mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
Google ACE Practice Question: A developer has an App Engine Standard…
A developer has an App Engine Standard application ready to deploy. The app.yaml file is in the current working directory. Which command deploys the application?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse `gcloud app deploy` with `gcloud app create` or Cloud Run commands, or they misremember the exact subcommand syntax, leading them to choose invalid options like `gcloud appengine deploy`.
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 app deploy
The `gcloud app deploy` command is the correct way to deploy an App Engine Standard application when the `app.yaml` file is present in the current working directory. This command automatically detects the configuration file and uploads the application code to the specified App Engine service, handling the deployment process including staging, versioning, and traffic migration.
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 app create --config=app.yaml
Why it's wrong here
gcloud app create initializes the App Engine application for the project and requires choosing a region; it does not read app.yaml or upload any code. The --config flag is not relevant here because create does not accept deployment configuration, so this is a one-time environment setup rather than a deploy.
- ✓
gcloud app deploy
Why this is correct
gcloud app deploy is the correct command to deploy an App Engine Standard application. It reads the app.yaml from the current directory, packages the source code, uploads it, and creates or updates the service version while routing traffic to the new deployment.
- ✗
gcloud appengine deploy app.yaml
Why it's wrong here
gcloud appengine is not a valid gcloud command group; App Engine operations are under gcloud app. Attempting to run gcloud appengine deploy app.yaml will fail with an unrecognized command error, even though the intent to use app.yaml is understandable. The correct form would be gcloud app deploy app.yaml.
- ✗
gcloud run deploy --platform=appengine
Why it's wrong here
gcloud run deploy targets Cloud Run, not App Engine, and its --platform flag accepts values like managed or gke, not appengine. Using --platform=appengine is invalid and would be rejected by the CLI; it does not perform an App Engine deployment. These are separate serverless products with distinct deployment commands.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Compute Engine
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
App Engine
App Engine is a fully managed serverless platform from Google Cloud that lets developers build and deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every ACE question from scratch — 769 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.