- A
Store all data in a single table without interleaving.
Why wrong: Not necessarily a best practice; interleaving can help for parent-child relationships.
- B
Use the STORING clause in secondary indexes to include frequently accessed columns.
Optimizes read performance.
- C
Use a UUID as the primary key.
Random distribution avoids hotspots.
- D
Use a monotonically increasing integer as the primary key.
Why wrong: Causes hotspotting on the last tablet.
- E
Create secondary indexes without the STORING clause.
Why wrong: Without STORING, additional reads to the base table are needed.
Question 466 of 1,000
PCDOE Design and Plan Database Solutions Practice Question
This PCDOE practice question tests your understanding of design and plan database solutions. 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.
You are designing a Spanner schema for a financial application that stores transactions for user accounts. To avoid hotspots and optimize performance, which TWO practices should you follow?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use the STORING clause in secondary indexes to include frequently accessed columns.
Option B is correct because the STORING clause in a Spanner secondary index allows you to include non-key columns directly in the index, enabling index-only scans that avoid a back-join to the base table. This reduces read latency and resource consumption, which is critical for high-throughput financial transaction queries.
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.
- ✗
Store all data in a single table without interleaving.
Why it's wrong here
Not necessarily a best practice; interleaving can help for parent-child relationships.
- ✓
Use the STORING clause in secondary indexes to include frequently accessed columns.
Why this is correct
Optimizes read performance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Use a UUID as the primary key.
Why this is correct
Random distribution avoids hotspots.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use a monotonically increasing integer as the primary key.
Why it's wrong here
Causes hotspotting on the last tablet.
- ✗
Create secondary indexes without the STORING clause.
Why it's wrong here
Without STORING, additional reads to the base table are needed.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Cisco often tests the misconception that monotonically increasing keys are safe in distributed databases, but in Spanner they create hotspots; candidates must remember that UUIDs or other high-cardinality, non-sequential keys are required for write distribution.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Spanner uses distributed, globally replicated tablets; a monotonically increasing primary key leads to a 'hot spot' where all writes hit the same tablet until a split occurs, causing contention. Using a UUID as the primary key (Option C) distributes writes uniformly across tablets, avoiding this hotspot. The STORING clause in secondary indexes is analogous to 'covering indexes' in other databases, but in Spanner it specifically avoids the extra round-trip to the base table, which is especially important for globally distributed reads where latency can be high.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCDOE question test?
Design and Plan Database Solutions — This question tests Design and Plan Database Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use the STORING clause in secondary indexes to include frequently accessed columns. — Option B is correct because the STORING clause in a Spanner secondary index allows you to include non-key columns directly in the index, enabling index-only scans that avoid a back-join to the base table. This reduces read latency and resource consumption, which is critical for high-throughput financial transaction queries.
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.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 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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