PCNE Practice Question: Designing, Planning, and Prototyping a GCP Network
Which THREE of the following are requirements for implementing a Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer with an external backend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between health check IP ranges and load balancer forwarding IP ranges, causing candidates to confuse which IP ranges must be allowed in firewall rules for external backends.
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
✓
The backend must support health checks from the load balancer's health check IP ranges.
Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancers use Google's frontend (proxying) IP ranges to send health checks to backends. The backend must allow inbound traffic from these specific health check IP ranges (e.g., 35.191.0.0/16 and 130.211.0.0/22) to receive health probes; otherwise, the load balancer will mark the backend as unhealthy and stop forwarding traffic.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The backend must be configured with Private Google Access.
Why it's wrong here
Private Google Access is for VMs without external IPs to reach Google APIs.
- ✓
The backend must support health checks from the load balancer's health check IP ranges.
Why this is correct
Health checks are required for proper traffic routing.
- ✗
The backend must have an SSL certificate installed.
Why it's wrong here
SSL certificates are only needed for HTTPS backends.
- ✓
Firewall rules must allow traffic from the load balancer's IP ranges.
Why this is correct
Firewall must permit health checks and traffic from load balancer.
- ✓
The backend must have a public IP address or be accessible via internet.
Why this is correct
Global external load balancer requires internet connectivity to backends.
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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.