PCDOE Managing service incidents Practice Question
This PCDOE practice question tests your understanding of managing service incidents. 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.
Which THREE of the following are valid techniques for mitigating a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a Google Cloud HTTP(S) Load Balancer?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable autoscaling on the backend services to handle increased load.
Option B is correct because enabling autoscaling on backend services allows the load balancer to dynamically add more backend instances in response to increased traffic, helping to absorb a DoS attack by scaling out capacity. This is a valid mitigation technique as it leverages Google Cloud's managed scaling to maintain service availability under load.
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.
✗
Increase the number of backend instances to absorb traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Does not filter malicious traffic; may be overwhelmed.
✓
Enable autoscaling on the backend services to handle increased load.
Why this is correct
Helps absorb legitimate traffic surge.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Modify VPC firewall rules to block all traffic from the source IP.
Why it's wrong here
May block legitimate users; not scalable for distributed attacks.
✓
Configure rate limiting per client IP using Cloud Armor or the load balancer's settings.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Enable Cloud Armor and create a security policy to block suspicious IP addresses.
Why this is correct
Cloud Armor provides L7 protection.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that manually increasing backend instances (Option A) is a valid real-time mitigation technique, but in practice, autoscaling (Option B) is the correct automated approach, and candidates may overlook that firewall rules (Option C) cannot block application-layer attacks on a load balancer.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Google Cloud HTTP(S) Load Balancer is a global, proxy-based Layer 7 load balancer that terminates client connections and forwards requests to backends. Cloud Armor integrates with the load balancer to provide Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities, including rate limiting and IP-based deny lists, which can filter malicious traffic at the edge before it reaches backend instances. Autoscaling works with managed instance groups to adjust capacity based on CPU utilization or request rate, but it has a cooldown period and may not keep up with sudden traffic spikes, so it is often combined with Cloud Armor for defense in depth.
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.
Managing service incidents — This question tests Managing service incidents — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable autoscaling on the backend services to handle increased load. — Option B is correct because enabling autoscaling on backend services allows the load balancer to dynamically add more backend instances in response to increased traffic, helping to absorb a DoS attack by scaling out capacity. This is a valid mitigation technique as it leverages Google Cloud's managed scaling to maintain service availability under load.
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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