PCSE Practice Question: Managing Operations in a Cloud Solution Environment
A security team needs to detect anomalous outbound traffic from Compute Engine instances. They want to enable logging and analyze the data. Which three steps should they take? (Choose three.)
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
✓
Enable VPC Flow Logs on the subnets where the instances are located.
To detect anomalous outbound traffic, you need to enable VPC Flow Logs (which log outbound traffic), export them to BigQuery for analysis (using a log sink), and query the data. Cloud NAT is for outbound connectivity with NAT, but not logging. Packet Mirroring copies traffic but is not necessary for flow logs. Firewall Rules logging logs firewall hits, not all outbound 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.
- ✗
Enable Cloud NAT logging to capture outbound traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud NAT logging logs NAT connections, not all outbound traffic; VPC Flow Logs are more comprehensive.
- ✗
Enable Packet Mirroring to duplicate all outbound packets.
Why it's wrong here
Packet Mirroring is for deep packet inspection, not for logging and analysis of flow data; it also incurs additional cost.
- ✓
Enable VPC Flow Logs on the subnets where the instances are located.
Why this is correct
VPC Flow Logs capture IP traffic, including outbound flows.
- ✓
Create a log sink to export VPC Flow Logs to BigQuery.
Why this is correct
Exporting to BigQuery enables analysis of large volumes of flow log data.
- ✓
Use BigQuery to query the exported flow logs for anomalous patterns.
Why this is correct
BigQuery allows running analytics on the flow logs to detect anomalies.
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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.