ACE Practice Question: A Cloud Run service calls external third-party…
This ACE practice question tests your understanding of a cloud run service calls external third-party…. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A Cloud Run service calls external third-party APIs that have rate limits. Under burst traffic, the service spawns many concurrent instances, each making direct API calls, causing rate limit errors. What GCP pattern reduces API call volume without adding infrastructure?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Best answer
Cache third-party API responses in Cloud Memorystore (Redis) with appropriate TTL
Caching API responses in Redis means many Cloud Run instances read from cache instead of calling the third-party API separately — dramatically reducing outbound API call volume.
Distractor review
Enable Cloud CDN on the Cloud Run service to cache outbound requests
Cloud CDN caches responses to inbound requests to Cloud Run — it doesn't cache Cloud Run's outbound calls to third-party APIs.
Distractor review
Set Cloud Run max-concurrency to 1 so each instance handles one request
Setting concurrency to 1 increases the number of instances (more API calls, not fewer) — the opposite effect.
Distractor review
Migrate to Cloud Functions with a lower default concurrency limit
Cloud Functions concurrency limits reduce parallelism but don't reduce API call volume for a given traffic rate — caching addresses the root cause.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Key takeaway
NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
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Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
What is the correct order of the Google Cloud resource hierarchy from highest to lowest level?
Question 2
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Question 3
Which gcloud command creates a Compute Engine VM named 'web-01' using the e2-medium machine type in zone us-central1-a?
Question 4
A team wants to receive an email alert when the average CPU utilization of VMs in a managed instance group exceeds 80% for more than 5 minutes. What should they create in Cloud Monitoring?
Question 5
A junior developer needs read-only access to all GCP resources in a project. Which IAM role grants the minimum permissions required?
Question 6
A startup creates its first Google Cloud project. Before deploying any paid resources, what must be linked to the project?
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ACE question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Cache third-party API responses in Cloud Memorystore (Redis) with appropriate TTL — Cloud Memorystore (Redis) can cache third-party API responses, so multiple Cloud Run instances read from cache rather than making repeated external calls. Alternatively, Cloud Tasks rate-limits outbound calls. For read-heavy patterns, response caching with Memorystore is the simplest solution.
What should I do if I get this ACE question wrong?
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related ACE NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
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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.