Google ACE Setting Up a Cloud Solution Environment Practice Question
An engineer is setting up a new GCP project for a containerized application. They need to enable the required APIs. Which TWO APIs must be enabled to deploy and manage a Kubernetes cluster and build container images?
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
✓
cloudbuild.googleapis.com
Kubernetes Engine API and Cloud Build API are needed for cluster management and building images.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
compute.googleapis.com
Why it's wrong here
Although GKE nodes run on Compute Engine VMs and the Compute Engine API backs all VM instances, enabling it is not the prerequisite for running a Kubernetes cluster. The Kubernetes Engine API (container.googleapis.com) is the service API that handles cluster lifecycle; compute.googleapis.com only matters if you need to create or modify VMs outside GKE. Therefore, when setting up a GKE project, this API is not the one that must be enabled.
- ✗
bigquery.googleapis.com
Why it's wrong here
BigQuery is a serverless data warehouse and has no role in deploying or managing containerized applications with GKE. Enabling the BigQuery API would only be relevant if your application needed to query BigQuery datasets from within the Kubernetes cluster. For a basic containerized setup, this API is unrelated and should not be part of the startup checklist.
- ✓
cloudbuild.googleapis.com
Why this is correct
Cloud Build is Google Cloud's CI/CD service that can compile source code and build Docker container images. If the engineer's containerized application is built from a repository, enabling cloudbuild.googleapis.com is required before Cloud Build can push built images to Container Registry or Artifact Registry. Thus, for a project that automates image creation for GKE, this API is a correct and necessary dependency.
- ✓
container.googleapis.com
Why this is correct
The Kubernetes Engine API (container.googleapis.com) is the primary API for GKE. It manages cluster provisioning, node pools, and upgrades, and must be enabled before creating any GKE cluster from the console, gcloud, or Terraform. Without this API, the GKE control plane cannot be created, making it a required enablement for this containerized project.
- ✗
cloudfunctions.googleapis.com
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions is a serverless compute platform for event-driven functions, not for container orchestration or building images. Enabling it would have no effect on GKE or Cloud Build, and it is often disabled by default to avoid unnecessary API surface. For a containerized workload running in a Kubernetes cluster, this API provides no required capability and is therefore incorrect.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Google Cloud Platform Overview
Key term
Cloud Build
Cloud Build is a managed service that compiles source code into deployable artifacts, often used in continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines.
Key term
Anthos
Anthos is a Google Cloud platform that lets you run applications consistently across different computing environments, like on-premises data centers and multiple public clouds.
About these practice questions
This ACE question is part of Courseiva's 769-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.