Free Google Professional Cloud Database Engineer Actual Exam Questions - Question 1 Discussion

Question No. 1
Your DevOps team is using Terraform to deploy applications and Cloud SQL databases. After every
new application change is rolled out, the environment is torn down and recreated, and the persistent
database layer is lost. You need to prevent the database from being dropped. What should you do?
Select one option, then reveal solution.
US
MV
Mohammad V.
2026-02-19

It’s A because using deletion_protection is a clear way to tell Terraform not to destroy the database resource. D is just a fallback, not prevention. B and C don’t address the actual problem of Terraform deleting the DB.

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MV
Mohammad V.
2026-02-16

It’s A for sure. Setting deletion_protection to true is the straightforward way to stop Terraform from destroying the database resource during apply, especially when the rest of the environment is being recreated. D sounds like a backup plan rather than prevention, and C doesn’t prevent deletion either. B just reapplies the same config and won’t help if the DB is set to be destroyed. Plus, in Terraform, deletion_protection is a known argument for Cloud SQL instances, so it should work as expected here.

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MV
Mohammad V.
2026-02-11

I think B is unlikely because rerunning apply won’t stop Terraform from destroying the DB if the config hasn’t changed. Could it be that separating the DB from the app resources in Terraform might help?

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FJ
Farhan J.
2026-02-03

Maybe A since preventing deletion upfront is better than relying on recovery like D.

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JT
John T.
2026-02-01

Option A seems right since deletion_protection should stop Terraform from deleting the Cloud SQL instance in the first place, avoiding data loss during teardown. PITR is more of a backup after-the-fact.

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AY
Andre Y.
2026-01-24

A/D? Setting deletion_protection (A) should stop Terraform from deleting the DB resource directly. PITR (D) is more of a backup recovery if deletion happens, but doesn’t prevent it initially.

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AY
Andre Y.
2026-01-17

D imo, point-in-time-recovery helps restore data even if the DB gets dropped accidentally.

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SU
Saad U.
2026-01-17

A imo, deletion_protection sounds like the straightforward way to stop Terraform from dropping the database when tearing down the environment.

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