Google ACE Practice Test 6 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A team runs a Kubernetes CronJob that performs nightly database cleanup. The job runs at 2 AM UTC. This morning, the team notices the job failed at 2 AM but no one was alerted. How should the team configure alerting for CronJob failures?

Accepted Answer

Create a log-based metric on CronJob failure events in Cloud Logging and an alerting policy on that metric. Option B is correct because Google Cloud Logging captures Kubernetes CronJob failure events, and you can create a log-based metric to count these failures. An alerting policy on that metric then triggers notifications when failures occur, providing a reliable, customizable alerting mechanism that does not depend on job history or restart policies.

Answer

Set `successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 0` — GKE sends an alert when the history is empty

Answer

Set `restartPolicy: Always` on the CronJob's Pod template — it will retry until success

Answer

Enable GKE's built-in CronJob alerting feature in the cluster's Notifications settings

Question 2

A team builds a GKE application that processes healthcare data. Regulatory requirements mandate that data in transit between GKE nodes must be encrypted. GKE is running on GCP. What provides encrypted node-to-node traffic within the cluster?

Accepted Answer

GCP automatically encrypts all VM-to-VM traffic in transit within its network. GCP automatically encrypts all VM-to-VM traffic in transit at the network layer, including traffic between GKE nodes, using a combination of MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) and IPsec. This encryption is enabled by default for all traffic within a VPC and between VPCs, without any configuration required. Therefore, node-to-node traffic within a GKE cluster is already encrypted, satisfying the regulatory requirement.

Answer

GKE node traffic is unencrypted by default — mTLS must be manually configured on every Pod

Answer

Enable VPC Flow Logs — they activate encryption for logged traffic

Answer

Install a TLS termination proxy on each GKE node — it encrypts intranode traffic

Question 3

A Cloud Run service calls external third-party APIs that have rate limits. Under burst traffic, the service spawns many concurrent instances, each making direct API calls, causing rate limit errors. What GCP pattern reduces API call volume without adding infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Cache third-party API responses in Cloud Memorystore (Redis) with appropriate TTL. Caching third-party API responses in Cloud Memorystore (Redis) with an appropriate TTL reduces the number of outbound API calls by serving cached data to multiple concurrent Cloud Run instances. This directly addresses rate-limit errors without adding new infrastructure, as Memorystore is a managed in-memory cache that integrates seamlessly with Cloud Run via a VPC connector.

Answer

Set Cloud Run max-concurrency to 1 so each instance handles one request

Answer

Enable Cloud CDN on the Cloud Run service to cache outbound requests

Answer

Migrate to Cloud Functions with a lower default concurrency limit

Question 4

A Cloud Run service requires access to a private Cloud SQL instance in the same VPC. The Cloud SQL instance is not publicly accessible. How should the Cloud Run service connect to Cloud SQL without using the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy separately?

Accepted Answer

Configure the Cloud Run service with `--add-cloudsql-instances` to connect via the built-in Auth Proxy. Option B is correct because the Cloud Run service can use the `--add-cloudsql-instances` flag, which automatically deploys a built-in Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar container within the same pod. This proxy establishes a secure, encrypted connection to the private Cloud SQL instance using the instance's private IP, without requiring the instance to have a public IP or the user to manage a separate proxy. The proxy authenticates via the service account attached to the Cloud Run service, enabling seamless and secure connectivity.

Answer

Use the Cloud SQL public IP with SSL required — Cloud Run can reach public IPs

Answer

Deploy a separate Cloud SQL Auth Proxy container in the same Cloud Run service as a sidecar

Answer

Enable Serverless VPC Access connector to route Cloud Run traffic to the private Cloud SQL IP

Question 5

A Cloud Build pipeline builds a container image and pushes it to Artifact Registry. The next step needs to deploy the image to Cloud Run. The pipeline runs as the Cloud Build service account. What minimum permission does the Cloud Build SA need for the deployment step?

Accepted Answer

`roles/run.admin` and `roles/iam.serviceAccountUser` on the Cloud Run runtime service account.. The Cloud Build service account needs `roles/run.admin` to deploy services to Cloud Run, but it also requires `roles/iam.serviceAccountUser` on the Cloud Run runtime service account (the identity the Cloud Run service runs as) because the deployment step impersonates that runtime service account to create or update the service. Without the `iam.serviceAccountUser` permission, the deployment fails with a permission denied error, even if the Cloud Build SA has full Cloud Run admin rights.

Answer

`roles/run.admin` only.

Answer

`roles/owner` to ensure all necessary permissions are covered.

Answer

`roles/cloudbuild.builds.editor` on the Cloud Run project.

Question 6

You have a Cloud Run service configured with `min-instances: 0`. During load testing you notice the first request after a period of inactivity takes 3–5 seconds instead of the normal 100ms. Subsequent requests are fast. What is causing this, and what is the most cost-effective fix?

Accepted Answer

Set `min-instances: 1` to keep a warm instance running and eliminate the cold start latency.. Cold starts occur when Cloud Run needs to spin up a new container instance from zero. The 3–5 second delay is the container startup time. Setting `min-instances: 1` keeps at least one instance warm at all times, eliminating cold starts for the first request. This adds a small cost (one always-running instance) but is the most targeted fix. Increasing memory or CPU doesn't directly address cold start if the issue is container initialization time.

Answer

The Cloud Run service's container image is too large; reduce image size.

Answer

Switch from Cloud Run to GKE, which doesn't have cold starts.

Answer

Increase Cloud Run's request timeout to 30 seconds to accommodate cold starts.

Question 7

A Cloud SQL instance's disk is at 95% capacity. The application is experiencing write failures. You need to resolve this immediately with no downtime. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Increase the disk size via the Cloud SQL console or `gcloud sql instances patch` — this occurs with no instance restart.. Option B is correct because Cloud SQL supports dynamic disk resizing without requiring an instance restart. When you increase the disk size via the console or `gcloud sql instances patch`, the change takes effect immediately, allowing the database to continue serving writes without downtime. This directly resolves the write failures caused by disk-full conditions.

Answer

Take a snapshot of the instance, create a new larger instance from the snapshot, then update the connection string.

Answer

Delete old database tables to free up space.

Answer

Switch the instance to SSD storage, which has higher throughput and allows more writes.

Question 8

You deploy a Cloud Function (gen1) that calls an external API. During testing you find the function times out after 60 seconds even though you set `--timeout=540`. You also notice the function logs show execution completing in 45 seconds before the timeout. What is the most likely cause of the external timeout?

Accepted Answer

The HTTP client library used in the function has a default 60-second socket/connection timeout.. Option B is correct because the external API call is timing out due to the HTTP client library's default socket/connection timeout, which is often set to 60 seconds. Even though the Cloud Function's overall timeout is configured to 540 seconds, the HTTP request itself has its own timeout that expires before the function completes. The function logs show execution finishing in 45 seconds, indicating the function code completes, but the external API call fails silently or the response is not received within the client's timeout window.

Answer

Cloud Functions gen1 has a hard maximum timeout of 60 seconds regardless of configuration.

Answer

Cloud VPC restricts outbound connections to 60 seconds.

Answer

The function's service account lacks permission to make outbound HTTP calls.

Question 9

A Cloud Storage bucket contains sensitive PII data. You need to ensure that objects in this bucket are encrypted using a key that your security team controls, and that the key can be revoked if needed to render all data inaccessible. Which encryption option should you use?

Accepted Answer

Configure Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK) using Cloud KMS.. Option B is correct because Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK) allow you to control and manage the key used for encrypting Cloud Storage objects via Cloud KMS. This enables key revocation, which immediately renders all data encrypted with that key inaccessible, meeting the security team's requirement for revocable control.

Answer

Use Google-managed encryption keys (default).

Answer

Enable Cloud Storage's built-in server-side encryption with AES-256.

Answer

Use Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK) by embedding the key in each API request.

Question 10

A team runs `gcloud organizations list` and sees no output even though they know their company has a GCP organization. What is the most likely cause, and how should they resolve it?

Accepted Answer

The user lacks org-level IAM permissions such as Organization Viewer.. The `gcloud organizations list` command retrieves organizations from the GCP Resource Manager API. If no output is returned despite the organization existing, the most likely cause is that the authenticated user lacks the `resourcemanager.organizations.get` permission, which is granted by roles like Organization Viewer (`roles/resourcemanager.organizationViewer`) or Organization Administrator (`roles/resourcemanager.organizationAdmin`). Without this IAM permission at the organization level, the API call returns an empty list rather than an error, which is a common source of confusion.

Answer

The organization does not exist yet; run `gcloud organizations create` to create it.

Answer

The gcloud SDK does not support the organizations command; use the Cloud Console instead.

Answer

The project must be linked to the organization using `gcloud projects move`.