PCNE Practice Question: Designing, Planning, and Prototyping a GCP Network
An organization needs to allow on-premises servers to resolve DNS names of GCP VM instances using RFC 1918 addresses. They have a Cloud VPN connection. Which DNS resolution approach should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse inbound and outbound server policies, often selecting Option B (outbound) because they think 'forwarding to on-premises' is needed, but the requirement is for on-premises to query GCP, which requires an inbound endpoint.
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
✓
Configure Cloud DNS inbound server policy and set up forwarding from on-premises DNS to the Cloud DNS inbound endpoint
The on-premises servers need to resolve DNS names of GCP VM instances using RFC 1918 addresses over a Cloud VPN connection. Configuring a Cloud DNS inbound server policy creates a VPC-wide inbound DNS endpoint (using an internal IP address) that on-premises DNS servers can forward queries to. This allows the on-premises DNS to send DNS requests for GCP private zone records (e.g., `vm-instance.c.example.internal`) directly to the Cloud DNS inbound endpoint, which then resolves the private RFC 1918 addresses of the VM instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up a public zone and use the instance's external IP for DNS
Why it's wrong here
Does not use RFC 1918 addresses, requires external IPs.
- ✗
Configure Cloud DNS outbound server policy and forward from Cloud DNS to on-premises DNS
Why it's wrong here
Outbound is for Cloud DNS forwarding to on-premises, opposite direction.
- ✗
Use DNS peering with a private zone in the on-premises DNS
Why it's wrong here
DNS peering is between VPCs, not for hybrid.
- ✓
Configure Cloud DNS inbound server policy and set up forwarding from on-premises DNS to the Cloud DNS inbound endpoint
Why this is correct
Enables on-premises to query Cloud DNS for private zones.
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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.