Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A healthcare analytics team must run a stateless containerized API on Google Cloud. The platform must scale to zero when there is no traffic, expose an HTTPS endpoint with a managed certificate, and require no cluster or node management by the team. The architect is choosing among Google Cloud container platforms. Which two characteristics make Cloud Run the appropriate choice here? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is conflating Cloud Run with GKE-based container hosting and assuming the team must still manage nodes or choose node images.
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 Run scales the service to zero instances when no requests arrive, and bills only for resources consumed while handling requests.
Cloud Run fits because it scales to zero when idle, charging only for request-driven consumption, and because it fully abstracts the compute layer so no cluster or node administration is needed. Those two properties align with the stateless, low-traffic API and the team's desire to avoid managing infrastructure.
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 Run scales the service to zero instances when no requests arrive, and bills only for resources consumed while handling requests.
Why this is correct
Cloud Run's request-driven autoscaling can reduce the service to zero instances during idle periods, which removes idle infrastructure cost entirely. That directly satisfies the requirement to scale to zero when no traffic exists, and the consumption-based billing model means the team pays only for the CPU and memory used while requests are being processed, which is exactly the economic behavior the scenario demands.
- ✗
Cloud Run allows the team to choose and manage the operating system image and patch cadence of the worker nodes running the containers.
Why it's wrong here
Because Cloud Run is fully managed, the team cannot select the host operating system or control node patch cadence; Google owns that layer. This capability belongs to self-managed platforms where administrators handle node images and upgrades. Presenting it as a Cloud Run feature is inaccurate and contradicts the requirement that the team avoid infrastructure management.
- ✗
Cloud Run supports persistent local SSD storage attached to each instance for stateful session data across requests.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run instances are ephemeral and provide only an in-memory filesystem plus optional mounted volumes; there is no persistent local SSD attached per instance that survives across requests or revisions. The scenario describes a stateless API, so durable local state is not needed, and this statement misrepresents Cloud Run's storage model rather than supporting its selection.
- ✓
Cloud Run manages the underlying infrastructure entirely, so the team never provisions, patches, or sizes cluster nodes or node pools.
Why this is correct
Cloud Run is a fully managed serverless platform where Google handles the compute layer beneath the containers, so the team deploys a container image and never interacts with nodes, node pools, or cluster upgrades. This directly meets the requirement that the team perform no cluster or node management, and it frees the analytics engineers to focus on the API rather than on infrastructure operations.
- ✗
Cloud Run requires a GKE cluster in the same project so the service can schedule pods onto managed node pools.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run for Anthos or GKE-based deployment is a distinct option and is not required for standard Cloud Run. Standard Cloud Run abstracts away clusters completely, so introducing a GKE cluster would reintroduce exactly the node and cluster management the scenario forbids. This characteristic describes a different platform and therefore does not justify choosing Cloud Run for this API.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Deployment Manager and Infrastructure as Code
Key term
HTTPS
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is the secure version of HTTP that encrypts data between a web browser and a web server using SSL/TLS protocols.
Key term
Cloud Run
Cloud Run is a fully managed compute platform from Google Cloud that lets you run containerized applications in a serverless environment, automatically scaling from zero to thousands of requests.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
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.