The answer is to configure a cross-region replica for Cloud SQL and promote it during failover, alongside using Traffic Director for multi-region traffic routing and deploying a mirrored environment in another region. These three options are valid disaster recovery strategies for Google Cloud because they leverage native services to achieve recovery point and time objectives across regions. Traffic Director, based on the xDS API and Envoy, enables active-passive or active-active failover by dynamically rerouting traffic when a primary region fails, while cross-region Cloud SQL replicas provide a fully synchronized database standby that can be promoted instantly. On the Google Professional Cloud Architect exam, this tests your understanding of DR patterns that avoid single-region dependencies—a common trap is assuming Cloud SQL’s built-in high availability alone suffices for disaster recovery, when it only protects against zonal, not regional, failures. Memory tip: think “three Rs” for DR—Route (Traffic Director), Replicate (cross-region SQL), and Relocate (mirrored environment).
Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of ensure solution and operations reliability. 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.
Which THREE options are valid strategies for disaster recovery (DR) in Google Cloud?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy a mirrored environment in another region and use Traffic Director to fail over.
Option B is correct because Traffic Director, based on the xDS API (Envoy), can manage traffic routing across regions. By deploying a mirrored environment in another region and configuring Traffic Director with failover policies, you can redirect traffic to the secondary region if the primary fails, enabling a robust active-passive or active-active DR strategy.
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.
✗
Store hourly snapshots of Compute Engine disks in the same region.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots in the same region do not protect against regional disasters.
✓
Deploy a mirrored environment in another region and use Traffic Director to fail over.
Why this is correct
Traffic Director can route traffic to the DR environment.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Enable Cloud CDN to cache static content from multiple origins.
Why it's wrong here
CDN is for caching, not DR for compute or databases.
✓
Use a Cloud Storage bucket in a different region with Object Versioning enabled.
Why this is correct
Provides geo-redundant storage for data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Configure a cross-region replica for Cloud SQL and promote it during failover.
Why this is correct
Cross-region replica provides DR capability.
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 confusing high-availability features (like snapshots or CDN) with true disaster recovery, which requires geographic separation and automated failover mechanisms.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Traffic Director uses the xDS (e.g., LDS, RDS, CDS, EDS) protocol to dynamically configure Envoy proxies, allowing fine-grained traffic splitting and failover based on health checks. In a DR scenario, you would set up a global load balancer with backend services in multiple regions, and Traffic Director can shift traffic away from unhealthy backends using outlier detection and circuit breaking, ensuring seamless failover without manual intervention.
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.
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: Deploy a mirrored environment in another region and use Traffic Director to fail over. — Option B is correct because Traffic Director, based on the xDS API (Envoy), can manage traffic routing across regions. By deploying a mirrored environment in another region and configuring Traffic Director with failover policies, you can redirect traffic to the secondary region if the primary fails, enabling a robust active-passive or active-active DR strategy.
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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