Question 866 of 964
PCD Building and testing applications Practice Question
A developer is designing a CI/CD pipeline for a Node.js application hosted on Cloud Run using Cloud Build. The pipeline should run unit tests, build the container, push to Artifact Registry, and deploy to Cloud Run. The developer wants to minimize build time by caching dependencies. What is the recommended approach?
⚠ Common exam trap
The PCD exam often tests the misconception that committing `node_modules` or using custom base images are efficient caching strategies, but the correct approach is to use Cloud Build's native persistent volume caching, which is purpose-built for this scenario.
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
✓
Use Cloud Build's built-in caching with a persistent volume to store node_modules between builds.
Cloud Build supports built-in caching via persistent volumes (e.g., `/cache` or `/workspace`) that can store `node_modules` across builds. By configuring a cache volume in the `cloudbuild.yaml` and using `npm ci --prefer-offline`, the pipeline avoids re-downloading dependencies on every run, significantly reducing build time for Node.js applications on Cloud Run.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Run npm install locally and commit the node_modules folder to the repository for faster builds.
Why it's wrong here
Committing node_modules is not best practice and increases repository size.
- ✗
Use Cloud Build's step-level caching by copying the node_modules from a previous build step.
Why it's wrong here
Step-level caching does not persist across separate builds.
- ✗
Create a custom base image that includes all dependencies and reference it in the Dockerfile.
Why it's wrong here
This approach works but is less flexible and requires maintaining the base image.
- ✓
Use Cloud Build's built-in caching with a persistent volume to store node_modules between builds.
Why this is correct
Cloud Build's volume caching allows dependency caching across builds.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This PCD 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 PCD exam.
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