Google PCA Designing for Security and Compliance Practice Question
A developer wants to store a database password securely and have it automatically rotated every 30 days. The password is used by a Compute Engine instance. 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
✓
Secret Manager
Secret Manager can store secrets and has built-in rotation capabilities. You can set a rotation period and a rotation function (e.g., Cloud Function) to generate a new password. This is the recommended service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Secret Manager
Why this is correct
Secret Manager stores secrets and supports automatic rotation.
- ✗
Cloud Storage with customer-supplied encryption keys
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage is not designed for secret storage and rotation.
- ✗
Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS)
Why it's wrong here
Cloud KMS manages encryption keys, not generic secrets like passwords.
- ✗
Environment variables in Compute Engine
Why it's wrong here
Environment variables are not secure and do not support rotation.
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
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
Courseiva writes every PCA question from scratch — 955 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.