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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 can be triggered by Cloud Storage events, scales automatically, and charges only for execution time.
- ✗
App Engine Flexible Environment
Why it's wrong here
App Engine is not event-driven; it runs continuously and can't be triggered by Cloud Storage events directly.
- ✗
Cloud Run for Anthos
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run is container-based; while it can be triggered via Pub/Sub, it's not natively triggered by Cloud Storage events.
- ✗
Compute Engine with startup scripts
Why it's wrong here
VMs are not serverless or event-driven; they require polling or external triggers.
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
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
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.