- A
Deploy all pods in a single zone for simplicity.
Why wrong: Deploying in a single zone defeats the purpose of high availability; a zonal failure would take down all pods.
- B
Use a regional cluster with control plane replicated across zones.
Regional clusters replicate the control plane across multiple zones, providing high availability.
- C
Distribute workloads across multiple zones using node affinity and anti-affinity.
Distributing workloads across zones ensures that a zonal failure does not affect all instances of the application.
- D
Use a zonal cluster to reduce costs.
Why wrong: Zonal clusters have a single control plane, which is a single point of failure. Regional clusters are recommended for high availability.
- E
Configure PodDisruptionBudgets to ensure minimum pod availability.
PodDisruptionBudgets protect against voluntary disruptions like node upgrades by ensuring a minimum number of pods remain running.
Quick Answer
The answer is to configure PodDisruptionBudgets to ensure minimum pod availability, deploy a regional GKE cluster, and use multi-zonal node pools. A regional cluster replicates the control plane across multiple zones within a region, eliminating a single point of failure for cluster management and forming the backbone of high availability and disaster recovery for GKE workloads. This design ensures that if an entire zone fails, the control plane remains operational, while PodDisruptionBudgets protect your application by guaranteeing a minimum number of pods survive voluntary or involuntary disruptions. On the Google Professional Cloud Developer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of GKE resilience patterns—a common trap is mistaking a zonal cluster for sufficient HA, but only a regional cluster provides control-plane redundancy. For memory, think “Regional + PDB + Multi-Zonal Nodes” as the three pillars of GKE disaster recovery.
PCD Practice Question: Designing highly scalable, available, and reliable cloud-native applications
This PCD practice question tests your understanding of designing highly scalable, available, and reliable cloud-native applications. 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.
A team is deploying a critical application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and needs to ensure high availability and disaster recovery. Which THREE actions should they take?
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 cluster with control plane replicated across zones.
Option B is correct because a regional cluster in GKE replicates the control plane across multiple zones within a region, ensuring that if one zone fails, the control plane remains available. This is essential for high availability and disaster recovery, as it eliminates a single point of failure for cluster management operations.
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.
- ✗
Deploy all pods in a single zone for simplicity.
Why it's wrong here
Deploying in a single zone defeats the purpose of high availability; a zonal failure would take down all pods.
- ✓
Use a regional cluster with control plane replicated across zones.
Why this is correct
Regional clusters replicate the control plane across multiple zones, providing high availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Distribute workloads across multiple zones using node affinity and anti-affinity.
Why this is correct
Distributing workloads across zones ensures that a zonal failure does not affect all instances of the application.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use a zonal cluster to reduce costs.
Why it's wrong here
Zonal clusters have a single control plane, which is a single point of failure. Regional clusters are recommended for high availability.
- ✓
Configure PodDisruptionBudgets to ensure minimum pod availability.
Why this is correct
PodDisruptionBudgets protect against voluntary disruptions like node upgrades by ensuring a minimum number of pods remain running.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Cisco often tests the misconception that a zonal cluster is sufficient for disaster recovery because it is cheaper, but the trap is that a zonal cluster's control plane is not replicated, making it vulnerable to zonal failures, whereas a regional cluster provides the necessary redundancy for both control plane and workloads.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
A regional GKE cluster uses a multi-zonal control plane that is automatically replicated across three zones within the region, with each zone hosting a separate replica of the Kubernetes API server, etcd, and scheduler. This design leverages Google's regional persistent disks and network load balancers to maintain quorum and serve API requests even during a zonal failure, while PodDisruptionBudgets (option E) ensure that voluntary disruptions (e.g., node upgrades) do not drop below a minimum number of running pods. In a real-world scenario, combining a regional cluster with node anti-affinity (option C) spreads workloads across zones, so if one zone fails, the application continues running in other zones without manual intervention.
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 PCD question test?
Designing highly scalable, available, and reliable cloud-native applications — This question tests Designing highly scalable, available, and reliable cloud-native applications — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a regional cluster with control plane replicated across zones. — Option B is correct because a regional cluster in GKE replicates the control plane across multiple zones within a region, ensuring that if one zone fails, the control plane remains available. This is essential for high availability and disaster recovery, as it eliminates a single point of failure for cluster management operations.
What should I do if I get this PCD 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 →
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This PCD 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 PCD exam.
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