PCNE Configuring Network Services Practice Question
A company has a global e-commerce platform using a Global HTTPS Load Balancer with Cloud CDN. They want to serve private content, such as user-specific PDFs, with CDN caching while ensuring only authorized users can access it. Which method 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
✓
Use Cloud CDN signed URLs or signed cookies
Signed URLs or signed cookies allow you to grant time-limited access to private content cached on Cloud CDN. They are the recommended way to serve private content via CDN.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Cloud Armor to restrict access by IP address
Why it's wrong here
IP restrictions are coarse and not suitable for user-specific access.
- ✗
Enable IAM permissions on the backend bucket and restrict access to only authenticated users
Why it's wrong here
IAM does not integrate directly with CDN-cached content; all users would bypass IAM if cached.
- ✓
Use Cloud CDN signed URLs or signed cookies
Why this is correct
Signed URLs/cookies allow access control with CDN caching.
- ✗
Set the cache mode to FORCE_CACHE_ALL and use a token in the URL
Why it's wrong here
FORCE_CACHE_ALL caches everything regardless of origin headers, but doesn't enforce access control.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 961 original PCNE practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNE 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 PCNE exam.