easyMultiple Select
Cloud Digital Leader Practice Question: Which THREE of the following are compute services…
Which THREE of the following are compute services offered by Google Cloud? (Choose exactly 3.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse storage and database services (Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL) with compute services, because all are part of Google Cloud's core offerings, but only services that execute code or run applications qualify as compute.
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
Compute Engine (A) is correct because it is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering that provides configurable virtual machine instances running on Google's infrastructure. Cloud Functions (B) is correct because it is Google Cloud's serverless, event-driven Functions-as-a-Service platform that executes code in response to events without provisioning servers. App Engine (D) is correct because it is Google Cloud's fully managed Platform-as-a-Service for deploying web applications and APIs, abstracting away infrastructure management. Cloud Storage (C) is incorrect because it is an object storage service, not a compute service, and Cloud SQL (E) is incorrect because it is a fully managed relational database service rather than a compute platform.
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
Why this is correct
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering that lets you provision and manage virtual machines with full control over operating systems, storage, networking, and security configurations. It is a compute service because it provides the raw computational resources—vCPUs, memory, and GPU accelerators—needed to run arbitrary workloads. Unlike serverless or platform-managed services, Compute Engine requires you to handle scaling, patching, and capacity planning, but offers maximum flexibility for high-performance and custom applications.
- ✓
Cloud Functions
Why this is correct
Cloud Functions is a fully managed, event-driven serverless compute service that executes single-purpose code in response to cloud events such as HTTP requests, Cloud Pub/Sub messages, or changes in Cloud Storage. It runs in a stateless, automatically scaled environment and you pay only for the time your code is actually executing, with no infrastructure to provision or manage. This makes it a compute service because its core function is running code and processing workloads, not storing data or providing a managed database platform.
- ✗
Cloud Storage
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage is an object storage service, not a compute service, because it is designed to store immutable binary and text data as objects in buckets rather than to execute user-supplied code or run applications. It provides high durability and global access through REST APIs, but does not offer CPU, memory, or a runtime environment for processing. While Cloud Functions can be triggered by Cloud Storage events, the storage service itself only provides data persistence and retrieval, not computational processing.
- ✓
App Engine
Why this is correct
App Engine is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that lets you deploy web applications in managed runtimes such as Java, Python, Go, and Node.js without needing to manage the underlying servers or clusters. It handles automatic scaling, load balancing, health checks, and versioning, and you simply write code and ship it. As a compute service, it runs your application code on Google-managed infrastructure, abstracting away the virtual machines but still providing the CPU, memory, and networking required to serve requests.
- ✗
Cloud SQL
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service that provides MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server instances in the cloud, handling backups, replication, and patching automatically. It is not considered a compute service because its deliverable is a managed database engine for structured data storage and querying, not a general-purpose environment for running arbitrary code or applications. Although you have some control over machine types and storage, the service abstraction is fundamentally a database platform, with compute resources existing only to support the database workload.
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
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Key term
App Engine
App Engine is a fully managed serverless platform from Google Cloud that lets developers build and deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
Key term
SQL
SQL is a standard programming language used to manage, query, and manipulate relational databases by issuing commands like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.
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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.