Google ACE Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution Practice Question
A developer needs to deploy a containerized web application that experiences unpredictable traffic patterns, including long periods of no traffic. They want to minimize costs and only pay for resources when the application is serving requests. Which Google Cloud compute service is most suitable?
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 when not in use, charging only for resources during request processing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run scales to zero and charges per request, ideal for unpredictable traffic.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard
Why it's wrong here
GKE Standard requires at least one node, incurring ongoing costs even without traffic.
- ✗
Compute Engine with managed instance groups
Why it's wrong here
Managed instance groups can autoscale but not to zero; they always keep at least one VM running.
- ✗
Cloud Functions
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions is for event-driven functions, not containerized web applications.
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
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a fully managed compute platform from Google Cloud that lets you run containerized applications in a serverless environment, automatically scaling from zero to thousands of requests.
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.
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JA
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.