hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
Google ACE Practice Question: A company's Google Kubernetes Engine cluster has…
A company's Google Kubernetes Engine cluster has experienced a sudden increase in latency. The team suspects a misconfigured node pool is causing resource contention. They want to verify the node's resource usage. Which command or tool should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'kubectl describe node' (which shows static capacity and requests) with 'kubectl top nodes' (which shows actual live usage), leading them to choose D when they need real-time utilization data.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Run 'kubectl top nodes'.
B is correct because 'kubectl top nodes' directly displays real-time CPU and memory usage for each node in the cluster, which is the fastest way to identify resource contention causing latency. This command leverages the metrics-server to aggregate resource metrics from kubelets, giving immediate insight into node-level utilization without additional overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Run 'gcloud container clusters describe cluster-name'.
Why it's wrong here
This command retrieves the cluster's static configuration, such as the zone, Kubernetes version, and node pool settings, from the GKE control plane. It does not query the metrics pipeline for live CPU or memory utilization, so it cannot show real-time resource usage. It is a management API call, not a monitoring command.
- ✓
Run 'kubectl top nodes'.
Why this is correct
This is the correct command because it queries the Metrics Server API, which aggregates metrics from kubelets on each node and reports current CPU and memory usage, including percentages of allocatable capacity. It provides a concise per-node summary directly in the terminal, making it the fastest native CLI way to assess live node utilization in the cluster.
- ✗
Use the Cloud Console Monitoring page to view node metrics.
Why it's wrong here
The Cloud Console Monitoring page is a legitimate web UI for viewing node utilization, using Cloud Monitoring's metric dashboards, and it can show time-series charts and historical trends. However, it is not a command-line tool; it requires navigating through the Cloud Console and optionally configuring custom charts, so it is less immediate for an engineer seeking a quick terminal-based snapshot than 'kubectl top nodes'.
- ✗
Run 'kubectl describe node node-name'.
Why it's wrong here
This command outputs node conditions, taints, capacity, allocatable resources, and the total resource requests and limits of pods scheduled on that node, but it does not display actual current CPU or memory consumption. The requests/limits data represent reserved or maximum usage, not real-time utilization. Therefore it cannot be used to quickly determine node-level resource pressure.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Google Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a managed Kubernetes service on Google Cloud that lets you deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications without having to operate the underlying cluster control plane.
Key term
Anthos
Anthos is a Google Cloud platform that lets you run applications consistently across different computing environments, like on-premises data centers and multiple public clouds.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ACE exam.