This PCA practice question tests your understanding of ensure solution and operations reliability. 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.
Your company runs a customer-facing API on Cloud Run with a concurrency setting of 80. The API calls a backend Cloud Function that performs a heavy computation (2–5 seconds). During peak hours, the API experiences increased latency and some requests time out after 60 seconds. Monitoring shows that the Cloud Run max instances is set to 100, and the Cloud Function max instances is set to 10. The timeout for Cloud Run is set to 300 seconds. The Cloud Function's timeout is set to 540 seconds. You need to reduce end-to-end latency and prevent timeouts while minimizing cost. Which action is most effective?
Increase Cloud Run max instances from 100 to 500
Why wrong: Incorrect: doesn't address backend bottleneck.
Increase Cloud Run request timeout from 300 to 600 seconds
Why wrong: Incorrect: doesn't reduce latency.
Increase Cloud Function max instances from 10 to 100
Correct: removes backend capacity bottleneck.
Reduce Cloud Run concurrency from 80 to 10
Why wrong: Incorrect: reduces throughput, may increase cost.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Increase Cloud Function max instances from 10 to 100
Option C is correct because the bottleneck is the Cloud Function's low max instances (10), causing queuing. Increasing Cloud Function max instances allows more concurrent requests to be processed, reducing latency and timeouts. Option A is wrong because concurrency on Cloud Run is separate from backend; reducing concurrency would require more Cloud Run containers and increase cost. Option B is wrong because increasing Cloud Run max instances alone doesn't help if Cloud Function capacity is the limit. Option D is wrong because increasing Cloud Run timeout doesn't reduce latency; it just keeps the connection alive longer.
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.
Increase Cloud Run max instances from 100 to 500
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: doesn't address backend bottleneck.
Increase Cloud Run request timeout from 300 to 600 seconds
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: doesn't reduce latency.
Increase Cloud Function max instances from 10 to 100
Why this is correct
Correct: removes backend capacity bottleneck.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Reduce Cloud Run concurrency from 80 to 10
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: reduces throughput, may increase cost.
Common exam traps
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
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.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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.
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FAQ
Ensure solution and operations reliability — This question tests Ensure solution and operations reliability — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Increase Cloud Function max instances from 10 to 100 — Option C is correct because the bottleneck is the Cloud Function's low max instances (10), causing queuing. Increasing Cloud Function max instances allows more concurrent requests to be processed, reducing latency and timeouts. Option A is wrong because concurrency on Cloud Run is separate from backend; reducing concurrency would require more Cloud Run containers and increase cost. Option B is wrong because increasing Cloud Run max instances alone doesn't help if Cloud Function capacity is the limit. Option D is wrong because increasing Cloud Run timeout doesn't reduce latency; it just keeps the connection alive longer.
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.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 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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