Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A company runs a critical application on Compute Engine instances. They want to automatically patch the operating system on a weekly schedule to meet compliance requirements. Which Google Cloud 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
✓
OS Config
OS Config, part of VM Manager, provides patch management capabilities including scheduled patching and compliance reporting.
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 Monitoring
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Monitoring collects metrics, logs and alerts; it cannot install OS packages or schedule patch jobs on Compute Engine instances. It is tempting because it provides visibility into VM health and uptime, and would be correct for alerting on patch compliance metrics rather than performing the patching itself.
- ✗
Cloud Security Command Center
Why it's wrong here
Security Command Center aggregates findings, misconfigurations and threat detections; it reports vulnerabilities but does not execute OS patch installation. It is tempting because it surfaces patch-related compliance findings, and would be correct for centralised security posture visibility rather than remediation of guest operating systems.
- ✗
Cloud Build
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Build runs CI/CD build steps in containers; it does not manage guest OS patch baselines or schedule recurring patch jobs across a VM fleet. It is tempting because it automates scripted tasks, and would be correct for building and deploying application artefacts, not operating system patch management.
- ✓
OS Config
Why this is correct
OS Config's patch management applies OS updates to Compute Engine instances on a schedule you define, satisfying the weekly compliance requirement without manual intervention. It targets the guest OS directly, unlike image-level tooling, and reports patch compliance per instance, which is exactly what the stem demands.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
IAM Policies, Service Accounts, and Auditing
Key term
Service
A service is a software component or system that performs a specific function and is available to be used by other programs or users over a network.
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
About these practice questions
This PCA question is part of Courseiva's 807-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCA 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 PCA exam.