Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer — Question 134

You have an application that uses Cloud Spanner as a database backend to keep current state information about users. Cloud Bigtable logs all events triggered by users. You export Cloud Spanner data to Cloud Storage during daily backups. One of your analysts asks you to join data from Cloud Spanner and Cloud
Bigtable for specific users. You want to complete this ad hoc request as efficiently as possible. What should you do?

Answer options

• A. Create a dataflow job that copies data from Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Storage for specific users.
• B. Create a dataflow job that copies data from Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Spanner for specific users.
• C. Create a Cloud Dataproc cluster that runs a Spark job to extract data from Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Storage for specific users.
• D. Create two separate BigQuery external tables on Cloud Storage and Cloud Bigtable. Use the BigQuery console to join these tables through user fields, and apply appropriate filters.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer, D, is effective because it leverages BigQuery's capability to join external tables, allowing for a seamless integration of data from Cloud Storage and Cloud Bigtable based on user criteria. Options A and B involve unnecessary data copying without joining capabilities, while option C does not directly join the data but rather extracts it to a separate environment, complicating the process.