Cloud Digital Leader Google Cloud Products and Services Practice Question
A company runs a video processing application that triggers a function each time a new video is uploaded to Cloud Storage. The function transcodes the video and stores the result. Which compute service is BEST suited for this event-driven workload?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that Cloud Run also supports event triggers via Eventarc, so candidates who know that fact may second-guess the obvious Cloud Functions answer — but the exam asks for the BEST fit, and Cloud Functions is the purpose-built FaaS for Cloud Storage events.
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 Functions
Cloud Functions is Google Cloud's event-driven FaaS product, natively integrated with Cloud Storage object-finalize events via Eventarc, making it the canonical choice for 'run code when a file lands in a bucket.' It handles the trigger wiring, retries, and scaling automatically, so the developer only writes the transcoding logic. Cloud Run can also be event-driven via Eventarc, but Cloud Functions is the purpose-built, lowest-friction option for this pattern.
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
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine provisions virtual machines that run continuously for the entire machine lifecycle. To respond to a video upload event, you would need to run a daemon or poll the bucket, wasting CPU/memory and incurring idle server costs. It is not event-native and requires external orchestration to make it serverless, making it inappropriate for lightweight, event-driven processing.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Why it's wrong here
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a fully managed Kubernetes service designed for container orchestration at scale. While you can wire up event-driven pipelines via Eventarc or Pub/Sub, doing so demands cluster creation, node pool management, horizontal pod autoscaling, and container image builds — all heavyweight for a simple Cloud Storage trigger. Its complexity is unjustified for a straightforward video-processing initiation compared to a purpose-built serverless function.
- ✓
Cloud Functions
Why this is correct
Cloud Functions is a serverless Functions-as-a-Service platform with first-class support for Cloud Storage triggers (e.g., object finalize). When a video file is uploaded, a function is invoked automatically, scales from zero to handle the event, and charges only for execution time. No infrastructure provisioning or 24/7 VM is needed, making it the ideal lightweight, event-driven compute choice for this exact use case.
- ✗
Cloud Run
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run is a serverless container runtime that primarily serves HTTP requests, though it can be event-driven via Eventarc. Using it for a simple video-upload trigger requires building a container image, deploying a revision, and configuring event ingestion — additional operational overhead and container runtime costs. It is better suited for long-running or high-throughput HTTP workloads where containers provide value over single-purpose functions.
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
Compute Comparison: VMs vs Containers vs Serverless
Key term
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a fully managed compute platform from Google Cloud that lets you run containerized applications in a serverless environment, automatically scaling from zero to thousands of requests.
Key term
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides infrastructure, platform, and software solutions over the internet.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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.