PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
An organization wants to use a third-party identity provider (IdP) that supports OpenID Connect (OIDC) to manage access to Google Cloud resources. They want users to authenticate with the external IdP and access GCP via the Cloud Console and gcloud CLI. Which feature should they use?
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
✓
Cloud Identity with OIDC federation
Cloud Identity supports OIDC federation, allowing users to authenticate with an external OIDC IdP and access GCP.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Cloud Identity with OIDC federation
Why this is correct
Cloud Identity supports OIDC federation for user authentication with external IdPs.
- ✗
Cloud Identity with SAML 2.0 federation
Why it's wrong here
SAML 2.0 is used, but OIDC is a different protocol; SAML is not OIDC.
- ✗
Service account key authentication
Why it's wrong here
Service account keys are for non-human identities, not users.
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Workload Identity Federation
Why it's wrong here
Workload Identity Federation is for non-human workloads, not user authentication.
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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.