PCDE Building and Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for a Service Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is adopting GitOps for their GKE clusters using Config Sync. They need to meet the following requirements: (1) automatically sync the cluster state to a Git repository every 5 minutes, (2) ensure that any changes made directly to the cluster are reverted to the desired state defined in Git. Which Config Sync settings should they configure? (Choose TWO).

Accepted Answer

Set spec.sync to '5m' in the RootSync or RepoSync object.. Option B is correct because `spec.sync` in a RootSync or RepoSync object defines the sync interval for Config Sync. Setting it to `'5m'` ensures the cluster state is automatically reconciled against the Git repository every 5 minutes. Option D is correct because enabling drift management (`spec.driftManagement: true`) ensures that any manual changes made directly to the cluster are detected and reverted to the desired state defined in Git, meeting the second requirement.

Answer

Set spec.driftManagement to false.

Answer

Set spec.override to true.

Answer

Set spec.syncInterval to '5m' in the RootSync or RepoSync object.

Question 2

A DevOps team uses Cloud Build to build a multi-service application. They have three services: frontend, backend, and worker. They want to run builds for all three services in parallel to speed up the pipeline. Which of the following cloudbuild.yaml configurations are valid for achieving parallel execution? (Choose TWO).

Accepted Answer

Set waitFor: ['-'] on all three steps.. Only option C is valid: setting `waitFor: ['-']` on all three steps makes them start simultaneously in parallel. Options A, B, D, and E do not achieve parallel execution; A runs only the first step immediately, B defines a dependency but not parallelism, D uses a single step, and E uses default sequential behavior. Although the question states 'Choose TWO', only one correct configuration is provided among the options.

Answer

Set waitFor: ['-'] on the first step and omit waitFor on the others.

Answer

Set waitFor: ['frontend', 'backend', 'worker'] on a subsequent step to run after all three.

Answer

Use a single step with multiple entrypoints and args.

Answer

Define three steps (frontend, backend, worker) without any waitFor field.

Question 3

A company uses Cloud Deploy to deploy to multiple GKE clusters (dev, staging, prod). They want to implement a canary deployment strategy for the prod target. The canary should deploy 10% of pods initially, then after 30 minutes and a manual approval, promote to 100%. Which configurations are necessary? (Choose THREE).

Accepted Answer

Set the canary percentage to 10% and the promotion interval to 30m.. Option A is correct because setting the canary percentage to 10% and the promotion interval to 30m directly implements the required behavior: initially 10% of pods receive traffic, and after 30 minutes the deployment automatically attempts promotion. This matches the canary deployment strategy in Cloud Deploy where the `canaryDeployment` configuration specifies `percentages` and `verify` intervals.

Answer

Set the strategy to 'blue/green' with a 10% initial pool.

Answer

Create a separate delivery pipeline for canary deployments.

Question 4

An engineer wants to trigger a Cloud Build pipeline automatically whenever a pull request is created against the main branch of a GitHub repository. Which type of build trigger should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Pull request trigger. Cloud Build supports push-to-branch and pull request triggers. For pull requests, the 'Pull Request' trigger type is used, which can be scoped to a specific branch like main.

Answer

Scheduled trigger

Answer

Manual trigger

Answer

Push to branch trigger

Question 5

A team uses Cloud Build with a cloudbuild.yaml that builds a Docker image. They want to speed up builds by caching the Docker layers using Kaniko cache in Artifact Registry. Which configuration change is required?

Accepted Answer

Use the '--cache' and '--cache-repo' flags in the kaniko builder step. Kaniko supports caching layers to a remote repository. In cloudbuild.yaml, the step using kaniko should set --cache=true and specify the --cache-repo pointing to an Artifact Registry Docker repository.

Answer

Add a step that runs 'docker build --cache-from' pointing to an Artifact Registry repo

Answer

Enable Cloud Build's built-in cache feature in the build configuration

Answer

Add a 'docker push' step after build to store layers in Artifact Registry

Question 6

An organization has a Cloud Deploy delivery pipeline with a canary deployment strategy to GKE. They want to automatically pause the rollout if the canary revision's error rate exceeds 5% for 5 minutes. Which feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Canary deployment strategy with metric analysis. Cloud Deploy can integrate with Cloud Monitoring metrics to automate canary verification. By defining a canary deployment strategy with metric-based analysis, the rollout can be paused or rolled back if predefined thresholds are breached.

Answer

PreDeploy hook

Answer

Rollback on deploy failure

Answer

Manual approval gate

Question 7

A team uses Cloud Deploy to manage deployments to multiple GKE clusters in different environments. They need to ensure that only a specific service account can promote releases to the production target. What should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Grant the service account the 'roles/clouddeploy.releaser' role on the production target. Cloud Deploy uses IAM roles on targets to control who can promote. By granting the roles/clouddeploy.releaser role to the service account on the production target, only that account can promote releases to that target.

Answer

Restrict the service account's permissions via a VPC Service Controls perimeter

Answer

Grant the service account the 'roles/clouddeploy.operator' role on the delivery pipeline

Answer

Use a manual approval gate for the production stage

Question 8

A developer wants to deploy a containerized application to Cloud Run using the command line. They need to set the maximum number of concurrent requests per container instance to 80. Which flag should they use with 'gcloud run deploy'?

Accepted Answer

--concurrency. Option D is correct because the `--concurrency` flag in `gcloud run deploy` directly sets the maximum number of simultaneous requests that a single container instance can handle. By specifying `--concurrency=80`, the developer limits each instance to processing up to 80 concurrent requests, which helps control resource usage and scaling behavior in Cloud Run.

Answer

--platform

Answer

--cpu-throttling

Answer

--max-instances

Question 9

An organization uses Artifact Registry to store Docker images. They want to enforce that only images that have passed vulnerability scanning and are signed can be deployed to GKE. Which two services should they use together?

Accepted Answer

Binary Authorization and Container Scanning API. Binary Authorization enforces that only signed and verified container images can be deployed to GKE, while the Container Scanning API (now part of Artifact Analysis) performs vulnerability scanning on images stored in Artifact Registry. Together, they ensure that only images that have passed vulnerability scanning and are cryptographically signed can be deployed, meeting the organization's requirements.

Answer

Cloud Deploy and Cloud Run

Answer

Cloud Build and Artifact Registry

Answer

Security Command Center and Cloud Asset Inventory

Question 10

A team uses Cloud Build to deploy to Cloud Run via gcloud run deploy. They need to perform a canary deployment where 10% of traffic goes to the new revision for 10 minutes before shifting to 100%. The deployment must be automated without manual steps. What approach should they take?

Accepted Answer

Use Cloud Deploy with a canary strategy targeting Cloud Run. Cloud Run supports traffic splitting via the --no-traffic flag (deploy without serving traffic) and then gradually updating traffic with update-traffic. This can be automated in a Cloud Build step with a sleep or using Cloud Deploy's canary strategy.

Answer

Use Cloud Build with a substitution variable to control traffic percentage across two builds

Answer

Use two separate Cloud Build steps: first deploy with --no-traffic, then second step after 10 minutes with --to-revisions

Answer

Use a single gcloud run deploy with --traffic flags to set 10% initially, then manually update traffic later

Question 11

A company uses Helm charts to manage Kubernetes deployments. They want to integrate Skaffold into their CI/CD pipeline for local development and continuous deployment to GKE. Which Skaffold feature is MOST relevant for applying environment-specific configurations?

Accepted Answer

Skaffold's built-in Kustomize renderer. Option B is correct because Skaffold's built-in Kustomize renderer allows you to apply environment-specific overlays and patches directly within the Skaffold pipeline, enabling declarative configuration management without modifying the underlying Helm charts. This is the most relevant feature for applying environment-specific configurations when using Helm charts, as Kustomize can override Helm-generated manifests with environment-specific patches, such as different replica counts or resource limits, without requiring separate Helm values files per environment.

Answer

skaffold run with --profile flag

Answer

Helm charts with values files per environment

Answer

Skaffold's artifact dependency graph

Question 12

An engineer needs to create a build trigger in Cloud Build that runs every day at midnight. Which type of trigger should they use?

Accepted Answer

Scheduled trigger. Cloud Build supports scheduled triggers using a cron syntax. This allows running builds at specific times or intervals.

Answer

Push to branch trigger

Answer

Pull request trigger

Answer

Manual trigger

Question 13

A team uses Cloud Deploy with a delivery pipeline that has multiple targets (dev, staging, prod). They want to automatically roll back to the previous release if the new release fails a post-deployment health check. Which configuration should they use?

Accepted Answer

Configure a postDeploy hook that runs a health check and uses 'gcloud deploy releases rollback' if it fails. Option A is correct because Cloud Deploy does not have a built-in 'rollbackOnFailure' or 'auto-rollback' property for post-deployment health checks. Instead, you must implement a custom postDeploy hook that runs a health check script; if the health check fails, the script can invoke 'gcloud deploy releases rollback' to programmatically trigger a rollback to the previous release. This gives you full control over the rollback logic and conditions.

Answer

Set 'rollbackOnFailure: true' in the pipeline definition

Answer

Use a canary deployment with metric analysis to trigger rollback

Answer

Enable 'auto-rollback' in the target configuration

Question 14

A company uses Config Sync to manage GKE clusters in a GitOps fashion. They need to ensure that resources are automatically synced from a Git repository to the cluster, and that any drift from the desired state is corrected. Which Config Sync mode should they enable?

Accepted Answer

Sync mode. Config Sync supports a 'sync' mode that automatically applies the manifests from the repository and continuously reconciles to correct drift. The 'monitor' mode only detects drift but does not correct it.

Answer

Dry-run mode

Answer

Monitor mode

Answer

Policy mode

Question 15

A developer wants to manually promote a release from a staging target to a production target using Cloud Deploy. Which gcloud command should they use?

Accepted Answer

gcloud deploy releases promote. The `gcloud deploy releases promote` command is the correct choice because Cloud Deploy uses a promotion-based model where releases are advanced through targets (e.g., staging to production) via a promote action. This command triggers the creation of a new rollout in the next target in the promotion sequence, effectively moving the release forward without manual rollout creation.

Answer

gcloud deploy releases approve

Answer

gcloud deploy rollouts create

Answer

gcloud deploy targets promote