Master the Cloud Architect exam with our comprehensive Q&A collection. Review questions by topic, understand explanations, and build confidence for exam day.
Strategies to help you tackle Cloud Architect exam questions effectively
Allocate roughly 1-2 minutes per question. Flag difficult questions and return to them later.
Pay attention to keywords like 'MOST', 'LEAST', 'NOT', and 'EXCEPT' in questions.
Use elimination to narrow down choices. Often 1-2 options can be quickly ruled out.
Focus on understanding why answers are correct, not just memorizing facts.
Practice with real exam-style questions for Cloud Architect
Cloud Spanner in multi-region configuration is correct because it provides strong consistency across regions with automatic failover, making it ideal for financial transactions. Cloud Run offers regional deployments with auto-scaling, and Cloud Load Balancing distributes traffic globally. Cloud SQL read replicas don't provide strong consistency for writes. Firestore doesn't offer the same ACID guarantees needed for financial transactions. BigQuery is designed for analytics, not transactional processing.
Compute Engine with custom images is correct because it provides full VM-level access, allowing installation of custom kernel modules and complete system control needed for legacy applications. Cloud Run is for containerized applications and doesn't provide kernel-level access. While GKE privileged pods offer some system access, they still operate within container constraints. App Engine Flexible Environment has limitations on kernel modifications and is designed for containerized workloads.
CMEK with Cloud KMS is correct because it gives the customer control over encryption keys while maintaining the ability to audit all key usage through Cloud Audit Logs, meeting compliance requirements for PHI. Google-managed keys don't provide customer control over the keys. Client-side encryption would break BigQuery's ability to query the data effectively. Default encryption with VPC Service Controls doesn't provide key control, though VPC Service Controls add valuable perimeter security.
Object Lifecycle Management with automatic transitions is correct because it automates the process of moving data to more cost-effective storage classes (Nearline for infrequent access, Coldline for annual access) based on age, significantly reducing costs without manual intervention. Manual moves are operationally inefficient and error-prone. Deleting files violates compliance requirements. Compression helps but doesn't address the storage class optimization opportunity.
Pub/Sub + Dataflow + BigQuery + Cloud Storage is correct because this is the standard Google Cloud architecture for streaming data: Pub/Sub handles high-throughput ingestion, Dataflow provides scalable stream and batch processing, BigQuery enables real-time analytics, and Cloud Storage provides cost-effective archival. Cloud Storage can't handle real-time ingestion at this scale. Dataproc is for Hadoop/Spark workloads and adds unnecessary complexity. Direct BigQuery writes have rate limits and don't provide the processing flexibility needed.
Review Q&A organized by exam domains to focus your study
24% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture in Cloud Computing?
Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture?
When implementing Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
20% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure in Cloud Computing?
Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure?
When implementing Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Managing and provisioning solution infrastructure integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
18% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Designing for security and compliance in Cloud Computing?
Designing for security and compliance serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Designing for security and compliance?
When implementing Designing for security and compliance, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Designing for security and compliance integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Designing for security and compliance integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
18% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes in Cloud Computing?
Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes?
When implementing Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
10% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Managing implementation in Cloud Computing?
Managing implementation serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Managing implementation?
When implementing Managing implementation, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Managing implementation integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Managing implementation integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
10% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Ensuring solution and operations reliability in Cloud Computing?
Ensuring solution and operations reliability serves as a fundamental component in Cloud Computing, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Google Cloud solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Cloud Architect certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Ensuring solution and operations reliability?
When implementing Ensuring solution and operations reliability, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Ensuring solution and operations reliability integrate with other Google Cloud services?
Ensuring solution and operations reliability integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
After reviewing these questions and answers, challenge yourself with our interactive practice exams. Track your progress and identify areas for improvement.
Common questions about the exam format and questions
The Cloud Architect exam typically contains 50-65 questions. The exact number may vary, and not all questions may be scored as some are used for statistical purposes.
The exam includes multiple choice (single answer), multiple response (multiple correct answers), and scenario-based questions. Some questions may include diagrams or code snippets that you need to analyze.
Questions are weighted based on the exam domain weights. Topics with higher percentages have more questions. Focus your study time proportionally on domains with higher weights.
Yes, most certification exams allow you to flag questions for review and return to them before submitting. Use this feature strategically for difficult questions.
Practice questions are designed to match the style, difficulty, and topic coverage of the real exam. While exact questions won't appear, the concepts and question formats will be similar.
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