PCDE Plan and manage database infrastructure Practice Question
This PCDE practice question tests your understanding of plan and manage database infrastructure. 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 company needs to store session data for a web application that runs on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The data is temporary and high-availability is required. Which database service is most appropriate?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Memorystore for Redis with replication
Memorystore for Redis with replication is the most appropriate choice because session data is temporary, requires high availability, and benefits from Redis's in-memory, low-latency key-value store. Replication provides failover capability, ensuring session continuity if a primary node fails, while Redis's built-in expiry (TTL) handles temporary data cleanup automatically.
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.
✗
Cloud Spanner
Why it's wrong here
Spanner is globally distributed and strongly consistent, but expensive and overcomplicated for session store.
✗
Cloud SQL for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is relational and persistent, not ideal for temporary data and adds overhead.
✓
Memorystore for Redis with replication
Why this is correct
Memorystore provides a highly available in-memory cache, perfect for session data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Cloud Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is designed for persistent analytical workloads, not temporary session storage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between 'persistent storage' and 'temporary cache'—candidates mistakenly choose Cloud SQL or Spanner for 'high availability' without recognizing that session data is ephemeral and better served by an in-memory store with replication.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Redis stores data entirely in RAM, enabling sub-millisecond read/write operations critical for session management. With replication, Memorystore uses asynchronous replication to a read replica; on primary failure, automatic failover promotes the replica, minimizing downtime. Redis's EXPIRE command (or SETEX) sets TTL per key, automatically evicting expired sessions—a pattern standardized in RFC 7252 for constrained environments but widely adopted in web apps.
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
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Plan and manage database infrastructure — This question tests Plan and manage database infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Memorystore for Redis with replication — Memorystore for Redis with replication is the most appropriate choice because session data is temporary, requires high availability, and benefits from Redis's in-memory, low-latency key-value store. Replication provides failover capability, ensuring session continuity if a primary node fails, while Redis's built-in expiry (TTL) handles temporary data cleanup automatically.
What should I do if I get this PCDE 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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