Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage and provision cloud infrastructure. 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 company is designing a highly available web application on Google Cloud. The application consists of stateless compute instances behind a global HTTP(S) Load Balancer. The compute instances must be able to handle sudden spikes in traffic. Which TWO strategies should the company implement? (Choose two.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization.
Option B is correct because a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the number of stateless compute instances in response to traffic spikes, ensuring the application can handle sudden load increases without manual intervention. This aligns with the requirement for stateless instances behind a global load balancer, as autoscaling adds or removes instances based on real-time CPU metrics, providing elasticity 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 Cloud CDN to cache all responses from the application servers.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN caches static content, not dynamic application responses.
✓
Use a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization.
Why this is correct
Autoscaling handles spikes by adding instances.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a single Compute Engine instance in a single zone with a large machine type.
Why it's wrong here
Single zone is not highly available; vertical scaling is limited.
✓
Use a global HTTP(S) Load Balancer with backends in multiple regions.
Why this is correct
Distributes traffic and provides high availability across regions.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use vertical scaling by selecting a machine type with more vCPUs and memory.
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling has limits and does not provide elasticity.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse caching (Cloud CDN) with compute scaling, or assume vertical scaling (larger machine types) is sufficient for sudden spikes, ignoring the need for horizontal elasticity and multi-zone redundancy in a highly available architecture.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Managed instance groups with autoscaling use the Cloud Monitoring metrics (e.g., CPU utilization, HTTP request rate) to trigger scale-out events, and the global HTTP(S) Load Balancer distributes traffic across instances in multiple regions using Anycast IPs and Google's global network. Under the hood, the autoscaler evaluates metrics every 60 seconds and can scale out rapidly by provisioning new instances from a template, while the load balancer's backend service health checks ensure traffic is only sent to healthy instances, preventing overload during scaling events.
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.
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — This question tests Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization. — Option B is correct because a managed instance group with autoscaling based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the number of stateless compute instances in response to traffic spikes, ensuring the application can handle sudden load increases without manual intervention. This aligns with the requirement for stateless instances behind a global load balancer, as autoscaling adds or removes instances based on real-time CPU metrics, providing elasticity 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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.