Cloud Digital Leader Google Cloud Products and Services Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to Google Cloud. They want to reduce operational overhead by eliminating server management while keeping the ability to run containers. The application has unpredictable traffic patterns and needs to scale to zero when idle. Which compute option is the best fit?
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 serverless container platform that automatically scales to zero when idle, eliminating server management and cost during idle periods. GKE requires cluster management, Compute Engine is not serverless, and App Engine Flex requires VMs always running.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless compute platform that executes stateless containers delivered via a requests URL. It automatically scales your container from zero to whatever number of instances are needed to handle incoming traffic, and you are billed only for the resources consumed during request processing—when idle, you pay nothing. This makes it exceptionally well-suited for unpredictable traffic patterns without requiring any cluster or infrastructure management.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Why it's wrong here
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a powerful, managed Kubernetes service, but it is not serverless. Even with autoscaling enabled, a GKE cluster requires a pool of nodes (VMs) to run your workloads, and you are billed for those nodes whether they are actively processing requests or sitting idle. Additionally, you must monitor and maintain the cluster, node pools, and upgrades, adding operational overhead compared to a fully managed serverless service like Cloud Run.
- ✗
App Engine Flexible Environment
Why it's wrong here
App Engine Flexible Environment runs your application on virtual machines that are managed by Google, but it does not scale to zero. Because your service must maintain at least one VM instance running at all times to handle requests, you are always paying for that underlying compute resource even when there is no traffic. Moreover, the VMs are provisioned with a fixed machine type, so you must choose instance sizes and manage scaling behavior manually.
- ✗
Compute Engine with managed instance groups
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine with managed instance groups (MIGs) provides autoscaling and load balancing, but it directly exposes you to virtual machine management. You are responsible for selecting machine types, configuring disks, applying OS patches, and ensuring your instances are healthy—MIGs only automate instance creation and repair, not the underlying infrastructure management. Additionally, you typically configure a minimum instance count to avoid cold starts, meaning you will always be paying for at least one VM even during zero-traffic periods.
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
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Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
Key term
Container
A container is a lightweight, standalone software package that includes everything needed to run an application, such as code, runtime, system tools, and libraries.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This GCDL 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 GCDL exam.