A higher priority deny rule can override the allow rule.
Why this answer
The most likely cause is that a firewall rule with priority 500 explicitly denies ingress traffic to the specific VM's tag or IP range, overriding the allow-ssh rule (which has a lower priority, i.e., a higher numerical value). In Google Cloud Platform (GCP), firewall rules are evaluated from lowest to highest priority number, and a deny rule with a lower priority number (e.g., 500) takes precedence over an allow rule with a higher priority number (e.g., 1000). This explains why other VMs with the same 'ssh-allowed' tag remain reachable, as they are not affected by the specific deny rule.
Exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that a higher priority number means higher priority, when in fact a lower priority number (e.g., 500) takes precedence over a higher one (e.g., 1000), causing candidates to overlook the effect of a deny rule with a lower priority number.
How to eliminate wrong answers
Option B is wrong because the source range 0.0.0.0/0 does allow all internet IPs, but the issue is that a higher-priority deny rule (priority 500) is blocking the traffic, not that the allow rule is misconfigured. Option C is wrong because if the VM were in a different VPC without the allow-ssh rule, no VM in that VPC would be reachable via SSH, but the question states that other VMs with the same tag work, implying they are in the same VPC. Option D is wrong because while the allow-ssh rule with priority 1000 is higher than the implicit deny (65535), a deny rule with a lower priority number (500) takes precedence over the allow rule, blocking the traffic.