Professional Cloud Database Engineer

Last checked October 22, 2026 against the official Google Cloud exam page.

1. Question 1Design scalable and highly available cloud database solutions

   A retail application needs a relational database that survives a zone failure with no data loss and minimal downtime. Which Cloud SQL configuration fits?

   1. AA larger machine type in one zone, with the storage set to the fastest disk type that is available
   2. BA single-zone instance with a daily backup, restored into a new zone by hand after any zone outage
   3. CA read replica in the same zone, promoted by hand if the primary instance is lost during an outage
   4. DA regional instance with high availability, using a standby in a second zone that replicates synchronously
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   Correct answer: D

   A regional high-availability instance keeps a standby in another zone that replicates synchronously, so failover avoids data loss and keeps downtime short. Single-zone backups need a slow manual restore, a same-zone replica fails with its zone, and a bigger machine in one zone does not protect against a zone outage.

2. Question 2Manage a solution that can span multiple database solutions

   A team must keep reporting data current from a Cloud SQL database and a Spanner database, without adding load to the operational systems. Which approach fits?

   1. ARunning a full manual export of both databases each day and loading the files into reporting by hand
   2. BAdding a second application that writes the same data to both databases at the same time, from one client
   3. CReplicating changes from each source with a change data capture pipeline into BigQuery for reporting
   4. DQuerying the production Spanner database directly from the reporting tool for every dashboard that loads
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   Correct answer: C

   Change data capture pipelines stream changes from the sources into BigQuery, which keeps reporting current without heavy queries against the operational systems. Daily manual exports are stale and manual, dual writes risk inconsistency, and direct dashboard queries add load to production.

3. Question 3Deploy scalable and highly available databases

   A team must serve reads locally in two regions, with writes going to one primary. Which Cloud SQL feature supports this?

   1. AA single instance in one region, with the other region connecting to it over a public IP address only
   2. BCross-region read replicas, which serve local reads while the primary instance handles all of the writes
   3. CTwo independent instances with no replication, with the application choosing which one to use for each request
   4. DA backup stored in the second region, which is restored each time the application needs local reads
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   Correct answer: B

   Cross-region read replicas serve reads close to users while the primary handles writes, which matches the requirement. Independent instances have diverging data, a single region adds latency for the second region, and restoring a backup for each read is impractical.

4. Question 4Migrate data solutions

   A company must migrate a MySQL database to Cloud SQL, with continuous replication and a short, planned cutover. Which service fits?

   1. AA custom script that copies rows table by table, with no validation step at the end of the copy
   2. BA nightly mysqldump file copied to a bucket and imported during a full outage in the business day
   3. CA manual copy of the database files to a new VM, with the application left pointed at the old server
   4. DDatabase Migration Service, which replicates continuously from the source and supports a planned cutover
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   Correct answer: D

   Database Migration Service replicates continuously from the source and supports a planned cutover, which keeps downtime short. Nightly dumps require a long outage, manual file copies are fragile, and scripts without validation risk silent data loss.

5. Question 5Design scalable and highly available cloud database solutions

   A global application needs strongly consistent relational transactions across several continents. Which design fits?

   1. ACloud Spanner in a multi-region configuration, which provides synchronous replication and strong consistency
   2. BCloud SQL with asynchronous read replicas on each continent, with all writes sent to the primary only
   3. CMemorystore for Redis in each region, with writes replicated to the other regions by the application code
   4. DFirestore in Datastore mode, with one region chosen for all writes and reads from every continent
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   Correct answer: A

   Cloud Spanner multi-region configurations provide synchronous replication with strong consistency across regions, which matches the requirement. Asynchronous replicas can serve stale reads and do not give globally consistent transactions, and Memorystore is a cache rather than a transactional database.