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.
You are designing a database architecture for a global e-commerce application. The application requires low-latency reads in multiple regions and must handle up to 100,000 writes per second globally. Which Google Cloud database solution should you use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Cloud Spanner with multi-region configuration.
Cloud Spanner with a multi-region configuration is the correct choice because it provides globally distributed, strongly consistent relational database service with horizontal scalability, supporting over 100,000 writes per second across multiple regions while maintaining ACID transactions and low-latency reads via regional replicas. This meets the requirements of a global e-commerce application needing high write throughput and low read latency in multiple 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.
✗
Firestore in multi-region mode.
Why it's wrong here
Firestore is document-oriented and may not handle 100k writes/sec.
✗
Bigtable with multiple clusters.
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable is not a relational database and does not support SQL transactions.
✗
Cloud SQL with cross-region replication.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL does not support cross-region replication natively.
✓
Cloud Spanner with multi-region configuration.
Why this is correct
Spanner is designed for global scale and strong consistency.
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 often confuse high write throughput with NoSQL solutions like Bigtable or Firestore, overlooking that Cloud Spanner uniquely combines horizontal scalability with strong consistency and SQL support required for transactional e-commerce workloads.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud Spanner uses TrueTime API and Paxos-based replication to provide external consistency across global regions, enabling reads from local replicas with minimal latency while writes are committed via a quorum of replicas. In a multi-region configuration, Spanner automatically handles failover and load balancing, ensuring the application can sustain 100,000 writes per second by distributing writes across multiple nodes and regions without sacrificing consistency. A real-world scenario is a global e-commerce platform like Shopify, which uses Spanner to manage inventory and orders with strong consistency across continents.
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: Cloud Spanner with multi-region configuration. — Cloud Spanner with a multi-region configuration is the correct choice because it provides globally distributed, strongly consistent relational database service with horizontal scalability, supporting over 100,000 writes per second across multiple regions while maintaining ACID transactions and low-latency reads via regional replicas. This meets the requirements of a global e-commerce application needing high write throughput and low read latency in multiple 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.
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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