- A
Use a regional persistent disk to replicate data across two zones.
Regional persistent disks replicate data synchronously across zones, protecting against zone failure.
- B
Deploy the application across multiple zones in a managed instance group with autohealing.
Managed instance groups with autohealing automatically recreate failed instances, improving availability.
- C
Use preemptible VMs to reduce costs.
Why wrong: Preemptible VMs are short-lived and increase the risk of interruption, harming reliability.
- D
Place an HTTP(S) load balancer in front of the application.
Why wrong: A load balancer distributes traffic but does not address stateful storage reliability.
- E
Schedule regular snapshots of the persistent disk to Cloud Storage.
Why wrong: Snapshots provide backup but do not ensure high availability during a zone outage.
Quick Answer
The answer is to deploy the application across multiple zones in a managed instance group with autohealing and to use regional persistent disks. This combination directly improves reliability for a stateful application on Compute Engine because regional persistent disks synchronously replicate data between two zones within a region, ensuring zero data loss if a single zone fails. The managed instance group with autohealing then automatically replaces failed instances, maintaining application availability even when the underlying disk remains intact. On the Google Professional Cloud Architect exam, this scenario tests your understanding of combining compute and storage resilience—a common trap is to assume that regional persistent disks alone are sufficient, but they only protect the data layer, not the compute instances. A key memory tip: think of it as “dual-zone disk plus autohealing compute” to cover both storage and instance failure scenarios.
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 TWO actions should you take to improve the reliability of a stateful application deployed on Compute Engine with regional persistent disks?
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
Use a regional persistent disk to replicate data across two zones.
Option A is correct because regional persistent disks (RPDs) synchronously replicate data between two zones within a region, ensuring that if one zone fails, the data remains available in the other zone without data loss. This directly improves the reliability of a stateful application by providing a durable, zone-failure-tolerant storage layer that maintains data consistency across zones.
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 regional persistent disk to replicate data across two zones.
Why this is correct
Regional persistent disks replicate data synchronously across zones, protecting against zone failure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Deploy the application across multiple zones in a managed instance group with autohealing.
Why this is correct
Managed instance groups with autohealing automatically recreate failed instances, improving availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use preemptible VMs to reduce costs.
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible VMs are short-lived and increase the risk of interruption, harming reliability.
- ✗
Place an HTTP(S) load balancer in front of the application.
Why it's wrong here
A load balancer distributes traffic but does not address stateful storage reliability.
- ✗
Schedule regular snapshots of the persistent disk to Cloud Storage.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshots provide backup but do not ensure high availability during a zone outage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between data durability (synchronous replication) and data backup (asynchronous snapshots), and candidates mistakenly choose scheduled snapshots (Option E) thinking they improve reliability, when in fact they only provide disaster recovery with a non-zero RPO.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Regional persistent disks use synchronous replication at the block level, meaning every write is committed to both zones before the write is acknowledged to the application, ensuring strong consistency and zero RPO. Under the hood, this relies on Google's internal network with low-latency inter-zone links, typically under 1 ms latency within the same region, which is critical for database workloads like Cassandra or MySQL that require strict durability. A real-world scenario is a multi-zone Kubernetes StatefulSet using RPDs to survive a zone outage without manual intervention, whereas snapshots would require manual restore and could lose recent transactions.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCA question test?
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: Use a regional persistent disk to replicate data across two zones. — Option A is correct because regional persistent disks (RPDs) synchronously replicate data between two zones within a region, ensuring that if one zone fails, the data remains available in the other zone without data loss. This directly improves the reliability of a stateful application by providing a durable, zone-failure-tolerant storage layer that maintains data consistency across zones.
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 30, 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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