This PCA practice question tests your understanding of design and plan 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.
Which THREE are best practices for designing a highly available Cloud SQL for MySQL instance? (Choose 3)
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Configure cross-region replication
Why wrong: Cross-region is for DR, not HA.
Enable automatic backups
Backups are essential for data restoration.
Use a regional persistent disk
Regional PD survives zone failure.
Enable high availability with a standby in a different zone
Zonal HA provides automatic failover.
Set a maintenance window in off-peak hours
Why wrong: Maintenance windows do not impact HA.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Enable automatic backups
Option B is correct because automatic backups in Cloud SQL for MySQL provide point-in-time recovery (PITR) capabilities, which are essential for data durability and disaster recovery. Enabling automatic backups ensures that transaction logs are retained, allowing you to restore your database to any point within the backup retention period, typically up to 7 days.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Configure cross-region replication
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region is for DR, not HA.
Enable automatic backups
Why this is correct
Backups are essential for data restoration.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Use a regional persistent disk
Why this is correct
Regional PD survives zone failure.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Enable high availability with a standby in a different zone
Why this is correct
Zonal HA provides automatic failover.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Set a maintenance window in off-peak hours
Why it's wrong here
Maintenance windows do not impact HA.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse cross-region replication with high availability, but Cloud SQL's HA is zone-based within a single region, not cross-region, and maintenance windows are operational best practices, not HA design features.
Detailed technical explanation
Cloud SQL for MySQL high availability (HA) uses a regional persistent disk that is synchronously replicated between the primary and standby instances in different zones within the same region. The standby instance is a passive replica that automatically takes over if the primary fails, using a virtual IP address that remains unchanged. This design ensures a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of near zero and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of approximately 60 seconds, leveraging Google's internal network for low-latency replication.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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..
The correct answer is: Enable automatic backups — Option B is correct because automatic backups in Cloud SQL for MySQL provide point-in-time recovery (PITR) capabilities, which are essential for data durability and disaster recovery. Enabling automatic backups ensures that transaction logs are retained, allowing you to restore your database to any point within the backup retention period, typically up to 7 days.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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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