Google PCA Designing for Security and Compliance Practice Question
A company wants to allow a Kubernetes pod in GKE to authenticate to Google Cloud APIs without storing service account keys in the cluster. Which three components need to be configured to enable Workload Identity? (Choose three.)
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
✓
Google Cloud service account
Workload Identity requires: (1) a Google Cloud IAM service account (GCP SA), (2) a Kubernetes service account (KSA) annotated with the GCP SA email, and (3) an IAM policy binding between the KSA and GCP SA to allow impersonation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Google Cloud service account
Why this is correct
The GCP SA that the pod will impersonate.
- ✓
Kubernetes service account with annotation
Why this is correct
The KSA must be annotated with iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account pointing to the GCP SA.
- ✗
Firewall rule to allow traffic to metadata server
Why it's wrong here
Workload Identity uses the metadata server, but no special firewall rule is needed.
- ✓
IAM policy binding granting the GCP SA roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser on the GCP SA
Why this is correct
This allows the KSA to impersonate the GCP SA.
- ✗
Cloud NAT for outbound access
Why it's wrong here
Cloud NAT is not required for Workload Identity.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
Key term
Least privilege
Least privilege is a security principle that means giving users, systems, or programs only the minimum permissions they need to do their job and nothing more.
Key term
IAM policy
An IAM policy is a set of rules that determines who can access specific cloud resources and what actions they are allowed to perform.
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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.