Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of ensure solution and operations reliability. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 developer wants to monitor the CPU usage of a single Compute Engine VM and receive alerts when it exceeds 80%. What is the simplest way to achieve this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Install the Cloud Monitoring agent and create an alerting policy based on the metric 'cpu.utilization'.
Option C is correct because the Cloud Monitoring agent (formerly Stackdriver agent) collects CPU utilization metrics from Compute Engine VMs and sends them to Cloud Monitoring. You can then create an alerting policy directly on the metric 'cpu.utilization' with a threshold of 80% without any custom scripting or additional infrastructure. This is the simplest and most native approach for a single VM.
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.
✗
Query the Compute Engine API periodically and check CPU usage.
Why it's wrong here
The API does not provide high-frequency granularity for real-time alerting.
✗
Configure a Cloud Logging sink to BigQuery and set a scheduled query to detect high CPU.
Why it's wrong here
This is overly complex and not real-time.
✓
Install the Cloud Monitoring agent and create an alerting policy based on the metric 'cpu.utilization'.
Why this is correct
The Monitoring agent collects CPU utilization from the OS and sends it to Cloud Monitoring, where you can set alerts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use the managed instance group's autoscaling metric to trigger a notification.
Why it's wrong here
Autoscaling metrics are for groups, not a single VM.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that you need to export logs to BigQuery or query APIs manually, when in fact the Cloud Monitoring agent provides a built-in, agent-based metric that can be alerted on directly.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The Cloud Monitoring agent uses the 'agent.googleapis.com/cpu/utilization' metric, which is collected every 60 seconds by default and can be polled more frequently. Under the hood, the agent reads from /proc/stat on Linux and sends the data via the Cloud Monitoring API. In a real-world scenario, if the VM is preemptible or ephemeral, the agent must be reinstalled or configured via startup scripts to ensure continuous monitoring.
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: Install the Cloud Monitoring agent and create an alerting policy based on the metric 'cpu.utilization'. — Option C is correct because the Cloud Monitoring agent (formerly Stackdriver agent) collects CPU utilization metrics from Compute Engine VMs and sends them to Cloud Monitoring. You can then create an alerting policy directly on the metric 'cpu.utilization' with a threshold of 80% without any custom scripting or additional infrastructure. This is the simplest and most native approach for a single VM.
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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