Google PCA Designing for Security and Compliance Practice Question
An organization wants to implement a zero-trust architecture for a web application running on Compute Engine. They require: - All traffic must be authenticated and authorized at the application layer. - Access decisions must consider the user's identity, device security posture, and IP address. - Session hijacking must be mitigated. Which THREE services or features should they use? (Choose three.)
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
✓
IAP's signed headers (X-Goog-Authenticated-User-Email)
IAP provides identity-aware access, Cloud Armor can enforce context-based access, and IAP signed headers prevent session hijacking.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
IAP's signed headers (X-Goog-Authenticated-User-Email)
Why this is correct
Signed headers ensure that requests come from IAP, preventing session hijacking.
- ✗
Cloud Armor with adaptive protection
Why it's wrong here
Adaptive protection is for WAF and DDoS, not for identity-based access decisions.
- ✓
Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)
Why this is correct
IAP verifies user identity and context before allowing access to the application.
- ✓
Cloud Armor with security policies that include access from certain IP ranges
Why this is correct
Cloud Armor can enforce allow/deny rules based on IP address as part of context.
- ✗
VPC Service Controls
Why it's wrong here
VPC Service Controls protect data exfiltration, not application-layer authentication.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Google Cloud Platform
Key term
Cloud Armor
Cloud Armor is a Google Cloud web application firewall (WAF) service that protects applications and websites from attacks like DDoS and SQL injection using customizable security rules.
Key term
Organization
An Organization is a top-level container in Google Cloud that represents your company or entities and serves as the root node for all your cloud resources, policies, and access control.
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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.