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 wants to reduce the response time of a globally distributed web application. Which Google Cloud service can cache static content at edge locations to improve performance?
Cloud DNS
Why wrong: Cloud DNS is for domain resolution, not caching content.
Cloud NAT
Why wrong: Cloud NAT provides outbound connectivity, not caching.
Cloud Armor
Why wrong: Cloud Armor provides DDoS protection, not caching.
Cloud CDN
Correct. Cloud CDN caches content at edge locations to reduce latency.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Cloud CDN
Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) uses Google's globally distributed edge caches to serve static content (e.g., images, CSS, JavaScript) from locations closer to users, reducing latency and offloading origin servers. It integrates with external HTTPS load balancers to automatically cache responses based on cache-control headers, directly addressing the goal of improving response time for a globally distributed web application.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Cloud DNS
Why it's wrong here
Cloud DNS is for domain resolution, not caching content.
Cloud NAT
Why it's wrong here
Cloud NAT provides outbound connectivity, not caching.
Cloud Armor
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Armor provides DDoS protection, not caching.
Cloud CDN
Why this is correct
Correct. Cloud CDN caches content at edge locations to reduce latency.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse Cloud Armor (a security service) with a content delivery service, or assume Cloud DNS can cache content because it involves 'edge' name servers, but DNS caching is for DNS records, not web content.
Detailed technical explanation
Cloud CDN leverages Google's global edge network with over 200 points of presence (PoPs) to cache content at the edge. It respects standard HTTP caching directives (e.g., Cache-Control: max-age, s-maxage) and supports cache invalidation via API or console. A subtle behavior is that Cloud CDN can cache dynamic content if the origin sets appropriate cache headers, but its primary design is for static content; for truly dynamic content, other services like Cloud Run or App Engine with scaling are more appropriate.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
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FAQ
Optimizing service performance — This question tests Optimizing service performance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Cloud CDN — Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) uses Google's globally distributed edge caches to serve static content (e.g., images, CSS, JavaScript) from locations closer to users, reducing latency and offloading origin servers. It integrates with external HTTPS load balancers to automatically cache responses based on cache-control headers, directly addressing the goal of improving response time for a globally distributed web application.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
This PCDOE 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 PCDOE exam.
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