Cloud Digital Leader Google Cloud Products and Services Practice Question
A developer is deploying a web application on Compute Engine and needs to distribute traffic across multiple VM instances in different regions. They also need SSL termination and health checks. Which Google Cloud networking service should they use?
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
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Cloud Load Balancing
Cloud Load Balancing (HTTP(S) Load Balancer) is a global, scalable load balancing service that distributes traffic across instance groups in multiple regions, provides SSL termination, and performs health checks. Cloud CDN is for caching content; Cloud Armor is for security policies; VPC peering connects networks.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Cloud Load Balancing
Why this is correct
Cloud Load Balancing, specifically the HTTP(S) Load Balancer, is a global Layer 7 solution that terminates SSL/TLS at Google's edge, distributes traffic across managed instance groups, and performs regular health checks to automatically route around failed backends. It supports content-based routing, autoscaling, and is a fully managed service.
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VPC peering
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering is a networking feature that creates private, internal IP connectivity between two VPC networks, enabling resources to communicate using private RFC 1918 addresses as if they were in the same network. It does not inspect traffic, balance load, terminate SSL/TLS, or provide health checks, so it cannot act as a load balancer for a web application.
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Cloud Armor
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Armor is a web application firewall (WAF) that attaches to an HTTP(S) Load Balancer to enforce security policies, such as IP allow/deny lists, geographic restrictions, and OWASP Top 10 protections against SQL injection and XSS. It is a security service that inspects traffic after the load balancer routes it, and it does not itself distribute requests or handle SSL termination.
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Cloud CDN
Why it's wrong here
Cloud CDN is a content delivery network that caches static assets, like images and JavaScript, at Google's edge locations, reducing latency and offloading requests from backend instances. While it improves performance and can serve cached content, it does not perform load balancing or SSL termination; those responsibilities remain with the HTTP(S) Load Balancer, which Cloud CDN works in conjunction with.
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Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
VPC peering
VPC peering is a direct network connection between two virtual private clouds that allows them to communicate using private IP addresses as if they were part of the same network.
Key term
Cloud Armor
Cloud Armor is a Google Cloud web application firewall (WAF) service that protects applications and websites from attacks like DDoS and SQL injection using customizable security rules.
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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.