The correct choice is to deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones. This configuration ensures Memorystore Redis high availability with automatic failover because the Standard tier provisions a primary and replica node in separate zones, and upon a zone failure, the replica is automatically promoted without manual intervention. On the Google Professional Cloud Database Engineer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the difference between Basic and Standard tiers—a common trap is selecting the Basic tier, which lacks replication and automatic failover, or assuming you need to manually manage failover with a third-party tool. Remember that for production workloads requiring resilience, the Standard tier’s cross-zone replication is the only native solution that meets the requirement. A useful memory tip: “Standard is for standby—Basic is for backup,” meaning Standard provides a hot standby replica for automatic failover, while Basic offers no replication at all.
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 gaming company uses Memorystore for Redis to cache player session data. They need to ensure high availability with automatic failover in case of a zone failure. Which configuration should the Database Engineer choose?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones.
Memorystore for Redis Standard tier provides cross-zone replication with automatic failover, ensuring high availability during a zone failure. The Standard tier uses a primary and replica instance in different zones, and if the primary fails, the replica is automatically promoted. This meets the requirement for automatic failover 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.
✓
Deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones.
Why this is correct
Standard tier provides replication and automatic failover.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Deploy a Basic tier Redis instance with multiple read replicas.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier does not support read replicas.
✗
Deploy a Memcached cluster with multiple nodes.
Why it's wrong here
Memcached has no replication or failover.
✗
Deploy a Basic tier Redis instance in a single zone.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier has no replication or failover.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between Basic and Standard tiers in Memorystore for Redis, where candidates mistakenly assume Basic tier offers replication or failover, but it is a single-node configuration with no high availability.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Memorystore for Redis Standard tier uses synchronous replication between the primary and replica in different zones, ensuring data consistency. Automatic failover is handled by the managed service, which monitors health via heartbeat checks and promotes the replica within seconds. In a real-world scenario, session data loss is minimized because the replica is already in sync, and clients reconnect to the new primary via the same endpoint.
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.
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: Deploy a Standard tier Redis instance with replication across two zones. — Memorystore for Redis Standard tier provides cross-zone replication with automatic failover, ensuring high availability during a zone failure. The Standard tier uses a primary and replica instance in different zones, and if the primary fails, the replica is automatically promoted. This meets the requirement for automatic failover without manual intervention.
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.
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 →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company uses Memorystore for Redis as a cache. They need to survive a zone failure. Which configuration should they choose?
medium
A.Cluster tier with multiple shards
B.Basic tier with a single node
C.Standard tier cross-region
✓ D.Standard tier with replication
Why D: Standard tier with replication (Option D) provides a primary-replica pair in the same region but across two zones, ensuring automatic failover if one zone fails. This meets the requirement to survive a zone failure while maintaining low-latency access within a single region.
Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
Question Discussion
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This PCDE 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 PCDE exam.
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