GCP PCA Interview Questions: Technical & Behavioral Guide

Passing the PCA exam is only half the battle. To land a high-paying role in US tech hubs, you must excel in the interview. This guide covers the most common technical and behavioral questions you'll face.

Technical Focus: The "How & Why"

1. When would you choose Cloud Spanner over Cloud SQL?

Answer: Choose Spanner when you need horizontal scaling for relational data, global consistency, or an SLA of 99.999%. Cloud SQL is for standard RDBMS needs that fit within a single region's vertical scaling limits. (Reference: Database Decision Tree).

2. How do you implement Zero Trust on GCP?

Answer: Use Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP) to manage access to applications without a VPN. Combine this with VPC Service Controls to prevent data exfiltration. (Deep dive: IAP Guide).

3. What's the difference between Interconnect and Cloud VPN?

Answer: Interconnect (Dedicated or Partner) provides a physical, private connection with 10Gbps+ bandwidth and lower latency. Cloud VPN is an encrypted tunnel over the public internet, limited to 1.5-3Gbps per tunnel. Interconnect is for high-throughput, enterprise-grade needs.

Behavioral Focus: Architecture Trade-offs

"Tell me about a time you had to optimize costs at the expense of performance."

Strategy: Interviewers want to see that you understand the Value of Trade-offs. Use the STAR method.
Context: We moved non-critical processing from GKE Standard to GKE Autopilot with Spot Pods, saving 60% in costs but accepting potential preemption.

"How do you stay updated with GCP's rapid release cycle?"

Tip: Mention specific resources like the GCP Blog, Release Notes, and platforms like gcppcatest.com for realistic practice scenarios.