Google ACE Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution Practice Question
An engineer needs to deploy a containerized web application that receives HTTP requests and should scale to zero when not in use. The application is stateless and has a lightweight container image. Which Google Cloud compute service should be used?
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 fully managed serverless platform that scales to zero when no requests are coming in, and bills per request. It is ideal for stateless HTTP-triggered container workloads.
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 Engine with a single VM
Why it's wrong here
A single Compute Engine VM is a traditional IaaS host that remains running and billable even when there is no traffic, so it cannot scale to zero and your costs stay flat regardless of demand. You also own the OS, container runtime, patching, and health-check configuration, which adds operational overhead compared to a managed serverless service. For a web app that needs elasticity, a single VM provides no autoscaling and acts as a single point of failure.
- ✗
Cloud Functions
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions is designed for event-driven functions that respond to triggers, such as Pub/Sub messages or Cloud Storage events, not for long-running HTTP services built from custom container images. Its execution model expects stateless functions with strict timeouts and specific runtimes, so you cannot simply take an existing containerized web application and deploy it as-is. This would require rewriting the application into a function-oriented architecture and does not match the stated deployment need.
- ✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is a managed serverless container platform that executes your container image on demand, automatically scaling instances from zero to thousands based on incoming HTTP traffic and billing only for resources used during request processing. It is purpose-built for stateless HTTP workloads and supports common features like health checks, environment variables, secrets, and gRPC, all without requiring you to provision or manage any servers. For a containerized web application, this directly satisfies the requirement with minimal operational effort and can scale to zero when idle.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard cluster
Why it's wrong here
GKE Standard is a full Kubernetes orchestration platform, but it requires you to provision and manage a node pool of VMs; those nodes incur per-second cost and must remain running to host the cluster's system components and workloads, even if your web application receives no traffic. It cannot practically scale to zero because Kubernetes needs nodes to run system daemons and the kubelet, so you will always pay a minimum infrastructure cost. It also adds operational burden around cluster upgrades, node repairs, and autoscaling configuration, making it heavier than necessary for a simple stateless web app.
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
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
Image
An image is a complete snapshot of a system's operating system, applications, and settings, used to deploy or restore computing environments quickly.
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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.