Cloud Digital Leader Fundamental Cloud Concepts Practice Question
A startup is deploying a containerised web application on Google Cloud. They want to minimise operational overhead and only pay for the resources consumed when requests are being processed. The application should automatically scale to zero when idle. Which compute service 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
✓
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless container platform that scales to zero when idle and charges only for request processing time. App Engine is also serverless but requires a runtime environment and does not scale to zero as gracefully. Compute Engine and GKE require provisioning instances even if idle.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
App Engine Standard
Why it's wrong here
App Engine Standard is a fully managed platform, but its automatic scaling is designed to keep a minimum number of instances warm to handle sudden traffic. Even when there are no active requests, it can retain at least one billable instance, so it does not truly scale to zero. This means you incur cost for idle time, unlike services that shut down completely when unused.
- ✓
Cloud Run
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is a serverless container execution service that automatically scales to zero instances when no requests are in-flight. You are billed only for the exact time your container processes a request, down to 100-millisecond increments, with no cost for idle periods. Its HTTP-triggered, pull-based model makes it ideal for a containerized web application that experiences variable or low traffic.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Why it's wrong here
GKE is Kubernetes with a Google-managed control plane, but it runs your containers on a pool of Compute Engine VMs that are billed while they exist. Even with cluster autoscaling, the node pool must retain at least one node to host kube-system pods and the cluster's infrastructure, so it cannot scale to zero. This means a containerized web app on GKE carries a baseline cost even when the app is idle.
- ✗
Compute Engine
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine provides raw virtual machines that are provisioned and billed by the second (or minute) from the moment they are started until they are stopped. You would need to manually stop the VM or set up complex automation to remove the instance when the app is idle, since there is no built-in scale-to-zero for containerized workloads. Idle VMs continue to incur costs, making this a poor fit for a startup wanting to minimize spend.
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
Cloud Digital Transformation
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.
Key term
Serverless
Serverless is a cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages the servers, and you only pay for the actual compute time your code uses, without having to worry about provisioning or maintaining infrastructure.
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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.