PCDE Plan and manage database infrastructure Practice Question
This PCDE practice question tests your understanding of plan and manage database infrastructure. 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.
A global gaming company uses Cloud Spanner for user profiles and game state. They have a single-region instance in us-central1. Recently, they launched in Europe and notice high latency for European users. They also need to ensure data locality compliance (GDPR). The database is heavily written with throughput spikes. They want to minimize latency without sacrificing write throughput. They consider adding a secondary index on region column. What is the best course of action?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a multi-region configuration spanning US and Europe, and modify application to read from closest region.
Option D is correct because a multi-region Spanner configuration with regional endpoints allows the application to read from the closest region, reducing latency for European users while maintaining strong consistency and write throughput. Spanner's multi-region configurations use synchronous replication across regions, ensuring GDPR compliance by keeping European user data within Europe for reads, and the write throughput is not sacrificed because all writes are committed to the primary region and replicated asynchronously to other regions.
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.
✗
Shard the database by region into separate Spanner instances.
Why it's wrong here
Sharding breaks global strong consistency and introduces complexity.
✗
Use Cloud CDN to cache read data.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN caches static content, not dynamic writes.
✗
Create a read-only replica in Europe using Cloud Spanner's read replica feature.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Spanner does not have read-only replicas; all nodes are read-write.
✓
Create a multi-region configuration spanning US and Europe, and modify application to read from closest region.
Why this is correct
Multi-region provides synchronous replication for low-latency reads/writes globally and meets compliance.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "best", "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Cloud Spanner's read replica feature with a read-only replica, but Spanner does not offer standalone read replicas; instead, it uses multi-region configurations with regional endpoints for read affinity, and the term 'read replica' is a common misconception from other databases like Cloud SQL.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Spanner's multi-region configuration uses a single writable leader region (e.g., us-central1) and multiple read-only replicas in other regions (e.g., europe-west1) that are kept in sync via synchronous Paxos replication. Applications can use regional endpoints to route reads to the nearest replica, reducing read latency to single-digit milliseconds, while writes are still committed to the leader region with global strong consistency. This design ensures GDPR compliance by allowing European user data to be read from European replicas without moving the primary write location.
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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
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: Create a multi-region configuration spanning US and Europe, and modify application to read from closest region. — Option D is correct because a multi-region Spanner configuration with regional endpoints allows the application to read from the closest region, reducing latency for European users while maintaining strong consistency and write throughput. Spanner's multi-region configurations use synchronous replication across regions, ensuring GDPR compliance by keeping European user data within Europe for reads, and the write throughput is not sacrificed because all writes are committed to the primary region and replicated asynchronously to other regions.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best", "minimum / minimize". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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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