PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
A developer wants to grant a service account the ability to impersonate another service account in a different project. Which IAM permission is required for the developer to assign?
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
✓
iam.serviceAccounts.actAs
The iam.serviceAccounts.actAs permission on the target service account allows a principal to impersonate that service account. This permission is included in the Service Account User role (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser). The developer needs to grant that role to the source service account (or user) on the target service account.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
iam.serviceAccounts.actAs
Why this is correct
Required to impersonate a service account.
- ✗
iam.serviceAccounts.getAccessToken
Why it's wrong here
Allows generating access tokens but not impersonation setup.
- ✗
iam.serviceAccounts.create
Why it's wrong here
Permission to create service accounts.
- ✗
iam.serviceAccounts.update
Why it's wrong here
Permission to update service accounts.
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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.