20+ practice questions focused on Deploying applications — one of the most tested topics on the Google Professional Cloud Developer exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation so you learn why the right answer is correct.
Start Deploying applications PracticeYou are deploying a critical application on Compute Engine. The application requires high availability and must survive a zonal failure. You have created a managed instance group (MIG) with autoscaling across two zones. The application state is stored in a Cloud SQL instance with a read replica in another region. The application also uses a shared static IP address for client access. During a test, you simulate a failure of zone us-central1-a. You observe that the MIG automatically creates new instances in the remaining zone, but the application becomes unreachable for several minutes. What is the most likely cause of the downtime?
Explanation: The most likely cause is that the load balancer's health check interval and timeout delayed the detection of unhealthy instances in the failed zone, preventing traffic from being rerouted to the new instances in the remaining zone. Even though the MIG created new instances quickly, the load balancer continued sending requests to the failed zone until the health check marked those backends as unhealthy, causing the application to be unreachable during that window.
An organization deploys a critical application on GKE with multiple namespaces. They want to enforce that only certain images from approved Artifact Registry repositories can be deployed in the production namespace. Which GKE feature should they use?
Explanation: Binary Authorization is the correct GKE feature because it enforces deployment-time policy controls that require container images to be signed by trusted authorities and originate from approved Artifact Registry repositories. By configuring an admission webhook with Binary Authorization, the organization can create an attestation policy that blocks any pod in the production namespace from running unless its image has a valid cryptographic signature from a trusted signer and the image path matches an allowed Artifact Registry host.
After updating the image to v2, users report that the frontend application returns errors because it cannot reach the backend service. The backend service is running on GKE with the name 'backend-service' in the same namespace. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: The most likely cause is that the frontend application expects the backend URL from an environment variable named `BACKEND_SERVICE_URL`, but the deployment sets `BACKEND_URL`. This mismatch means the frontend cannot resolve the backend endpoint, leading to connection errors. In Kubernetes, environment variables are commonly used to pass service discovery information, and a naming mismatch directly breaks the application's ability to reach the backend.
A team deploys a containerized web application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) using a Deployment. They need to expose the application externally via a stable IP address and enable SSL termination. Which resource should they use?
Explanation: An Ingress with a Google-managed SSL certificate is the correct choice because it provides a single stable IP address via a global forwarding rule, terminates SSL at the Google Cloud HTTP(S) load balancer, and routes traffic to the GKE Deployment. This approach offloads SSL decryption from the application pods and uses a managed certificate that auto-renews, meeting both the stable IP and SSL termination requirements.
During a deployment to App Engine flexible environment, the new version fails to start and the logs show 'Container failed to start: context deadline exceeded'. The previous version remains serving traffic. What is the most likely cause?
Explanation: The error 'context deadline exceeded' in App Engine flexible environment indicates that the container did not start within the allowed startup timeout. The default timeout for container startup in App Engine flexible is 10 minutes, and if the application takes longer (e.g., due to slow initialization, large dependency downloads, or database migrations), the platform kills the container and logs this error. The previous version continues serving because the new version failed to become healthy.
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Practice all Deploying applications questions1. Baseline your knowledge
Start with 10 questions to gauge your current understanding of Deploying applications. This tells you whether you need a concept refresher or just practice.
2. Review every explanation
For each question — right or wrong — read the full explanation. Understanding why an answer is correct is more valuable than knowing the answer itself.
3. Focus on exam traps
Deploying applications questions on the PCD frequently use trap wording. Look for subtle differences in answers that test your precision, not just general knowledge.
4. Reach 80% consistently
Do repeated sessions until you score 80%+ three times in a row. Then move to mixed-mode practice to test cross-topic recall under realistic conditions.
The exact number varies per candidate. Deploying applications is tested as part of the Google Professional Cloud Developer blueprint. Practicing with targeted Deploying applications questions ensures you can handle any format or difficulty that appears.
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Difficulty is subjective, but Deploying applications is a high-priority exam concept tested in multiple ways — direct recall, scenario analysis, and command-output interpretation. Consistent practice is the best way to build confidence.
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