Google ACE Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution Practice Question
A company wants to run a stateless containerized web application that scales to zero when not in use. The application receives HTTP requests and must be billed only for the resources consumed during request processing. Which Google Cloud compute service is most appropriate?
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
✓
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a serverless container platform that scales to zero and charges per request, CPU, and memory used during request processing. It is ideal for stateless HTTP-triggered workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard
Why it's wrong here
GKE Standard is wrong for this use case because it forces you to provision, upgrade, and maintain an underlying node pool even though the application itself is stateless. The control plane and nodes incur fixed cost and operational overhead, and the cluster cannot scale to zero, making it unnecessarily complex for a simple containerized web app.
- ✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is correct because it runs stateless container images on a fully managed, serverless platform that scales automatically from zero to thousands of instances based on HTTP traffic. You only pay for requests while the container is processing, and you don't manage servers or clusters, so a stateless containerized web application can be deployed with a single command.
- ✗
Cloud Functions
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions is wrong because it does not execute arbitrary container images; it runs code in a pre-configured runtime that is tied to event-driven, single-purpose functions. A containerized web application with its own framework and routing expectations cannot be packaged as-is, so Cloud Functions fails the container requirement despite being serverless.
- ✗
Compute Engine
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine is wrong because it provides raw virtual machines rather than a managed container execution layer. You would have to create the VM, install and continually patch the container runtime, set up load balancing and autoscaling yourself, and pay for the instance even when no traffic arrives, which is poor fit for a stateless workload that should scale to zero.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Service
A service is a software component or system that performs a specific function and is available to be used by other programs or users over a network.
Key term
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides infrastructure, platform, and software solutions over the internet.
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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.