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Google PCA Practice Question: A developer needs to build a serverless…
A developer needs to build a serverless event-driven application that responds to Cloud Storage object uploads by processing the file and storing results in Firestore. Which compute service is the best fit?
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
✓
Cloud Functions
Cloud Functions is a serverless event-driven compute service that can be triggered directly by Cloud Storage events, ideal for simple processing tasks.
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 Functions
Why this is correct
Cloud Functions is event-driven and serverless, so it triggers directly on Cloud Storage object-finalise events without provisioning servers. It satisfies the requirement to respond to uploads, process the file, then write results to Firestore, with automatic scaling and pay-per-invocation billing.
- ✗
App Engine Flexible Environment
Why it's wrong here
App Engine Flexible runs on persistent Compute Engine VMs with no scale-to-zero, and it lacks a native Cloud Storage object-finalise event trigger. It fits long-running containerised web services needing custom runtimes, not per-upload serverless invocation.
- ✗
Cloud Run for Anthos
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run for Anthos deploys containers onto a Kubernetes cluster, requiring provisioned nodes and no native Cloud Storage event trigger. It suits containerised workloads on existing GKE infrastructure, not fully managed serverless functions responding to object uploads.
- ✗
Compute Engine with startup scripts
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine VMs run persistently and startup scripts execute only at boot, so they cannot react to each Cloud Storage object upload event. This suits lift-and-shift workloads or custom daemons needing full OS control, not event-driven serverless processing.
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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Security Best Practices and Compliance
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
Cloud Functions
Cloud Functions are serverless compute services that let you run single-purpose code in response to events without managing servers.
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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.