- A
Create two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and configure a separate Cloud Router on each gateway with BGP.
Regional redundancy plus independent BGP sessions enable fast failover via BGP route withdrawals and advertisements.
- B
Create two VPN tunnels from one Cloud VPN gateway to both on-premises routers, and configure one Cloud Router with active/passive BGP.
Why wrong: Active/passive BGP on a single Cloud Router still uses one gateway, so a zonal failure would affect both tunnels; also single Cloud Router is a single point of failure.
- C
Create two Cloud VPN gateways in the same region, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and use static routing with route metrics for failover.
Why wrong: Static routing does not provide sub-second failover; BGP is required for fast convergence. Also same region is less resilient.
- D
Create two VPN tunnels from one Cloud VPN gateway to both on-premises routers, and configure a single Cloud Router with BGP.
Why wrong: Single Cloud Router is a single point of failure; BGP sessions would be interrupted if the Cloud Router fails.
PCNE Practice Question: Designing, planning, and prototyping a GCP network
This PCNE practice question tests your understanding of designing, planning, and prototyping a gcp network. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 plans to connect an on-premises network to Google Cloud using HA VPN with dynamic routing (BGP). The on-premises side supports BGP and has two independent routers for redundancy. The company wants to ensure failover within seconds if one tunnel goes down. Which configuration meets this requirement?
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
Create two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and configure a separate Cloud Router on each gateway with BGP.
Option A is correct because deploying two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions with separate Cloud Routers ensures true regional redundancy. If one gateway or its tunnel fails, BGP sessions on the other gateway remain active, and Google Cloud's network can immediately route traffic via the surviving path. This architecture meets the sub-second failover requirement by avoiding a single point of failure at the gateway level and leveraging BGP's fast convergence.
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.
- ✓
Create two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and configure a separate Cloud Router on each gateway with BGP.
Why this is correct
Regional redundancy plus independent BGP sessions enable fast failover via BGP route withdrawals and advertisements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Create two VPN tunnels from one Cloud VPN gateway to both on-premises routers, and configure one Cloud Router with active/passive BGP.
- ✗
Create two Cloud VPN gateways in the same region, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and use static routing with route metrics for failover.
Why it's wrong here
Static routing does not provide sub-second failover; BGP is required for fast convergence. Also same region is less resilient.
- ✗
Create two VPN tunnels from one Cloud VPN gateway to both on-premises routers, and configure a single Cloud Router with BGP.
Why it's wrong here
Single Cloud Router is a single point of failure; BGP sessions would be interrupted if the Cloud Router fails.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume multiple tunnels from a single gateway provide sufficient redundancy, overlooking that the gateway itself is a single point of failure; Google Cloud's HA VPN gateway is regional, not zonal, so a regional outage can bring down all tunnels on that gateway.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
HA VPN in Google Cloud uses two external IP addresses per gateway for redundancy, but a single gateway still represents a regional failure domain. By deploying gateways in different regions, you achieve cross-region failover, which is critical for disaster recovery. BGP timers (e.g., hold timer of 10 seconds) can be tuned for sub-second failover, but the underlying infrastructure must be redundant to avoid a single point of failure.
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PCNE question test?
Designing, planning, and prototyping a GCP network — This question tests Designing, planning, and prototyping a GCP network — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions, each with a tunnel to a different on-premises router, and configure a separate Cloud Router on each gateway with BGP. — Option A is correct because deploying two Cloud VPN gateways in different regions with separate Cloud Routers ensures true regional redundancy. If one gateway or its tunnel fails, BGP sessions on the other gateway remain active, and Google Cloud's network can immediately route traffic via the surviving path. This architecture meets the sub-second failover requirement by avoiding a single point of failure at the gateway level and leveraging BGP's fast convergence.
What should I do if I get this PCNE 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: Jun 24, 2026
This PCNE 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 PCNE exam.
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