The answer is Dedicated Interconnect with two 10 Gbps connections. This is correct because Dedicated Interconnect provides direct, private physical circuits between your on-premises data center and Google Cloud, with each circuit supporting up to 10 Gbps. By deploying two 10 Gbps links in an active-active or active-passive configuration, you achieve the required 20 Gbps aggregate bandwidth while meeting the 99.99% SLA—Google guarantees this availability level only when you have at least two redundant connections. On the Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of SLA requirements and bandwidth aggregation versus single-circuit limits; a common trap is choosing a single 10 Gbps circuit or Partner Interconnect, which cannot hit 20 Gbps or the 99.99% SLA. Remember the memory tip: “Two tens for ten-nines”—two 10 Gbps links give you the 20 Gbps throughput and the four nines of availability.
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. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 is designing a hybrid connectivity solution between an on-premises data center and Google Cloud. They have a high bandwidth requirement of 20 Gbps and need a service level agreement (SLA) of 99.99% availability. Which connectivity option should they choose?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Dedicated Interconnect with two 10 Gbps connections
Dedicated Interconnect provides direct, private connections between your on-premises network and Google Cloud, supporting up to 10 Gbps per circuit. By using two 10 Gbps connections in an active-active or active-passive configuration, you can achieve the required 20 Gbps aggregate bandwidth and meet the 99.99% SLA, as Google guarantees this SLA when you have at least two redundant connections.
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.
✗
Cloud VPN with two tunnels each using 1 Gbps
Why it's wrong here
Cloud VPN is limited to 3 Gbps aggregate and no SLA.
✓
Dedicated Interconnect with two 10 Gbps connections
Why this is correct
Dedicated Interconnect provides 99.99% SLA with redundant connections.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Direct Peering
Why it's wrong here
Direct Peering has no SLA and not recommended for production workloads.
✗
Partner Interconnect with two 10 Gbps connections
Why it's wrong here
Partner Interconnect maximum is 10 Gbps per VLAN attachment and SLA may not meet 99.99%.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Partner Interconnect with Dedicated Interconnect, assuming that two 10 Gbps connections from a partner automatically provide a 99.99% SLA from Google, but only Dedicated Interconnect offers a Google-backed SLA when using redundant connections.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Dedicated Interconnect uses IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking to isolate traffic over a single physical circuit, and each connection can be configured as a VLAN attachment supporting up to 10 Gbps. For high availability, Google recommends deploying at least two circuits from different edge availability domains (e.g., different metro locations or different Google Cloud regions) to protect against fiber cuts or facility failures. The 99.99% SLA is calculated based on monthly uptime percentage and requires redundant connections with proper BGP routing (e.g., using local preference or AS path prepending) to ensure failover within seconds.
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.
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: Dedicated Interconnect with two 10 Gbps connections — Dedicated Interconnect provides direct, private connections between your on-premises network and Google Cloud, supporting up to 10 Gbps per circuit. By using two 10 Gbps connections in an active-active or active-passive configuration, you can achieve the required 20 Gbps aggregate bandwidth and meet the 99.99% SLA, as Google guarantees this SLA when you have at least two redundant connections.
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.
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Question Discussion
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