Cloud Digital Leader How Google Cloud Resources Are Managed Practice Question
A team runs a production Compute Engine instance that has been running for 15 days in a 30-day month. They also have a second instance that runs occasionally for testing. They want to maximize cost savings without committing to a 1-year or 3-year term. Which discount will apply automatically?
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
✓
Sustained use discount (SUD)
Sustained use discounts automatically apply to instances that run for more than 25% of a month (i.e., >7.5 days). At 15 days, the instance qualifies for sustained use discounts. Committed use discounts require a pre-purchased commitment.
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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Committed use discount (CUD)
Why it's wrong here
Committed use discounts (CUDs) are contractual agreements in which you pay for a fixed amount of vCPUs, memory, or an entire instance for either a 1- or 3-year term. They are not auto-applied to an existing instance; you must proactively purchase a commitment before usage, and they are best suited for predictable, always-on workloads. Since the team explicitly does not want a 1- or 3-year commitment, CUDs cannot be the answer for this 15-day-running instance.
- ✓
Sustained use discount (SUD)
Why this is correct
Sustained use discounts (SUDs) are automatically applied to standard Compute Engine instances based on how long each instance runs within a billing month, with no sign-up, plan, or upfront commitment required. Once an instance exceeds 25% of the month (more than about 7.5 days in a 30-day month), the discount kicks in automatically; a production instance running 15 days clearly crosses that threshold. The discount scales with usage and can reach up to 30% off the on-demand hourly rate for the instance when it runs for the entire month, making SUD the correct fit here.
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Preemptible VM discount
Why it's wrong here
Preemptible VMs (including Spot VMs) offer lower hourly prices than standard instances, but they are a separate instance type designed for fault-tolerant, interruptible workloads. They are not created by converting an existing standard VM, and Google Cloud can terminate them at any time, so preemptible pricing never automatically applies to a normal, continuously running production instance. Therefore, the preemptible VM discount is irrelevant to this scenario because the team is running a standard, non-preemptible instance.
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No discount applies automatically.
Why it's wrong here
This option is false because Sustained use discounts are, in fact, applied automatically with zero action required from the user. Cloud Billing continuously tracks each instance's monthly runtime and computes the SUD once an individual instance passes the 25% usage threshold. A production instance running 15 days will therefore automatically receive a discount on its bill, directly contradicting the claim that no discount applies automatically.
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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.