PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
An organization has a deny policy that denies the compute.instances.create permission for all principals on a folder. A user is granted the Compute Admin role (which includes compute.instances.create) at the project level within that folder. Can the user create Compute Engine instances in that project?
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
✓
No, because deny policies take precedence over allow policies.
Deny policies override allow policies regardless of hierarchy. If a deny policy denies the permission, it cannot be granted by any allow policy. The user will be denied even though they have the role.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
No, because deny policies take precedence over allow policies.
Why this is correct
Deny policies are evaluated after allow policies and take precedence.
- ✗
No, because the user is not an organization administrator.
Why it's wrong here
Even org admins cannot override deny policies.
- ✗
Yes, if the user also has the Owner role at the project level.
Why it's wrong here
Owner role does not override deny policies.
- ✗
Yes, because the project-level IAM grant overrides the folder-level deny.
Why it's wrong here
Deny policies always override allow policies.
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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.