hardMultiple Select
Google PCA Practice Question: An engineering team is deploying a microservices…
An engineering team is deploying a microservices application on Google Cloud. They want to use a service mesh for observability, traffic management, and security. They are considering Anthos Service Mesh (ASM). Which THREE components are part of ASM? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is including the hosting platform (GKE) or adjacent services (Cloud Endpoints) as ASM components — candidates must distinguish the mesh's own control plane, data plane, and telemetry integrations from the infrastructure it runs on.
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
✓
Envoy sidecar proxies
Anthos Service Mesh is Google's managed Istio-based service mesh, so its data plane consists of Envoy sidecar proxies (option B) injected alongside workloads to intercept and manage all service-to-service traffic. The Istio control plane (option E) is the core of ASM, providing the configuration, certificate authority, and policy enforcement that drive the mesh's traffic management and security features. ASM integrates with Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging (option C) to deliver the observability the team wants, exporting mesh telemetry, metrics, and logs to Google Cloud's operations suite. Cloud Endpoints (option A) is a separate API management product, not a component of ASM, and GKE (option D) is the underlying Kubernetes platform that can host ASM but is not itself a service mesh component.
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 Endpoints
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Endpoints is a separate API management product that proxies and secures APIs; it forms no part of ASM's architecture. ASM instead uses Istio-based components such as the control plane, Envoy sidecars and gateways. Cloud Endpoints would be correct for API key and quota management, not mesh observability.
- ✓
Envoy sidecar proxies
Why this is correct
Envoy sidecar proxies are injected alongside each workload, intercepting all inbound and outbound traffic to enforce mTLS, collect telemetry, and apply routing rules. This satisfies the stem's observability, traffic management, and security requirements, since ASM's data plane is built entirely on Envoy.
- ✓
Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging
Why this is correct
Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging are integral ASM components, providing the telemetry pipeline that surfaces mesh metrics, logs and traces. They satisfy the observability requirement in the stem, letting operators inspect service-level traffic and diagnose latency across the microservices deployment.
- ✗
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Why it's wrong here
GKE is the Kubernetes platform ASM runs on, not a component of the mesh itself. ASM comprises the control plane, sidecar proxies and ingress gateway; GKE would be the correct answer only if the question asked where to deploy ASM rather than what constitutes it.
- ✓
Istio control plane
Why this is correct
The Istio control plane underpins Anthos Service Mesh, distributing configuration to sidecar proxies and managing traffic routing, mTLS policy and telemetry collection. It directly delivers the traffic management and security capabilities the team requires for their microservices deployment.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
Key term
Anthos
Anthos is a Google Cloud platform that lets you run applications consistently across different computing environments, like on-premises data centers and multiple public clouds.
Key term
Cloud logging
Cloud logging is the practice of collecting, storing, and analyzing log data generated by cloud-based resources and applications to monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, and maintain security.
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JA
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.