Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Match each GCP monitoring/logging tool to its purpose.

Question 2

A developer needs to pass a startup script to a Compute Engine instance during creation. Which method should be used to ensure the script runs on first boot?

Accepted Answer

Use gcloud compute instances create with --metadata=startup-script=.... The `--metadata=startup-script=...` flag on `gcloud compute instances create` passes the script as instance metadata. Compute Engine automatically executes the value of the `startup-script` metadata key on every boot, including the first boot. This is the standard, documented method for providing a startup script at instance creation time.

Answer

Create a custom image with the script baked in.

Answer

Use gcloud compute instances add-metadata after creating the instance.

Answer

Use gcloud compute instances create with --startup-script flag.

Question 3

A company has Compute Engine instances in us-east1-a and us-east1-b zones. They want to allow communication between these instances with minimal latency and no additional cost. What is the best networking approach?

Accepted Answer

Use a single VPC network that includes both zones.. A single VPC network spans all regions and zones, allowing instances in different zones (us-east1-a and us-east1-b) to communicate using internal IP addresses with low latency and no additional cost. This is because VPC networks provide flat, global networking by default, and traffic between zones within the same VPC uses Google's internal backbone without incurring egress charges.

Answer

Configure VPC Network Peering between two separate VPC networks.

Answer

Create a new subnet in each zone and use Cloud NAT.

Answer

Set up a Cloud VPN between the zones.

Question 4

A Cloud Router BGP session is flapping. The logs show 'Interface flapping due to changes in the underlying network'. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

MTU mismatch across the network path.. The log message 'Interface flapping due to changes in the underlying network' indicates that the BGP session is unstable because the physical or logical interface is going up and down. An MTU mismatch across the network path can cause packet fragmentation issues, leading to intermittent connectivity and interface flaps as the router detects and recovers from the problem. This is the most likely cause because it directly affects the stability of the underlying network path.

Answer

BGP MD5 authentication failure.

Answer

Incorrect local AS number in Cloud Router configuration.

Answer

BGP timer misconfiguration between peers.

Question 5

Which TWO actions are required to allow a private GKE cluster to pull container images from Artifact Registry in the same project?

Accepted Answer

Enable Private Google Access on the subnet where the GKE nodes are deployed.. Option D is correct because Private Google Access enables GKE nodes with only internal IP addresses to reach Google APIs and services, including Artifact Registry, over Google's private network rather than the public internet. Option E is correct because the GKE node's service account must have the Artifact Registry Reader role (roles/artifactregistry.reader) to authenticate and pull container images from the registry.

Answer

Create a firewall rule allowing outbound traffic to Artifact Registry IP ranges.

Answer

Set up VPC Network Peering with the Artifact Registry service.

Answer

Configure Cloud NAT for the GKE cluster.

Question 6

Which THREE factors should be considered when selecting a machine series for a Compute Engine instance running a memory-intensive batch job?

Accepted Answer

Network throughput.. Network throughput (A) is a critical factor for a memory-intensive batch job because such jobs often involve reading or writing large datasets from persistent storage or other sources over the network. The instance series must provide sufficient network bandwidth to avoid I/O bottlenecks that could extend job completion time, even if the compute and memory resources are adequate.

Answer

Sustained use discount.

Answer

GPU availability.

Question 7

Which TWO statements are true about Cloud Load Balancing?

Accepted Answer

Regional load balancing supports TCP/UDP traffic.. Regional load balancing supports TCP and UDP traffic because it operates at Layer 4, using the regional forwarding rule to direct packets based on IP protocol, port, and optional session affinity. This allows it to handle non-HTTP workloads such as DNS, VoIP, or gaming traffic that require UDP or raw TCP connections.

Answer

All load balancers require a regional forwarding rule.

Answer

Global load balancing supports only HTTP/S traffic.

Answer

Internal load balancing is only for traffic within the same VPC.

Question 8

Refer to the exhibit. A user reports that the instance 'batch-vm' is unavailable. Based on the output, what is the most likely cause of the unavailability?

Accepted Answer

The preemptible VM was terminated by Google due to its preemptible nature.. The exhibit shows the instance 'batch-vm' with a status of 'TERMINATED' and the 'preemptible' flag set to 'true'. Preemptible VMs in Google Cloud have a maximum runtime of 24 hours and can be terminated at any time by Google Compute Engine due to resource constraints. The termination reason is typically 'preemption', which matches the scenario of a user reporting unavailability without manual intervention.

Answer

The VM was stopped manually by a user.

Answer

The VM lost its external IP address.

Answer

The VM crashed due to an out-of-memory error.

Question 9

Refer to the exhibit. A Cloud Deployment Manager deployment fails with the error 'Resource 'my-firewall' already exists'. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

A firewall rule with the name 'my-firewall' already exists in the project.. Option C is correct because the error message 'Resource 'my-firewall' already exists' directly indicates that a firewall rule with the exact name 'my-firewall' is already present in the project. Cloud Deployment Manager creates resources by name, and if a resource with the same name exists (even if it was created outside the deployment), the deployment will fail unless the deployment is configured to adopt or manage that existing resource. The error is not about permissions, network references, or missing delete policies—it is a name collision.

Answer

The user lacks IAM permissions to create firewall rules.

Answer

The network reference in the firewall rule is incorrect.

Answer

The deployment does not include a 'delete' policy for existing resources.

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. A user (ops@example.com) is unable to create a new VPC network in the project. What should the administrator verify first?

Accepted Answer

The user has appropriate IAM roles such as roles/compute.networkAdmin.. To create a VPC network in Google Cloud, the user needs the compute.networks.create permission. The roles/compute.networkAdmin IAM role includes this permission, along with others needed to manage VPC networks. Option D correctly identifies that the user must have appropriate IAM roles, specifically roles/compute.networkAdmin or a custom role with the necessary compute.networks.create permission.

Answer

The user has been granted roles/compute.admin.

Answer

The user has the project owner role.

Answer

The user has the roles/storage.admin role.

Question 11

A company wants to provision multiple similar environments (dev, test, prod) with consistent networking configurations. Which approach is a best practice for infrastructure as code?

Accepted Answer

Use a single Terraform configuration with workspaces.. Terraform workspaces allow you to manage multiple distinct environments (e.g., dev, test, prod) from a single configuration by maintaining separate state files. This ensures consistent networking configurations across environments while avoiding duplication of code, which is a core best practice for infrastructure as code.

Answer

Use Ansible playbooks to run ad-hoc commands.

Answer

Run separate gcloud commands for each environment.

Answer

Use Cloud Deployment Manager templates with environment-specific parameters.

Question 12

A Cloud Function fails to connect to a Cloud SQL instance. The Cloud SQL instance has a private IP. What should the developer check?

Accepted Answer

Ensure either Cloud SQL Proxy is running or a VPC connector is configured, and IAM permissions are correct.. Option C is correct because a Cloud Function with a private IP Cloud SQL instance requires either the Cloud SQL Proxy (which uses the Cloud SQL Auth proxy to establish an encrypted connection via the public IP, but if the instance has only a private IP, the proxy must be run within the same VPC) or a VPC connector to enable private networking. Additionally, proper IAM permissions (e.g., Cloud SQL Client role) are necessary for the proxy or connector to authenticate and connect. Without both the network path and IAM permissions, the connection will fail.

Answer

Ensure the Cloud SQL Proxy is running and configured.

Answer

Verify the Cloud Function's network settings.

Answer

Configure a VPC connector for the Cloud Function.

Question 13

A company uses Shared VPC. A project admin in a service project tries to create a subnet in the shared VPC network but receives a permission denied error. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The service project admin lacks the compute.subnetworks.create permission on the host project.. In a Shared VPC architecture, subnet creation is a privileged operation that can only be performed by a user with the compute.subnetworks.create permission on the host project. The service project admin, by default, does not have this permission in the host project, which is why the permission denied error occurs. Granting this permission to the service project admin at the host project level would resolve the issue.

Answer

Only the Shared VPC host project admin can create subnets.

Answer

The Shared VPC is not enabled for the service project.

Answer

Subnets must be created in the service project, not the host project.

Question 14

When creating a Compute Engine instance from a custom image stored in another project, which gcloud flag is required?

Accepted Answer

--image. Option C is correct because the `--image` flag is required when creating a Compute Engine instance from a custom image, regardless of whether the image is in the same project or a different project. This flag specifies the name of the custom image to use as the boot disk source. Without it, gcloud would default to a public image or fail to create the instance.

Answer

--image-project

Answer

--source-instance

Answer

--image-family

Question 15

A web application running on Compute Engine behind a global HTTP(S) load balancer experiences high latency during traffic spikes. Which quick fix would best address this issue without changing the architecture?

Accepted Answer

Configure managed instance group autoscaling to add more instances.. Managed instance group (MIG) autoscaling dynamically adds more instances when CPU utilization or other metrics exceed a threshold, directly absorbing the increased traffic during spikes. This is the quickest fix because it requires no architectural changes—just configuring autoscaling parameters on the existing MIG. By scaling out horizontally, the load balancer can distribute requests across more backends, reducing per-instance load and latency.

Answer

Enable Cloud CDN on the load balancer.

Answer

Switch to a regional load balancer to reduce latency.

Answer

Increase the machine type of the backend instances.