Cloud Digital Leader Practice Question: Google Cloud products, services, and solutions
A company wants to implement a CI/CD pipeline for their Cloud Run services. Which THREE Google Cloud services should they use? (Choose 3)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates may assume Cloud Build alone is sufficient for CI/CD because it can also deploy directly to Cloud Run, but Cloud Deploy provides separate continuous delivery capabilities with advanced rollout strategies. Additionally, candidates may confuse Cloud Deploy with Cloud Deployment Manager, which is used for provisioning infrastructure, not CI/CD.
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 Build
Cloud Build (B) is correct because it is Google Cloud's managed CI service that executes build steps defined in cloudbuild.yaml, compiles the container image, and can trigger builds from Cloud Source Repositories, GitHub, or Bitbucket on commit. Container Registry or Artifact Registry (E) is correct because the container image produced by Cloud Build must be stored in a registry; Artifact Registry is the recommended successor to Container Registry for storing and versioning Docker images that Cloud Run will pull. Cloud Deploy (C) is correct because it is the managed CD service that takes the built image and orchestrates progressive delivery to Cloud Run targets (dev/staging/prod) with approval gates and rollout strategies. Cloud Operations Suite (A) is monitoring, logging, and tracing—useful for observability but not a CI/CD pipeline component. Cloud Deployment Manager (D) is an infrastructure-as-code tool for provisioning Google Cloud resources via YAML/Jinja templates, not for building or delivering application containers.
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 Operations Suite
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Operations Suite (formerly Stackdriver) aggregates metrics, logs, and traces for monitoring, logging, and alerting across GCP. It observes the health of the application and infrastructure but does not execute build steps, run unit tests, or orchestrate artifact creation, so it plays no direct role in the CI/CD pipeline itself.
- ✓
Cloud Build
Why this is correct
Cloud Build is GCP's fully managed CI/CD platform that executes builds in steps defined in a cloudbuild.yaml file. It can run unit and integration tests, compile source code, and produce container images or other artifacts. As the core CI engine, it is the required service that transforms source commits into testable, deployable artifacts.
- ✓
Cloud Deploy
Why this is correct
Cloud Deploy is a managed continuous delivery service that automates rollouts and promotions of already-built container images across targets such as Cloud Run, GKE, or Anthos clusters. It handles gating, approval workflows, and release strategies (e.g., canary or blue-green) but does not build images or run tests, so it is strictly a CD-stage component.
- ✗
Cloud Deployment Manager
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Deployment Manager is an infrastructure-as-code tool used to declaratively define GCP resources using YAML and Python templates. It provisions and manages resources like VMs, networks, and IAM roles, but it does not compile source code, run tests, or assemble container artifacts. Its scope is configuration management, not application CI/CD pipelines.
- ✓
Container Registry (or Artifact Registry)
Why this is correct
Container Registry (now superseded by Artifact Registry) is a private Docker image repository that securely stores, versions, and scans container images after they are built. The CI/CD pipeline uses it both as a push target from the build step and as a pull source for the deploy step, but it performs no build or release orchestration itself.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Building a Cloud ROI Business Case
Key term
Container registry
A container registry is a centralized storage and distribution system for container images, enabling developers to push, pull, and manage versions of application snapshots across environments.
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.
About these practice questions
One of 848 original GCDL practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.