Google ACE Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution — Timed 10 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to Google Cloud. The application has unpredictable traffic patterns and long-running connections. The team wants to minimize operational overhead and only pay for resources when the application is processing requests. Which compute option should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Run. Cloud Run is a serverless compute platform that scales to zero when not in use, has a per-request billing model, and supports HTTP-triggered container workloads. It can handle long-running connections as long as they stay within the request timeout limit. Cloud Run minimizes operational overhead by eliminating server management and scaling automatically.

Answer

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Autopilot cluster

Answer

Compute Engine with managed instance groups and autoscaling

Answer

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard cluster with node autoscaling

Question 2

An engineer needs to create a Cloud Storage bucket for storing archival data that will be accessed less than once a year. The data must be stored durably and cost-effectively. Which storage class should the engineer use?

Accepted Answer

Archive. Archive storage class is designed for data accessed less than once a year, with the lowest storage cost but higher retrieval costs and a 365-day minimum storage duration. It is ideal for long-term archival.

Answer

Coldline

Answer

Standard

Answer

Nearline

Question 3

A company plans to run a stateful application on Compute Engine that requires high random I/O performance and the ability to resize the persistent disk without downtime. The application is running on a Linux VM. Which persistent disk type and configuration should the engineer choose?

Accepted Answer

Extreme persistent disk (pd-extreme). Extreme persistent disks are designed for high random I/O workloads, offering up to 120,000 IOPS and the ability to resize without downtime. They are SSD-based and suitable for databases.

Answer

Balanced persistent disk (pd-balanced)

Answer

SSD persistent disk (pd-ssd)

Answer

Standard persistent disk (pd-standard)

Question 4

A company uses Cloud SQL for MySQL to host a database. The database must be accessible from a Compute Engine VM in the same region but in a different VPC network (VPC-A). The company does not want to use public IP addresses or VPN. What should the engineer do to enable connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Set up VPC Network Peering between VPC-A and the VPC where Cloud SQL is deployed, and configure Cloud SQL with a private IP. Cloud SQL private services access requires the Cloud SQL instance to be in a VPC network. For connectivity across VPCs, VPC Network Peering can be used, as both VPCs are in the same project or across projects. Private services access connects Cloud SQL to a VPC, and peering allows another VPC to access it.

Answer

Export the Cloud SQL instance as a dump and recreate it in VPC-A

Answer

Configure the Cloud SQL instance with a public IP and allow the VM's IP in authorized networks

Answer

Use Cloud VPN to connect VPC-A to the VPC where Cloud SQL is deployed

Question 5

An engineer needs to deploy a containerized web application that receives HTTP requests and should scale to zero when not in use. The application is stateless and has a lightweight container image. Which Google Cloud compute service should be used?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Run. Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless platform that scales to zero when no requests are coming in, and bills per request. It is ideal for stateless HTTP-triggered container workloads.

Answer

Compute Engine with a single VM

Answer

Cloud Functions

Answer

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard cluster

Question 6

A company wants to set up a hybrid network between their on-premises data center and Google Cloud. They need a highly available VPN connection with 99.99% SLA. Which VPN solution should they choose?

Accepted Answer

HA VPN. HA VPN offers a 99.99% SLA (with certain conditions) when configured with two interfaces and two tunnels to two on-premises VPN gateways. Classic VPN does not provide an SLA.

Answer

Classic VPN

Answer

Cloud Interconnect

Answer

Cloud NAT

Question 7

A company runs a batch analytics workload on Compute Engine that runs for 3 hours every night. The workload is fault-tolerant and can be disrupted. Which pricing model should the engineer use to minimize cost?

Accepted Answer

Preemptible VMs. Preemptible VMs are significantly cheaper than regular VMs and can be terminated at any time, suitable for fault-tolerant batch workloads. They are ideal for short-lived, interruptible jobs.

Answer

Committed use discounts

Answer

Spot VMs

Answer

Sustained use discounts

Question 8

An engineer is designing a VPC for a multi-tier application. The application has web servers that need direct internet access, and a private database tier that must not have public IP addresses. The database tier needs outbound internet access to download updates. Which network configuration should the engineer implement?

Accepted Answer

Place web servers in a subnet with public IPs, and database servers in a separate subnet with Cloud NAT and no public IP. Web servers should be in a subnet with public IPs or a Cloud NAT for outbound. The database tier must be in a private subnet without public IP, but needs outbound internet via Cloud NAT. This allows secure outbound without public exposure.

Answer

Place web servers in a subnet with Cloud NAT, and database servers in the same subnet without public IP

Answer

Place both tiers in the same subnet with no public IPs and use Cloud NAT for all outbound traffic

Answer

Place web servers in a subnet with Cloud NAT, and database servers in a subnet with public IPs and firewall rules to restrict inbound

Question 9

A company needs to run a MongoDB database on Compute Engine. The database requires high-throughput, low-latency storage that can survive VM failures. Which disk type and configuration is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

SSD persistent disks with snapshots. SSD persistent disks (pd-ssd) provide high IOPS and low latency for databases. For survival of VM failures, the disk should be set to non-deletable or use snapshots. Regional persistent disks replicate data across zones for higher availability, but the question asks for survival of VM failures, which can be achieved with zonal disks if the VM is recreated and the disk is detached. However, regional persistent disks are better for durability across zone failures. The best answer is pd-ssd with snapshots for backup.

Answer

Standard persistent disks with snapshots

Answer

Extreme persistent disks with snapshots

Answer

Local SSDs

Question 10

A company wants to use Cloud Functions to process events from Cloud Storage when new objects are uploaded. They need the function to run in a specific VPC network for tight security. Which Cloud Functions generation supports VPC connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Functions (2nd gen) with VPC connector. Cloud Functions (2nd gen) is built on Cloud Run and supports VPC connectivity via connectors or direct VPC. 1st gen does not support VPC connectors for ingress/egress in the same way. 2nd gen is recommended for VPC network integration.

Answer

Cloud Functions (1st gen) with VPC connector

Answer

Cloud Functions (2nd gen) with Cloud VPN

Answer

Cloud Functions (1st gen) with Cloud NAT