Cloud Digital Leader Practice Question: Google Cloud products, services, and solutions
A software team wants to host their container images securely within Google Cloud and integrate with Cloud Build for CI/CD pipelines and GKE for deployments. Which Google Cloud product serves as the managed repository for storing and managing container images?
⚠ Common exam trap
The GCDL exam often tests the distinction between legacy and current services, so the trap here is that candidates may pick Container Registry (gcr.io) because it is familiar and historically used for container images, but they must recognize that Artifact Registry is the modern, recommended service with broader capabilities and deeper integration.
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
✓
Artifact Registry, Google Cloud's managed repository for container images and build artifacts with native CI/CD integration
Artifact Registry is Google Cloud's fully managed, next-generation repository for storing, managing, and securing container images and build artifacts. It natively integrates with Cloud Build for CI/CD pipelines and GKE for deployments, providing features like vulnerability scanning, access control via IAM, and support for multiple formats (Docker, Maven, npm, etc.). This makes it the correct choice for the team's requirements.
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 Storage, by storing container images as objects in a bucket
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage is an object store that treats a container image merely as an opaque blob of bytes. It does not implement the Docker Registry HTTP API V2, so `docker push` and `docker pull` and GKE's container runtime cannot directly address images in a bucket. It also lacks Artifact Registry's per-image IAM, tag/layer management, and integrated vulnerability scanning.
- ✓
Artifact Registry, Google Cloud's managed repository for container images and build artifacts with native CI/CD integration
Why this is correct
Artifact Registry is the intended service for hosting container images in Google Cloud. It supports Docker, Maven, npm, PyPI, and other formats, integrates natively with Cloud Build and GKE, and provides IAM-based access control and automatic vulnerability scanning.
- ✗
Container Registry (gcr.io), the legacy Google container image service
Why it's wrong here
Container Registry (gcr.io) is a deprecated, legacy service superseded by Artifact Registry. It only supports Docker images, whereas Artifact Registry adds formats like Maven, npm, and PyPI, plus integrated vulnerability scanning, VPC Service Controls support, and native Cloud Build/GKE integration. Google no longer develops new features for gcr.io, making it unsuitable for new production workloads.
- ✗
Cloud Source Repositories, for storing source code and container build files
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Source Repositories is a hosted Git repository designed for source code and build configuration files, not binary artifacts. It lacks the Docker registry protocol, so it cannot serve images to GKE via image pull policies, and it has no support for image layers, tags, digests, or vulnerability scanning. Its role ends at triggering builds from commits, whereas Artifact Registry is the destination for the resulting container images.
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Related to this question
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Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides infrastructure, platform, and software solutions over the internet.
Key term
Access control
Access control is the security practice of determining who or what is allowed to view, use, or enter a resource, and under what conditions.
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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.