PCDOE Optimizing service performance Practice Question
This PCDOE practice question tests your understanding of optimizing service performance. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 runs a high-traffic web application on GKE. Which three practices can help optimize performance under load? (Select THREE.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a global load balancer
A global load balancer (GLB) distributes incoming traffic across multiple GKE clusters and regions using Google's global network infrastructure. It terminates traffic at the edge, reducing latency by routing users to the closest healthy backend, and provides DDoS protection and SSL offloading. This is essential for high-traffic web applications to handle load spikes and improve response times.
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.
✓
Use a global load balancer
Why this is correct
Routes traffic to nearest backend, reducing latency.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a multi-cluster ingress
Why it's wrong here
Mainly for disaster recovery, not direct performance optimization.
✓
Store session state in Cloud Memorystore
Why this is correct
Offloads state management, reducing pod memory usage.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Enable HorizontalPodAutoscaler with custom metrics
Why this is correct
Scales based on relevant performance metrics.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Increase the number of nodes to maximum
Why it's wrong here
Overprovisioning wastes resources and may not improve performance.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that simply adding more nodes (Option E) is a valid performance optimization, when in fact it is a costly and inefficient approach that ignores the need for dynamic scaling and resource efficiency.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The global load balancer uses anycast IP addresses and Google's backbone to route traffic to the nearest healthy backend instance, reducing latency by up to 40% compared to regional load balancing. Under the hood, it supports HTTP(S), TCP/SSL, and QUIC protocols, and can be configured with Cloud CDN for caching static content. In a real-world scenario, a sudden traffic surge from a viral campaign is handled seamlessly because the GLB distributes requests across multiple regions and clusters, preventing any single cluster from being overwhelmed.
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.
Optimizing service performance — This question tests Optimizing service performance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a global load balancer — A global load balancer (GLB) distributes incoming traffic across multiple GKE clusters and regions using Google's global network infrastructure. It terminates traffic at the edge, reducing latency by routing users to the closest healthy backend, and provides DDoS protection and SSL offloading. This is essential for high-traffic web applications to handle load spikes and improve response times.
What should I do if I get this PCDOE 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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