- A
Use a global external HTTP(S) load balancer with a single backend service pointing to one regional cluster.
Why wrong: A single backend service does not provide multi-region failover; traffic is sent to one region.
- B
Use Cloud CDN in front of a single regional GKE cluster to cache content.
Why wrong: Cloud CDN does not provide load balancing failover across regions.
- C
Use a single regional GKE cluster with auto-scaling across zones.
Why wrong: A single regional cluster provides zone-level HA but cannot survive a regional failure.
- D
Deploy GKE clusters in multiple regions and use a multicluster ingress with an external HTTP(S) load balancer set up with the global external backend.
This architecture uses the Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer with multicluster ingress to direct traffic to the nearest healthy cluster, providing geographic load balancing and failover.
Google PCA Design and plan a cloud solution architecture Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of design and plan a cloud solution architecture. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 financial services company is designing a multi-region application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for high availability. They need to serve user requests from the closest region and automatically failover if a region becomes unavailable. Which architecture should they use?
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
Deploy GKE clusters in multiple regions and use a multicluster ingress with an external HTTP(S) load balancer set up with the global external backend.
Option D is correct because deploying GKE clusters in multiple regions and using a multicluster ingress with a global external HTTP(S) load balancer enables traffic routing to the closest healthy backend cluster based on latency or geography, and automatically fails over to another region if one becomes unavailable. The global external backend configuration allows the load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple regional GKE clusters, providing both proximity-based routing and high availability.
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 a global external HTTP(S) load balancer with a single backend service pointing to one regional cluster.
Why it's wrong here
A single backend service does not provide multi-region failover; traffic is sent to one region.
- ✗
Use Cloud CDN in front of a single regional GKE cluster to cache content.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN does not provide load balancing failover across regions.
- ✗
Use a single regional GKE cluster with auto-scaling across zones.
Why it's wrong here
A single regional cluster provides zone-level HA but cannot survive a regional failure.
- ✓
Deploy GKE clusters in multiple regions and use a multicluster ingress with an external HTTP(S) load balancer set up with the global external backend.
Why this is correct
This architecture uses the Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer with multicluster ingress to direct traffic to the nearest healthy cluster, providing geographic load balancing and failover.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse zonal high availability (auto-scaling across zones within one region) with regional high availability (multi-region failover), and overlook that a global load balancer with multiple regional backends is required for true multi-region traffic steering and failover.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Multicluster ingress uses the Kubernetes Gateway API or the older GKE Ingress controller to configure a global external HTTP(S) load balancer that automatically discovers healthy backends across multiple GKE clusters. The load balancer uses anycast IP and health checks to direct traffic to the nearest healthy cluster, and failover occurs at the load balancer level without requiring DNS changes or manual intervention. Under the hood, the load balancer's backend services are configured with network endpoint groups (NEGs) that span multiple regions, and the multicluster ingress controller synchronizes the configuration across clusters.
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?
Design and plan a cloud solution architecture — This question tests Design and plan a cloud solution architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Deploy GKE clusters in multiple regions and use a multicluster ingress with an external HTTP(S) load balancer set up with the global external backend. — Option D is correct because deploying GKE clusters in multiple regions and using a multicluster ingress with a global external HTTP(S) load balancer enables traffic routing to the closest healthy backend cluster based on latency or geography, and automatically fails over to another region if one becomes unavailable. The global external backend configuration allows the load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple regional GKE clusters, providing both proximity-based routing and high availability.
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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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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