This article serves as your gateway to complimentary practice questions for the Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer examination. These meticulously crafted cloud engineering questions, developed by Google-certified cloud experts, bear a striking resemblance to the actual Associate Cloud Engineer practice assessments. Engaging with these free Google Cloud Engineer exam questions will not only familiarize you with the core exam objectives but also significantly bolster your confidence in tackling the real certification test.

The Role of a Google Associate Cloud Engineer: A Comprehensive Overview

Associate Cloud Engineers are pivotal figures in organizations leveraging Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Their responsibilities encompass a broad spectrum of cloud operations, including the administration of corporate solutions, the seamless implementation of applications, and the diligent monitoring of operational metrics. These professionals adeptly utilize both the Google Cloud Console (a web-based interface) and the command-line interface (CLI) to execute a myriad of typical platform-based tasks. Their ultimate objective is to maintain one or more host systems on Google Cloud, whether these systems employ Google-managed technologies or self-managed infrastructure. This role demands a blend of technical acumen and practical problem-solving skills to ensure the smooth functioning of cloud environments.

Navigating the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam: Expectations and Evaluation Criteria

The Google Cloud Certified Associate Engineer examination is meticulously designed to evaluate a candidate’s proficiency across several critical domains. Specifically, the questions will assess your abilities to:

• Configure a cloud solution infrastructure: This involves setting up networking, compute resources, and storage components to meet application requirements.
• Establish and manage a cloud solution: This covers the deployment of applications, database services, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Implement and fine-tune a cloud solution: This delves into the practical aspects of deploying and configuring services, often involving command-line tools and scripting.
• Ensure the seamless operation of a cloud solution: This includes monitoring, logging, troubleshooting, and maintaining the health and performance of deployed resources.
• Configure authentication and access controls: This domain focuses on securing cloud resources through identity and access management (IAM) policies, service accounts, and network security rules.

Assessing the Rigor: How Challenging is the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam?

If you are contemplating undertaking the Google Associate Cloud Engineer examination, a natural inquiry might revolve around its perceived difficulty and the complexity of the accompanying Google Cloud certification sample questions. It is important to acknowledge that this is not an examination to be taken lightly; it demands diligent preparation. Nevertheless, with the right strategic approach and dedicated study, successfully passing the exam is unequivocally within your grasp.

Here are some invaluable tips to aid you in your preparation journey:

1. Gain a Deep Understanding of Exam Objectives: Before immersing yourself in study materials, ensure you have a crystal-clear comprehension of what the examination aims to assess. This foundational understanding will strategically guide your studies and establish precise expectations for the content you will encounter.
2. Leverage Comprehensive Study Resources: A plethora of excellent study resources and Google Cloud certification sample questions are readily available. Make it a point to fully capitalize on these invaluable aids.
3. Emphasize Practice and Hands-On Experience: Engage in extensive practice by undertaking Google Associate Cloud Engineer practice exams and diligently performing numerous hands-on exercises. The more you practice, the more proficient you will become, significantly enhancing your performance on the actual examination. Practical application solidifies theoretical knowledge.
4. Prioritize Adequate Rest: Ensure you are well-rested before sitting for the examination. A refreshed mind will enable clearer thought processes and optimize your ability to perform at your peak.
5. Maintain a Positive Mindset: Cultivate self-belief and resist discouragement. If you undertake proper preparation, you possess the undeniable capability to successfully pass the Google Associate Cloud Engineer exam.

GCP Associate Cloud Engineer Practice Questions: A Preparatory Toolkit

We have meticulously developed a set of Google Associate Cloud Engineer (GCP-ACE) certification practice questions designed to acquaint you thoroughly with the characteristics and requirements of the actual examination. This compilation of free Google Cloud Certified Associate Engineer practice questions offers detailed insights into the Associate Cloud Engineer exam pattern, typical question formats, anticipated difficulty levels, and the approximate time required to respond to each question.

This collection of 50 Google Cloud Certified Associate Engineer sample questions will provide you with an excellent perception of how the GCP Associate Cloud Engineer test is structured, the types of questions you can expect, and strategies on how to approach and pass the Google Associate Cloud Engineer exam on your initial attempt.

Domain: Setting up a Cloud Solution Environment

Question 1. What is the gcloud command to set the default zone for a Compute Engine server using the gcloud CLI?

1. gcloud config set compute/zone us-east-1 B. gcloud config configurations set compute/zone us-east-1a C. gcloud config set compute/zone us-east1-a D. gcloud defaults set compute/zone us-east-1

Correct Answer – C

Explanation: The correct gcloud command to set the default zone for Compute Engine is gcloud config set compute/zone us-east1-a. This command is used to configure properties for the active gcloud configuration. Therefore, C is the correct answer.

Options A, B, and D are incorrect as they do not represent valid gcloud commands for setting the default Compute Engine zone.

Question 2. As a cloud engineer, you have been tasked with upgrading your account’s free trial to a paid account and renaming it to a “production-inventory system.” You are encountering a “permission denied” error while attempting these changes. Which of the following permissions will resolve this issue?

1. billing.accounts.update B. billing.account.upgrade C. billing.account.update D. billing.accounts.upgrade

Correct Answer: A

Explanation: Option A is correct because the required permission to perform updates on a billing account, such as upgrading a free trial or renaming it, is billing.accounts.update on the Billing Account resource. This specific permission allows modification of billing account properties.

Options B, C, and D are incorrect as they represent invalid choices or commands for the necessary billing account permission.

Question 3. Which of the following roles provides granular access for a specific service and is managed by GCP?

1. Custom B. Predefined C. Admin D. Primitive

Correct Answer: B

Explanation: Option B is correct because Predefined roles are a category of Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles that are managed by Google Cloud Platform (GCP). They offer service-specific access permissions, designed to grant appropriate levels of access for common tasks within specific GCP services.

Option A is incorrect because Custom roles provide granular access for specific services, but they are defined and managed by users within their own GCP projects, not by GCP itself. Option C is incorrect as “Admin” is a type of role (e.g., Project Editor, Compute Admin), not a general role category. Option D is incorrect because Primitive roles (Owner, Editor, Viewer) are concrete, broad roles that existed prior to the introduction of more granular IAM roles and grant very wide access across resources, rather than service-specific granular access.

Question 4. Your company has 5 TB of testing data stored in the production database of a testing tool named Quality Center. This data is being utilized to create a real-time analytics system, which is causing a slow response time for testers using the tool. What action should you take to alleviate the load on the production database?

1. Set up Multi-AZ B. Set up a read replica C. Scale the database instance D. Run the analytics query only on weekends

Correct Answer: B

Explanation: Option B is correct because setting up a read replica is the most effective solution in this scenario. A read replica is a copy of your primary database instance that can be used to offload read-heavy workloads, such as analytical queries. By directing all analytics-related queries to the read replica, the load on the primary production database is significantly reduced, improving response times for testers using the Quality Center tool.

Option A is incorrect: Setting up Multi-AZ (Multi-Availability Zone) primarily enhances the availability and disaster recovery capabilities of the database by providing redundancy across different zones. While important for resilience, it does not directly address the performance impact of analytical queries on the primary database. Option C is incorrect: Scaling the database instance (vertically scaling up) might provide a temporary performance boost, but it does not fundamentally separate the analytical workload from the transactional workload. This can lead to continued contention and may be a less cost-effective long-term solution compared to a read replica for read-heavy operations. Option D is incorrect: Running analytics queries only on weekends would prevent real-time analytics, which is explicitly stated as a requirement for the system. This solution would sacrifice the desired real-time capability.

Question 5. You have been asked to list the names of active accounts using the gcloud CLI. Which of the following commands will you use?

1. gcloud config list B. gcloud auth list C. gcloud account list D. gcloud project list

Correct Answer: B

Explanation: Option B is correct because the command to list the active authenticated accounts and their associated properties in your gcloud environment is gcloud auth list. This command displays details about the currently logged-in accounts and which one is active.

Option A is incorrect: gcloud config list is used to display all properties and their values for the active gcloud configuration, which includes general settings but not specifically authenticated account details. Option C is incorrect: gcloud account list is an invalid command in the gcloud CLI. Option D is incorrect: gcloud project list is used to list all Google Cloud projects that the active account has access to, not the active account name itself.

Domain: Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution

Question 6. What IP address range does the CIDR block 10.0.2.0/26 correspond to?

10. 10.0.2.0 – 10.0.2.26 B. 10.0.2.0 – 10.0.2.63 C. 10.0.0.0 – 10.0.63.0 D. 10.0.2.0 – 10.0.0.26

Correct Answer: B

Explanation: Option B is correct. A /26 CIDR notation signifies that 26 bits are used for the network portion of the IP address, leaving 32−26=6 bits for host addresses. The number of usable IP addresses in such a block is 26=64. Given the starting IP address 10.0.2.0, and knowing that 64 IP addresses are available, the range will span from 10.0.2.0 up to 10.0.2.63. This calculation ensures that the last 6 bits of the IP address are fully utilized.

Options A, C, and D are incorrect as they do not correctly represent the IP address range for a /26 CIDR block starting at 10.0.2.0.

Question 7. A cloud engineer intends to create a virtual machine (VM) named whiz-server-1 with four CPUs. Which of the following commands would they use to create this VM?

1. gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-standard-4 whiz-server-1 B. gcloud compute instances create –cpus=4 whiz-server-1 C. gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-standard-4 –instancename whiz-server-1 D. gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-4-cpu whiz-server-1

Correct Answer – A

Explanation: To create a Google Compute Engine virtual machine instance, the gcloud compute instances create command is utilized. The number of CPUs is specified by selecting an appropriate machine type parameter. To ascertain the available machine types, one can use the gcloud compute machine-types list command. If no machine type is explicitly specified, the default type is n1-standard-1. In this scenario, the cloud engineer requires 4 CPUs, which corresponds to the n1-standard-4 machine type, followed by the desired VM name.

• Option A is correct: gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-standard-4 whiz-server-1 is the accurate command to create a VM with 4 CPUs. It correctly specifies a valid machine type and provides the instance name as an argument.
• Option B is incorrect: The command gcloud compute instances create –cpus=4 whiz-server-1 is erroneous. The –cpus parameter does not exist as a valid argument for creating a Compute Engine instance; CPU configuration is determined by the –machine-type.
• Option C is incorrect: The command gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-standard-4 –instance-name whiz-server-1 is not the correct syntax for creating a VM instance. The –instance-name parameter is invalid. The instance name is passed directly as a positional argument after the command and its flags.
• Option D is incorrect: gcloud compute instances create –machine-type=n1-4-cpu whiz-server-1 is not a correct command because n1-4-cpu is an invalid machine type. The correct machine type for 4 standard CPUs in the N1 series is n1-standard-4.

Question 8. You have established a firewall rule designed to permit inbound connections to a virtual machine (VM) instance named whizserver-2. Your intention is for this rule to apply only if there is no other existing rule that would explicitly deny that same traffic. What priority should you assign to this firewall rule to achieve this behavior?

1. 1000 B. 1 C. 65535 D. 0

Correct Answer – Option C

Explanation: In Google Cloud’s firewall rules, priority is determined by numerical value: lower numbers indicate higher priority, and higher numbers indicate lower priority. Rules with higher priority (lower numerical value) are evaluated and applied before rules with lower priority (higher numerical value). If a rule is intended to permit traffic only if no other denying rule takes precedence, it must have the lowest possible priority. This ensures that any DENY rule, regardless of its numerical value (unless it’s the maximum), will be evaluated first and block traffic if it matches. For a PERMIT rule to act as a fallback, it needs to have the lowest priority.

• Option C is correct: 65535 is the largest numerical value allowed for firewall rule priority in GCP, indicating the lowest possible priority. Assigning this priority ensures that this rule will only be considered if no other, higher-priority rule (including DENY rules) matches the traffic.
• Option A is incorrect: 1000 is a relatively common default priority for user-created rules. While lower than 65535, it is not the absolute lowest priority and could still be overridden by lower-numbered rules.
• Option B is incorrect: 1 is a very low number, indicating a very high priority. This would cause the rule to be evaluated almost immediately, potentially overriding other rules, which is contrary to the requirement.
• Option D is incorrect: 0 represents the highest possible priority. This would ensure the rule is evaluated first, which is the opposite of the desired behavior for a fallback permit rule.

Question 9. You want your application, hosted on a VM, to retrieve metadata associated with that specific instance. Which command will enable you to fetch this metadata?

1. curl metadata.google.internal/compute-metadata/v1/ B. curl <instance-private-ip>/metadata/v1/ C. curl metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/ D. curl internal.googleapi.com/computeMetadata/v1/

Correct Answer – C

Explanation: Option C is correct. The precise command to fetch instance metadata from within a Compute Engine VM is curl metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/. This specific endpoint is designed for internal VM access to its own metadata. It is crucial to remember that when querying this endpoint, you must also include the Metadata-Flavor: Google HTTP header to indicate that the request is intentionally for metadata and to prevent unintended access.

Options A, B, and D are incorrect as they do not represent the valid and correct curl command or endpoint for retrieving instance metadata within the Google Cloud environment.

Question 10. You possess 100TB of non-relational data and intend to perform analytics on it to ascertain the previous year’s net sales. Which Google Cloud tool is best suited for this particular requirement?

1. BigQuery B. BigTable C. Datastore D. GCS

Correct Answer – B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: Bigtable is a fully managed, petabyte-scale NoSQL database service specifically engineered for handling and processing extremely large amounts of structured and semi-structured data, making it ideal for analytical workloads on non-relational datasets. Its high throughput and low latency are well-suited for time-series data or data with high velocity, which is common in analytics for historical sales.

• Option A is incorrect: BigQuery is a highly scalable, serverless data warehouse designed for analyzing very large datasets using SQL. While excellent for analytics, it is primarily a relational database service that excels with structured data and SQL queries. The problem explicitly states “non-relational data,” making Bigtable a more direct fit for the underlying data structure.

• Option C is incorrect: Datastore (now integrated into Firestore) is a NoSQL managed database service that is suitable for document and object data. However, for a massive 100TB dataset requiring analytics, Datastore’s operational scale and query performance capabilities are generally not optimized for such large-scale analytical processing compared to Bigtable.

• Option D is incorrect: Google Cloud Storage (GCS) is an object storage service primarily used for storing files and objects. While it can store the raw non-relational data, it does not provide integrated analytical processing capabilities directly on the data itself. You would typically use GCS as a data lake and then process the data using another service.

Domain: Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution

Question 11. You have been hired by an oil company that requires you to lead the migration of their existing Oracle DB and DB2 databases to Google Cloud. Which of the following is the most appropriate option for this migration?

1. Cloud SQL for Oracle and VM for DB2 B. Cloud SQL for both Oracle and DB2 C. VM for both Oracle and DB2 D. Google App Engine for both Oracle and DB2

Correct Answer – C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: As of the current services offered by Google Cloud Platform, there is no directly managed service like Cloud SQL that natively supports both Oracle and DB2 databases. Therefore, the most practical and recommended approach for migrating these proprietary databases is to install and run them on Compute Engine virtual machines (VMs). This allows the company to bring their existing database licenses and configurations while leveraging GCP’s infrastructure.

• Option A is incorrect: While Cloud SQL now supports Oracle, it still does not support DB2. Therefore, this option only partially meets the requirement.

• Option B is incorrect: Cloud SQL does not natively support both Oracle and DB2. Cloud SQL primarily supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.

• Option D is incorrect: Google App Engine is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for deploying applications. It is not designed for hosting traditional relational databases like Oracle or DB2 directly, nor does it provide a direct migration path for such databases in a managed fashion.

Question 12. A client of yours requires you to migrate their on-premise MySQL data to Google Cloud with absolutely no downtime. Which Google Cloud service will you utilize for migrating this SQL data to the cloud?

1. Cloud Migration B. Anthos C. Cloud SQL D. Cloud Run

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. Crucially, Cloud SQL provides robust database migration services that support online (minimal to zero downtime) migrations from on-premise MySQL instances. It offers features like replication to facilitate continuous data synchronization during the migration process, ensuring data consistency and availability.

• Option A is incorrect: “Cloud Migration” is a general term for migrating to the cloud; there is no specific GCP service named “Cloud Migration” that performs database migrations as its primary function. While Google Cloud has various migration tools and services, the specific service for managed database migration with minimal downtime for MySQL is Cloud SQL’s migration capabilities.

• Option B is incorrect: Anthos is a platform for managing and modernizing applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, primarily focused on Kubernetes workloads and containerized applications. It is not a direct service for migrating relational databases like MySQL.

• Option D is incorrect: Cloud Run is a managed compute platform for running stateless HTTP containers. It is designed for serverless application deployment and scaling, not for database migration or hosting relational databases.

Question 13. You are commencing work on a client’s project, and they are seeking a database service within Google Cloud that offers horizontal scalability, supports relational data up to gigabyte sizes, and provides ACID compliance for reliable data storage. Which service would you recommend?

1. Datastore B. BigQuery C. Cloud SQL D. Cloud Spanner

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

• Option D is correct: Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, highly scalable, and strongly consistent relational database service. It is unique in that it offers both horizontal scalability across regions and even globally (sharding across servers), relational data model support (SQL), and strong ACID transactions. This makes it an ideal fit for applications requiring both massive scale and traditional database consistency.

• Option A is incorrect: Datastore (now integrated with Firestore) is a NoSQL document database. While it supports ACID transactions at a document level, it is not a relational database, and its horizontal scalability model differs from a traditional relational database that scales like Spanner. It’s not typically recommended for “gigabyte size of relational data” with horizontal scaling as its primary relational feature.

• Option B is incorrect: BigQuery is a serverless, highly scalable data warehouse optimized for analytical queries on very large datasets. While it handles massive amounts of data, it is not an operational relational database service for transactional workloads requiring ACID compliance for real-time applications. It’s an OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) system, not an OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) system.

• Option C is incorrect: Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service (for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server) that supports ACID transactions. However, Cloud SQL primarily offers vertical scaling (scaling up CPU and memory for a single instance) rather than native horizontal scaling across multiple nodes or regions as transparently as Cloud Spanner. For “horizontally scalable” relational data at gigabyte scale, Cloud Spanner is the superior choice.

Question 14. You are distributing traffic among a fleet of virtual machines (VMs) within your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) using an Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancer. Which of the following specifications is not supported by the selected Load Balancing Type?

1. Preserved Client IP B. Global Availability C. Internal Load Balancing D. Any Destination Ports

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancers in Google Cloud are designed for load balancing traffic within a single region. They provide high availability and load distribution for internal applications but do not offer global availability. For global load balancing, you would typically use an External Load Balancer (like a Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer or a Global External TCP Proxy Load Balancer).

• Option A is incorrect: Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancers do preserve the client’s IP address when forwarding connections to backend instances. This is a common requirement for applications that need to log or enforce policies based on the original client IP.

• Option C is incorrect: The primary purpose of an Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancer is to facilitate internal load balancing, meaning it distributes traffic that originates from within your VPC network to internal backend services.

• Option D is incorrect: Internal TCP/UDP Load Balancers are layer 4 load balancers and operate at the TCP and UDP protocol levels. They allow traffic to be forwarded to any destination port on the backend instances, providing flexibility for various application services.

Domain: Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution

Question 15. A developer has requested that you create a single NGINX server for a development environment. Which Google Cloud service would enable you to launch a VM using predefined images?

1. GKE B. GAE C. Cloud SQL D. Marketplace

Correct Answer – D

Explanation:

• Option D is correct: Google Cloud Marketplace provides a rich catalog of pre-configured, ready-to-deploy software solutions, including virtual machine images with popular applications like NGINX, databases, and development tools. You can launch these solutions with just a few clicks, significantly simplifying the deployment process by eliminating the need for manual configuration.

• Option A is incorrect: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is used for orchestrating containerized applications and deploying Kubernetes clusters, not for launching a single virtual machine directly from a predefined image in the way described. While you could run NGINX in a container on GKE, the question asks about launching a VM using a predefined image.

• Option B is incorrect: Google App Engine (GAE) is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for developing and deploying scalable web applications. While you can deploy an NGINX application on App Engine (e.g., within a flexible environment), it doesn’t provide a direct mechanism to launch a VM using a “predefined image” in the same manner as the Marketplace for a single NGINX server.

• Option C is incorrect: Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service (for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server). It is used for hosting databases, not for deploying general-purpose web servers like NGINX on a VM.

Question 16. Your company has secured a new project that requires migrating on-premise servers and data to Google Cloud gradually. Until the full migration is complete, you need to establish a VPN tunnel between your on-premise network and Google Cloud. Which Google Cloud service will you use in conjunction with Cloud VPN for a smooth setup?

1. Cloud CDN B. Cloud NAT C. Cloud Run D. Cloud Router

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

• Option D is correct: Google Cloud Router is the service used in conjunction with Cloud VPN (or Cloud Interconnect) to dynamically exchange routes between your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network and your on-premises networks. It utilizes the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to automatically learn and propagate network routes. This ensures that your on-premise network can properly route traffic to your VPC subnets and vice-versa through the VPN tunnel, providing a smooth and dynamic connectivity experience.

• Option A is incorrect: Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) leverages Google’s globally distributed edge points of presence to accelerate content delivery for websites and applications. It is used for optimizing content delivery, not for establishing network connectivity between on-premise and cloud environments.

• Option B is incorrect: Cloud NAT (Network Address Translation) enables instances in a private subnet (without public IP addresses) to access the internet for outbound connections (e.g., for updates or patching) in a controlled manner. It is not used for creating a VPN tunnel or exchanging routes with an on-premise network.

• Option C is incorrect: Cloud Run is a managed compute platform for automatically scaling stateless containers. It is an application deployment service and has no direct role in establishing hybrid network connectivity via VPN.

Question 17. Your company is operating a high-availability deployment named “hello-server” within Kubernetes Engine on port 8080. This deployment needs to be exposed to the public internet using a load balancer on port 80. Which of the following commands will help to accomplish this deployment?

1. kubectl expose deployment hello-server –type LoadBalancer –port 8080 –target-port 80 B. kubectl run deployment hello-server –type LoadBalancer –port 80 –target-port 8080 C. kubectl expose deployment hello-server –type LoadBalancer –port 80 –target-port 8080 D. kubectl run deployment hello-server –type LoadBalancer –port 8080 –target-port 80

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: The kubectl expose command is used to create a Kubernetes Service, which in turn can provision a LoadBalancer. The –port flag specifies the port on the Service (the external-facing port of the LoadBalancer), and the –target-port flag specifies the port on the Pods (the internal port where the application is listening). In this scenario, you want to expose on port 80 externally and forward traffic to the application listening on port 8080 internally.

• Option A is incorrect: This command would expose port 8080 externally and try to route traffic to port 80 on the pods, which is the reverse of the desired behavior.

• Option B and D are incorrect: The kubectl run command is primarily used to create a deployment or run a single pod, and it does not support the –type LoadBalancer argument for directly creating a Service of type LoadBalancer. The correct command for exposing a deployment via a Service is kubectl expose.

Question 18. Which of the following gcloud commands allows you to view the detailed specifications of a custom subnet you created in a particular region?

1. gcloud compute networks subnets view [SUBNET_NAME] –region us-central1 B. gcloud compute networks subnets describe [SUBNET_NAME] –region us-central1 C. gcloud compute networks subnets list [SUBNET_NAME] –region us-central1 D. gcloud compute networks subnets read [SUBNET_NAME] –region us-central1

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: The gcloud compute networks subnets describe command is specifically used to retrieve and display detailed information about a single specified subnet within a given region. The describe flag is a common pattern in gcloud for getting comprehensive details of a resource.

• Option A is incorrect: The view flag is not a valid gcloud command or flag for inspecting subnet details.

• Option C is incorrect: The gcloud compute networks subnets list command is used to list all subnets within a project or a specified region. While it can show basic information, it doesn’t provide the in-depth details that describe does, and it’s not designed to take a specific subnet name as a positional argument for detailed viewing.

• Option D is incorrect: The read flag is not a valid gcloud command or flag for inspecting subnet details.

Domain: Ensuring Successful Operation of a Cloud Solution

Question 19. You were inspecting containers running on a VM and discovered that a pod is active that is no longer required. You attempt to delete it, but each time a new pod is automatically created in its place. What essential Kubernetes resource do you need to delete to permanently remove that pod?

1. ReplicaSet B. VM C. Container D. Service

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

• Option A is correct: In Kubernetes, a ReplicaSet (or more commonly, a Deployment which manages ReplicaSets) is responsible for ensuring that a specified number of identical pod replicas are running at all times. If you manually delete a pod that is managed by a ReplicaSet, the ReplicaSet will detect that the desired number of replicas is not met and will automatically create a new pod to replace the one you deleted. Therefore, to permanently remove a pod that keeps recreating, you must delete the controlling ReplicaSet (or the Deployment that owns the ReplicaSet).

• Option B is incorrect: Directly deleting the VM would delete all containers and pods running on it, which is an overly drastic action and not the precise way to manage individual pods or deployments in a Kubernetes cluster.

• Option C is incorrect: Deleting a container within a pod is effectively equivalent to deleting the pod itself in this context, as the ReplicaSet would still bring up a new pod.

• Option D is incorrect: A Service in Kubernetes provides stable network access to a set of pods. Deleting a Service would remove the ability to access the pod via that Service, but it would not delete the underlying pods themselves, nor would it stop a ReplicaSet from recreating them.

Question 20. Your company has been bidding on a significant big data project for several months and has finally been awarded the project. The project requires you to deploy Apache Spark clusters on Google Cloud. Which Google Cloud service will you use for this purpose?

1. Dataflow B. Dataproc C. Bigtable D. Cloud Composer

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: Cloud Dataproc is Google Cloud’s fully managed service specifically designed for running Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop clusters. It offers a fast, easy-to-use, and cost-efficient way to deploy and manage these big data frameworks, making it the ideal choice for running Apache Spark clusters.

• Option A is incorrect: Cloud Dataflow is a fully managed service for executing Apache Beam pipelines for stream (real-time) and batch (historical) data processing. While it’s a powerful data processing service, it is not used for deploying or managing raw Apache Spark or Hadoop clusters.

• Option C is incorrect: Bigtable is a petabyte-scale, fully managed NoSQL database service, primarily used for large analytical and operational workloads that require high throughput and low latency. It supports the HBase API but is a database, not a service for deploying compute clusters like Spark.

• Option D is incorrect: Cloud Composer is a fully managed workflow orchestration service built on Apache Airflow. It is used to author, schedule, and monitor complex data pipelines that can span across clouds and on-premises environments. While it can orchestrate Spark jobs, it does not itself deploy or manage Spark clusters.

Question 21. Your client intends to migrate their 30 TB Hadoop or Spark cluster, currently running on RHEL 6.5 on-premise servers, to Google Cloud Platform. Which of the following services can be utilized on the GCP end to facilitate this migration?

1. Compute Engine B. App Engine C. Dataproc D. BigQuery

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: Cloud Dataproc is specifically engineered as a faster, easier, and more cost-effective way to run Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop workloads on Google Cloud. It provides fully managed clusters, simplifying the deployment, scaling, and management of these big data frameworks, making it the most suitable service for migrating an existing Hadoop or Spark cluster.

• Option A is incorrect: While Compute Engine virtual machines could be used to manually set up and run Apache Spark and Hadoop (installing all necessary software on RHEL 6.5 equivalent VMs), this approach would require significant manual effort for configuration, management, and scaling. It would be less cost-effective and more operationally complex than using a managed service like Dataproc, especially for a 30 TB cluster.

• Option B is incorrect: App Engine is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) primarily for deploying web applications and APIs. It is not designed for or suitable for hosting and managing large-scale Apache Hadoop or Spark clusters.

• Option D is incorrect: BigQuery is a serverless data warehouse for analytical processing of very large datasets using SQL. While it’s part of the big data ecosystem, it is a data warehouse and not a service for running Apache Spark or Hadoop compute clusters.

Domain: Configure Access and Security

Question 22. Your company has procured a threat detection service from a third-party vendor and has instructed you to upload all network logs to this application. Which of the following Google Cloud services will effectively meet your requirements for collecting these logs?

1. Activity Logs B. Flow Logs C. Network Logs D. System Logs

Correct Answer – B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: VPC Flow Logs (often simply referred to as Flow Logs) are specifically designed to capture every packet flowing within your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network. They record crucial details such as source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port, timestamp, and protocol for network traffic. This granular network traffic data is precisely what a threat detection service would require for comprehensive analysis.

• Option A is incorrect: Activity Logs (part of Cloud Audit Logs) record administrative activities and data access events, such as API calls made to Google Cloud services (e.g., launching an instance, creating a firewall rule, creating a bucket). They do not capture individual network packet flow information.

• Option C is incorrect: “Network Logs” is a generic term. In Google Cloud, the specific service that provides detailed network traffic logs suitable for this purpose is VPC Flow Logs. There isn’t a distinct service simply named “Network Logs.”

• Option D is incorrect: “System Logs” is a broad term that typically refers to logs generated by operating systems or applications running on VMs. While these logs are important, they do not provide the detailed network packet information that a network-level threat detection service would need.

Question 23. One of your team members inadvertently included a service account private JSON key while pushing code to GitHub. What immediate steps should you perform to mitigate this security breach?

1. Delete the JSON file from GitHub. B. Delete the project and all its resources. C. Delete the JSON file from GitHub, revoke the compromised key from Google Cloud IAM, and generate a new key for use. D. None of the above

Correct Answer – C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: This option outlines the essential and most secure immediate actions. Private keys, especially service account keys, are highly sensitive credentials that grant programmatic access to your GCP resources. If exposed on a public repository like GitHub:
  1. Delete the JSON file from GitHub: This removes the publicly accessible copy of the compromised key. However, this action alone is insufficient as the key might have already been copied.
  2. Revoke (delete) the compromised key from Google Cloud IAM: This is the most critical step. By revoking the key, you immediately invalidate it, preventing any further unauthorized use, even if someone copied it from GitHub.
  3. Generate a new key for use: After revoking the compromised key, you must generate a new, secure key for legitimate applications and services to continue functioning.
• Option A is incorrect: Merely deleting the file from GitHub does not ensure complete safety. An attacker could have already cloned the repository or accessed the key before deletion. The key itself remains active in GCP unless revoked.

• Option B is incorrect: Deleting the entire project and all its resources is an extreme and highly disruptive measure, especially if the project contains numerous live resources. It is not a feasible or practical solution for a compromised service account key. A targeted approach is far more appropriate.

• Option D is incorrect: Since option C provides the correct and comprehensive mitigation strategy, this option is invalid.

Question 24. Your project manager wants to create a user for Aston Smith, who is the new Cloud SQL administrator in your organization. Which of the following roles would grant him the ability to manage specific instances but explicitly not the ability to import or restore data from backups?

1. Cloud SQL Editor B. Cloud SQL Admin C. Cloud SQL Viewer D. Cloud SQL Client

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

• Option A is correct: The Cloud SQL Editor role provides permissions to manage specific Cloud SQL instances, including creating, updating, and deleting instances, and managing their settings. However, it explicitly does not grant permissions to import data or restore from backups, nor does it allow modifying user permissions or SSL certificates, or cloning/deleting/promoting instances. This aligns perfectly with the requirement to manage instances without data import/restore capabilities.

• Option B is incorrect: The Cloud SQL Admin role provides full control over all Cloud SQL resources. This would include the ability to import and restore data from backups, which goes against the specific requirement.

• Option C is incorrect: The Cloud SQL Viewer role provides read-only access to all Cloud SQL resources. It would not allow Aston Smith to “manage specific instances.”

• Option D is incorrect: The Cloud SQL Client role primarily provides connectivity access to Cloud SQL instances, typically from App Engine or via the Cloud SQL Proxy. It is not a management role and does not grant the ability to manage instances or perform administrative tasks.

Question 25. Your company has uploaded some business-critical documents to Cloud Storage, and your project manager wants you to restrict access to these objects using Access Control Lists (ACLs). Which of the following permissions would allow you to update the object ACLs?

1. storage.objects.update B. storage.objects.setIamPolicy C. storage.objects.create D. storage.objects.getIamPolicy

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: As per Google Cloud documentation, the storage.objects.setIamPolicy permission is the specific IAM permission required to update object ACLs (Access Control Lists), which are effectively managed as IAM policies at the object level in Cloud Storage. This permission allows you to modify who has access to a particular object and what level of access they have.

• Option A is incorrect: storage.objects.update allows you to update object metadata (e.g., content type, custom metadata), but it explicitly excludes ACLs.

• Option C is incorrect: storage.objects.create grants the ability to add new objects (files) to a bucket. It does not control permissions on existing objects.

• Option D is incorrect: storage.objects.getIamPolicy allows you to read the object’s ACLs or IAM policy, but it does not provide the ability to modify or update them.

Domain: Setting up a Cloud Solution Environment

Question 26. As per your manager’s instruction, you created a custom VPC with a subnet mask of /24, which theoretically provides 256 IP addresses. However, you are only able to utilize 252 addresses from it. Your manager is trying to understand what went wrong and approaches you for an explanation. What will be your accurate response to your manager?

252. Inform your manager that you will recreate the VPC because you feel something went wrong while creating a subnet. B. GCP reserves four IP addresses in each primary subnet range, which results in a usable IP count of 252. C. It’s because your account has reached a soft limit for the number of private IP address space. Raise a request for a quota increase. D. None of the above.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) explicitly reserves four IP addresses within each primary subnet range for internal network management purposes. These reserved addresses are:
  1. The first IP address in the range, which serves as the network address.
  2. The second IP address, which is reserved for the default gateway for the subnet.
  3. The second-to-last IP address, which is reserved for future use by Google.
  4. The last IP address in the range, which serves as the broadcast address. For a /24 subnet, which has 256 total IP addresses (232−24=28=256), subtracting these 4 reserved addresses leaves 256−4=252 usable IP addresses for your resources.
• Option A is incorrect: The subnet creation process was not flawed; this reservation is a standard and documented behavior of GCP VPC networks. Recreating the VPC would not change this fundamental design.

• Option C is incorrect: This scenario is not related to a soft limit or quota increase for private IP address space. It’s a fundamental design aspect of how GCP subnets function.

• Option D is incorrect: Since option B provides the correct and logical explanation, this option is invalid.

Domain: Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution

Question 27. You are employed by a retail company that operates a highly active online store. As the New Year approaches, you observe a significant surge in traffic to your e-store. You have ensured that your web servers are positioned behind a managed instance group. However, you notice that the web tier is frequently scaling up and down, sometimes multiple times within an hour. You need to prevent this rapid scaling behavior of the instance group. Which of the following options would help you achieve this?

1. Change the auto scaling metric to use multiple metrics instead of just one metric. B. Reduce the number of maximum instance count. C. Associate a health check with the instance group. D. Increase the cool down period.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

• Option D is correct: In Google Cloud’s Managed Instance Groups (MIGs) with autoscaling, the cool down period (also known as cooldown or stabilization period) is a crucial setting that prevents premature or excessive scaling actions. When an instance group scales up or down, the autoscaler waits for the duration of the cool down period before collecting new metrics or initiating another scaling event. Increasing this period will make the scaling policy wait for a longer, more stable period before taking the next action, thereby dampening rapid, fluctuating scaling up and down behavior. This is particularly useful in situations with bursty traffic or metrics that can fluctuate quickly, leading to “flapping” of the instance group size.

• Option A is incorrect: While using multiple autoscaling metrics can provide a more nuanced scaling policy, it won’t inherently prevent rapid scaling up and down if the metrics themselves are fluctuating quickly. In some cases, it might even introduce more complexity without solving the core issue of rapid changes.

• Option B is incorrect: Reducing the maximum instance count would cap the upper limit of scaling but would not address the issue of rapid scaling up and down within that limit or the frequency of scaling actions. It might even lead to performance bottlenecks if traffic exceeds the reduced maximum.

• Option C is incorrect: Associating a health check with the instance group helps the autoscaler understand the health of individual instances and ensures that unhealthy instances are replaced. While essential for overall system reliability and availability, it does not directly control the frequency or rapidness of scaling decisions based on load metrics.

Domain: Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution

Question 28. A developer inadvertently deleted some files from a Google Cloud Storage bucket. Fortunately, the files were not critical and were promptly re-created. Due to this incident, your team lead has instructed you to enable versioning on the bucket. Which command would help you enable this feature?

1. gsutil versioning enable gs://examlabs-bucket B. gsutil gs://examlabs-bucket enable versioning C. gsutil enable versioning gs://examlabs-bucket D. gsutil versioning set on gs://examlabs-bucket

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

• Option D is correct: The precise gsutil command to enable object versioning on a Google Cloud Storage bucket is gsutil versioning set on gs://examlabs-bucket. This command modifies the bucket’s versioning configuration to start retaining older versions of objects when they are updated or deleted, providing a history of changes and a recovery mechanism.

• Options A, B, and C are incorrect: These are not valid gsutil CLI commands for enabling versioning on a Cloud Storage bucket. The syntax for the versioning subcommand is gsutil versioning set <on|off> gs://<bucket-name>.

Domain: Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution

Question 29. A critical bug has been identified within your Python application, which is hosted using App Engine. You are preparing to roll out a new version of the application to resolve this bug, but you do not want traffic to automatically shift to the new version. This is to ensure the new version does not introduce any regressions or breaks. How would you achieve this controlled deployment?

1. Pass a custom version ID so that App Engine does not send traffic to the new version. B. Pass –no-promote flag while deploying the new version. C. Pass –no-active flag while deploying the new version. D. Use –inactive-mode flag while deploying the new version of the app.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: When deploying a new version of an application to Google App Engine using the gcloud app deploy command, you can use the –no-promote flag. This flag ensures that the newly deployed version is created but is not automatically set to receive all traffic. By default, App Engine promotes the new version to receive 100% of traffic. Using –no-promote allows you to deploy the new version for testing or verification purposes and then manually split or migrate traffic to it later, providing controlled rollout.

• Option A is incorrect: Passing a custom version ID (e.g., using –version) simply defines the name of the new version. It does not, by itself, prevent App Engine from automatically promoting that version to receive traffic upon successful deployment.

• Option C is incorrect: –no-active is an invalid flag for the gcloud app deploy command.

• Option D is incorrect: –inactive-mode is an invalid flag for the gcloud app deploy command.

Domain: Configure Access and Security

Question 30. You are attempting to fetch metadata of a VM using the command curl metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/ but are consistently receiving a 403 Forbidden response. What could be the most probable reason for this access denial?

1. A service account is missing. B. The Metadata-Flavor: Google header is missing. C. The Metadata-Access: Google header is missing. D. A firewall rule attached to the VM is blocking the request.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option B is correct: When querying the instance metadata server (metadata.google.internal) from within a Compute Engine VM, it is a security requirement that you must explicitly provide the Metadata-Flavor: Google HTTP header. This header acts as an indicator that the request is intentionally for retrieving metadata values, rather than being an unintentional or potentially malicious request from an insecure source. If this specific header is not included in the curl command, the metadata server will deny your request and return a 403 Forbidden error.

• Option A is incorrect: While a service account is used for authenticating API calls from a VM to other Google Cloud services, it is not directly required for fetching the VM’s own metadata. The metadata server typically grants access based on the source of the request (being from the VM itself) and the presence of the correct header.

• Option C is incorrect: Metadata-Access: Google is not a valid or required header for querying instance metadata.

• Option D is incorrect: If a firewall rule were blocking the request entirely, you would likely receive a timeout or a different network error (e.g., connection refused) rather than a 403 Forbidden response, which indicates the server received the request but denied access based on a policy or missing authentication/header. The 403 specifically points to an access issue at the application layer, not network layer blocking.

Question 31. What is the command for creating a Google Cloud Storage bucket that is intended for once-per-month access and is named archive_bucket?

1. gsutil rm -coldline gs://archive_bucket B. gsutil mb -c coldline gs://archive_bucket C. gsutil mb -c nearline gs://archive_bucket D. gsutil mb gs://archive_bucket

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

• Option C is correct: The gsutil mb command is used to make a bucket (mb stands for “make bucket”). The -c flag specifies the storage class of the bucket. For data accessed approximately once per month, the Nearline Storage class is the most cost-effective and appropriate choice. Therefore, gsutil mb -c nearline gs://archive_bucket is the correct command.
  • Nearline Storage is designed for data that you plan to access at most once a month. It has lower storage costs but higher access costs and a minimum storage duration of 30 days.
  • Coldline Storage is designed for data accessed at most once a quarter (every 90 days). It has even lower storage costs but higher access costs and a minimum storage duration of 90 days. Using Coldline when “once per month” access is expected would incur unnecessary early deletion or access fees.
• Option A is incorrect: gsutil rm is used to remove (delete) objects or buckets, not create them. The -coldline flag is also incorrectly used in this context.

• Option B is incorrect: While gsutil mb -c coldline is a valid command to create a bucket with Coldline storage, Coldline is typically for data accessed less frequently (e.g., once every 90 days), not “once per month.” Using Coldline for monthly access would be less cost-efficient than Nearline.

• Option D is incorrect: gsutil mb gs://archive_bucket would create the bucket with the default storage class, which is Standard Storage (equivalent to Multi-Regional or Regional Storage depending on location). Standard Storage is designed for frequently accessed data and would be more expensive than Nearline for once-per-month access.

Further Explanation on gsutil mb:

• Synopsis: gsutil mb [-c class] [-l location] [-p proj_id] url…
• If you do not specify a -c option, the bucket is created with the default storage class, which is Standard Storage. This is equivalent to Multi-Regional Storage or Regional Storage, depending on whether the bucket was created in a multi-regional location or a regional location, respectively.
• If you do not specify a -l option (location), the bucket is created in the default location (US). The -l option can specify any multi-regional or regional location.