Google PCA Practice Question: Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of designing and planning a cloud solution architecture. 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 startup wants to deploy a containerised web application that auto-scales based on HTTP request traffic, with no infrastructure management. They expect unpredictable traffic spikes. Which compute service is most suitable?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless container platform that automatically scales to zero and can handle traffic spikes. It abstracts away infrastructure management. GKE requires cluster management even in Autopilot (though reduced). Compute Engine requires manual scaling. Cloud Functions is for event-driven functions, not containerised web apps.
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.
✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is ideal: serverless, auto-scaling based on HTTP traffic, pay-per-use, no infrastructure management.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Compute Engine with managed instance groups
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine requires manual setup of VMs and auto-scaling policies; not serverless.
✗
Cloud Functions
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions is for event-driven functions, not long-running containerised web applications with HTTP traffic.
✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Autopilot
Why it's wrong here
GKE Autopilot reduces management but still requires cluster and node pool configuration. Overkill for a simple containerised web app.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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.
Identify which PCA exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture — This question tests Designing and Planning 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: Cloud Run — Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless container platform that automatically scales to zero and can handle traffic spikes. It abstracts away infrastructure management. GKE requires cluster management even in Autopilot (though reduced). Compute Engine requires manual scaling. Cloud Functions is for event-driven functions, not containerised web apps.
What should I do if I get this PCA question wrong?
Identify which PCA exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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