefix length..
The correct answer is: Cloud DLP — Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) API can inspect data for PII and de-identify it using techniques like masking, tokenization, or bucketing.
Review block sizes, usable host formulas (2^n − 2), and how to find network and broadcast addresses for /24 through /30. Then practise related PCA subnetting questions on CIDR, address ranges, and subnet selection.
CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 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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