PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
A company uses SAML 2.0 federation with an external IdP. Users are synced from Active Directory to Cloud Identity using Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS). The security engineer needs to ensure that only users from a specific Active Directory group can access Google Cloud resources. What should be configured?
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
✓
Create a Cloud Identity group that is synced with the AD group via GCDS, and assign IAM roles to that group.
The correct approach is to configure the IdP to only send SAML assertions for users in that specific AD group, and then in Cloud Identity, map that group to a Cloud Identity group or use attribute-based access. Alternatively, use organization policies with constraints/iam.allowedPolicyMemberDomains to restrict members to specific domains. But the question is about user access, not policy binding. The best answer is to create a Cloud Identity group that syncs with the AD group, and grant IAM roles to that group. This ensures only members of the AD group get access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure the SAML IdP to include a custom attribute indicating group membership, and use attribute-based access control in Google Cloud.
Why it's wrong here
Google Cloud IAM does not support attribute-based access control; it uses role assignments to principals (users/groups).
- ✗
Use IAP to restrict access based on user identity.
Why it's wrong here
IAP is for application-level access, not for controlling IAM policy membership.
- ✗
Configure an organization policy constraint (constraints/iam.allowedPolicyMemberDomains) to restrict IAM policies to the company's domain.
Why it's wrong here
This restricts who can be added to IAM policies by domain, but it does not filter individual users from specific AD groups.
- ✓
Create a Cloud Identity group that is synced with the AD group via GCDS, and assign IAM roles to that group.
Why this is correct
This ensures only users in the AD group are members of the Cloud Identity group, and thus have access.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCSE 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 PCSE exam.