PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
A DevOps engineer needs to allow a CI/CD pipeline running in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to push images to a specific Artifact Registry repository. The pipeline uses a Kubernetes service account. What is the best practice to grant this access without creating a JSON key for a Google service account?
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
✓
Use Workload Identity to bind the KSA to a GSA with the Artifact Registry Writer role
Workload Identity for GKE allows you to bind a Kubernetes service account (KSA) to a Google service account (GSA). The KSA can then impersonate the GSA when accessing Google Cloud APIs, eliminating the need for service account keys.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a node pool with a service account that has the required roles
Why it's wrong here
Node-level service accounts are used for nodes, not individual pods; this would give access to all pods on the node, which is not least privilege.
- ✗
Grant the GSA the IAM role directly on the namespace using RBAC
Why it's wrong here
RBAC is for Kubernetes-level authorization, not Google Cloud IAM; it cannot grant GCP permissions.
- ✓
Use Workload Identity to bind the KSA to a GSA with the Artifact Registry Writer role
Why this is correct
Workload Identity enables keyless authentication by allowing the KSA to impersonate the GSA.
- ✗
Create a JSON key for the GSA, store it as a Kubernetes secret, and mount it into the pod
Why it's wrong here
This involves managing keys, which is not best practice; workload identity is the recommended approach.
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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.