Google PCA Ensure solution and operations reliability Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of ensure solution and operations reliability. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 organization uses Cloud Spanner for a customer database with a 99.999% availability SLA. You need a Disaster Recovery plan that ensures data consistency with zero RPO in case of a region failure. What should you do?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a multi-region instance configuration (e.g., nam-eur-asia) for the Spanner instance.
Option D is correct because Cloud Spanner multi-region instance configurations (e.g., nam-eur-asia) provide synchronous replication across multiple regions, ensuring strong global consistency and zero RPO. This architecture uses Paxos-based replication to commit writes only after they are durably stored in a majority of regions, so a region failure does not lose any committed data. The 99.999% availability SLA is met by automatic failover within the multi-region setup without manual intervention.
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 single-region instance configuration and enable read replicas.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas are for read scaling, not for failover; a single-region cannot survive region loss.
✗
Export the database periodically to Cloud Storage and set up a cross-region load balancer.
Why it's wrong here
Export/import is not real-time and does not guarantee zero RPO.
✗
Configure daily backups and store them in Cloud Storage in a different region.
Why it's wrong here
Backups provide limited RPO (hours) and require manual restore, not zero RPO.
✓
Use a multi-region instance configuration (e.g., nam-eur-asia) for the Spanner instance.
Why this is correct
Multi-region configs use synchronous replication across regions, providing automatic failover with zero RPO.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that read replicas or periodic exports can achieve zero RPO, but only synchronous multi-region replication (as in Spanner's multi-region configurations) guarantees no data loss during a region failure.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud Spanner's multi-region configuration uses a synchronous Paxos consensus protocol across all regions in the configuration; each write must be acknowledged by a majority of replicas (including at least one in each region for configurations like nam-eur-asia) before the transaction commits. This ensures that even if an entire region fails, the remaining regions have a consistent, up-to-date copy of all committed data, achieving zero RPO. In practice, the system automatically redirects traffic to healthy regions via the same endpoint, so no DNS changes or manual failover steps are needed.
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: Use a multi-region instance configuration (e.g., nam-eur-asia) for the Spanner instance. — Option D is correct because Cloud Spanner multi-region instance configurations (e.g., nam-eur-asia) provide synchronous replication across multiple regions, ensuring strong global consistency and zero RPO. This architecture uses Paxos-based replication to commit writes only after they are durably stored in a majority of regions, so a region failure does not lose any committed data. The 99.999% availability SLA is met by automatic failover within the multi-region setup without manual intervention.
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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