Cloud Digital Leader Fundamental Cloud Concepts Practice Question
A company wants to run a batch job that processes large files (up to 100 TB each) using a custom Linux executable. The job runs once a month and takes about 12 hours. They want to minimise cost. Which compute option should they choose?
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
✓
Compute Engine with preemptible VMs
Compute Engine Preemptible VMs offer deep discounts (up to 60-90% off) and are suitable for fault-tolerant batch jobs. Preemptible VMs can be terminated at any time, but since the job can be restarted, it's cost-effective. Persistent disks are required for data. Cloud Run has a timeout limit of 60 minutes. GKE with Spot VMs is also an option but adds overhead. Standard Compute Engine is more expensive.
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 preemptible VMs
Why this is correct
Preemptible VMs are a cost-effective choice for fault-tolerant batch jobs because they are priced up to 80% lower than standard VMs and can run for up to 24 hours, which fits the job's duration. The key requirement is that the batch job must handle preemption events gracefully—using checkpoints, retries, or restarting from the last saved state—which ensures uninterrupted processing of large files despite possible interruptions. Given the explicit tolerance for interruptions, preemptible VMs reduce cost without compromising completion, making them the optimal compute service for this use case.
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Compute Engine with standard VMs
Why it's wrong here
Standard VMs are more expensive than preemptible VMs and do not get preempted, but they provide no additional benefit for a batch job that is already fault-tolerant and designed to handle interruptions. Paying full price for guaranteed capacity is wasteful here because the workload does not require the higher reliability or predictable availability that standard VMs offer. For large-file batch processing where cost is a consideration, choosing standard VMs would unnecessarily inflate the bill without improving throughput or correctness, making them a less optimal choice.
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Cloud Run
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run is a serverless compute platform that executes containers in response to HTTP requests or events, but it imposes a maximum request timeout of 60 minutes, which is insufficient for a batch job that runs for 12 hours. Additionally, Cloud Run is designed for short-lived, stateless, or event-driven workloads, not for long-running batch processing that may need persistent disk state or the ability to resume from interruptions. The platform's automatic scaling and timeout limits make it unsuitable for processing very large files that require hours of continuous compute time.
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App Engine Flexible Environment
Why it's wrong here
App Engine Flexible Environment is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) designed primarily for hosting web applications and RESTful services, not for running batch jobs that process very large files. It lacks the explicit fault-tolerance mechanisms and cost models that preemptible VMs offer, and its scaling and request handling are optimized for user-facing traffic rather than long-running data processing tasks. While App Engine Flexible can run custom containers, it is not the intended or most efficient service for a 12-hour batch workload, making it a poor fit compared to Compute Engine with preemptible VMs.
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Related to this question
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Cloud Digital Transformation
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
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
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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.