Google ACE Setting Up a Cloud Solution Environment Practice Question
A team wants to enable Compute Engine API in their project using gcloud. Which command should they run?
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
✓
gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
The command 'gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com' enables the Compute Engine API.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
gcloud compute enable api
Why it's wrong here
gcloud compute enable api is not a valid gcloud command. The gcloud compute namespace contains resource-management commands such as gcloud compute instances create, not API enablement or lifecycle operations. Enabling Google APIs is handled by the gcloud services group, and using gcloud compute for API enablement reflects a misunderstanding of the command hierarchy.
- ✗
gcloud services list --enabled
Why it's wrong here
gcloud services list --enabled is a read-only operation that lists the currently enabled services for the project. It does not modify the state of any API and cannot enable the Compute Engine API. While it can be used to verify that compute.googleapis.com is enabled after the fact, it is not an enabling action and therefore does not fulfill the team's requirement.
- ✗
gcloud api enable compute
Why it's wrong here
gcloud api enable compute is not a valid gcloud command. There is no gcloud api subcommand group; the correct group is gcloud services. Additionally, 'compute' is not a valid service identifier—the full, canonical service name compute.googleapis.com must be supplied so the gcloud tool can resolve the exact API endpoint and enable the correct service in the project.
- ✓
gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
Why this is correct
gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com is the correct command to enable the Compute Engine API for a project. The gcloud services enable command accepts the fully qualified service name (compute.googleapis.com) and provisions access for the project, making it available for use with gcloud compute commands, API calls, and console operations. This is the standard, documented way to turn on a Google API in a project.
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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.