- A
Cloud Spanner
Correct: Spanner offers global distribution, strong consistency, and 99.999% SLA.
- B
Cloud Bigtable
Why wrong: Bigtable offers high availability but not 99.999% SLA or strong consistency across regions.
- C
Firestore
Why wrong: Firestore offers strong consistency but not 99.999% SLA.
- D
Cloud SQL
Why wrong: Cloud SQL offers regional HA but not global distribution.
Question 564 of 1,000
PDE Storing the Data Practice Question
This PDE practice question tests your understanding of storing the data. 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 Google Cloud database offers global distribution, strong consistency, and a 99.999% SLA?
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
✓
Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is the only Google Cloud database that provides global distribution (horizontally scaling across regions), strong consistency (external consistency with TrueTime), and a 99.999% SLA. It combines the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale, making it ideal for globally distributed, strongly consistent workloads.
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 Spanner
Why this is correct
Correct: Spanner offers global distribution, strong consistency, and 99.999% SLA.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Cloud Bigtable
Why it's wrong here
Bigtable offers high availability but not 99.999% SLA or strong consistency across regions.
- ✗
Firestore
Why it's wrong here
Firestore offers strong consistency but not 99.999% SLA.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL offers regional HA but not global distribution.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Cisco often tests the distinction between strong consistency and eventual consistency in globally distributed databases, and the trap here is that candidates may confuse Firestore's multi-region eventual consistency with the strong consistency required for the 99.999% SLA, or assume Cloud Bigtable's high throughput implies strong consistency.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud Spanner uses TrueTime, a globally synchronized clock based on GPS and atomic clocks, to enforce external consistency across distributed transactions. It employs a synchronous replication model with Paxos-based consensus, ensuring that all reads and writes are globally consistent without sacrificing availability. In practice, this allows applications like financial trading platforms to maintain ACID transactions across continents while meeting a 99.999% uptime commitment.
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.
- →
Storing the Data — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
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Storing the Data practice questions
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this PDE question test?
Storing the Data — This question tests Storing the Data — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Cloud Spanner — Cloud Spanner is the only Google Cloud database that provides global distribution (horizontally scaling across regions), strong consistency (external consistency with TrueTime), and a 99.999% SLA. It combines the benefits of relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale, making it ideal for globally distributed, strongly consistent workloads.
What should I do if I get this PDE 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
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
This PDE 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 PDE exam.
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