BigQuery SQL and pricing model in GCP - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ service_behavior

intermediate

How does BigQuery charge for storage?

BigQuery charges for data storage based on the amount of data stored. Which of the following best describes how BigQuery pricing works for storage?

A You pay a flat monthly fee regardless of data size.

B You pay per query regardless of data size or storage.

C You pay per gigabyte of data stored per month, with separate rates for active and long-term storage.

D You pay only for the data actively queried, not for stored data.

💡 Hint

Think about how cloud storage usually charges based on data size and duration.

BigQuery charges for storage based on the amount of data stored per month. There are different rates for active storage (recently modified data) and long-term storage (data not modified for 90 days), making option C correct.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

What is the output of this BigQuery SQL query?

Consider this BigQuery SQL query:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS total_rows FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.shakespeare` WHERE word = 'cloud';

What does this query return?

A The number of rows where the word is exactly 'cloud'.

B The number of unique words in the dataset.

C The total number of rows in the Shakespeare dataset.

D An error because the table name is invalid.

💡 Hint

Look at the WHERE clause filtering on the word column.

The query counts rows where the word column equals 'cloud'. It does not count all rows or unique words, and the table name is valid.

❓ Architecture

advanced

Which BigQuery pricing model minimizes cost for frequent small queries?

You run many small queries daily on a dataset. Which BigQuery pricing model helps minimize your cost?

A Flat-rate pricing with a dedicated slot commitment.

B On-demand pricing, paying per query data scanned.

C Storage pricing only, no query charges.

D Paying only for data exported from BigQuery.

💡 Hint

Consider which pricing model offers predictable costs for frequent queries.

Flat-rate pricing lets you buy dedicated query capacity (slots) for predictable costs, which is better for frequent small queries than on-demand pricing.

❓ security

advanced

What happens if a user without permission tries to query a BigQuery table?

A user tries to run a query on a BigQuery table they do not have access to. What is the expected behavior?

A The query runs but returns empty results.

B The query runs and returns all data but logs a warning.

C The query runs but only returns metadata.

D The query fails with a permission denied error.

💡 Hint

Think about how access control works in cloud services.

BigQuery enforces access control strictly. Users without permission get a permission denied error and cannot run the query.

✅ Best Practice

expert

How to optimize BigQuery costs for large datasets with infrequent queries?

You have a large dataset in BigQuery that is queried infrequently. Which approach best optimizes cost?

A Keep all data in active storage and use on-demand queries.

B Partition the table and use long-term storage for older partitions.

C Export data to Cloud Storage and query from there only.

D Use flat-rate pricing with maximum slot commitment.

💡 Hint

Think about storage costs and query efficiency for large datasets.

Partitioning tables and relying on long-term storage for older data reduces storage costs and improves query efficiency for infrequent queries.