PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
A GKE cluster runs workloads that need to access Cloud Storage. The security team wants to avoid using service account keys and ensure each pod has a unique identity. What is the best practice?
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: create a Kubernetes service account and bind it to a Google service account.
Workload Identity for GKE binds a Kubernetes service account to a Google service account. Pods that use the KSA automatically authenticate as the GSA without keys. This provides fine-grained pod-level identity. Attaching the GSA to the node is coarse-grained. Using the default compute SA is insecure. Creating keys defeats the purpose.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a service account key and mount it as a secret in each pod.
Why it's wrong here
Keys are long-lived and should be avoided.
- ✗
Use the default compute engine service account for the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Default SA has broad permissions and is not pod-specific.
- ✗
Attach a Google service account to the GKE node pool.
Why it's wrong here
All pods on the node share the same identity, not unique per pod.
- ✓
Use Workload Identity: create a Kubernetes service account and bind it to a Google service account.
Why this is correct
Workload Identity allows pod-level identity without keys.
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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.