PCSE IAM predefined roles Practice Question
Which IAM role should be assigned to a user who needs to manage Cloud Storage objects in a specific project, but should not be able to create or delete buckets?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common trap is confusing Storage Object Admin (which allows object creation and deletion) with the ability to manage buckets. Object Admin does not allow bucket operations such as create, delete, or update bucket configurations.
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
✓
roles/storage.objectAdmin
The correct role is roles/storage.objectAdmin. This role grants full control over Cloud Storage objects, including the ability to read, write, update, and delete objects, but it does not allow any operations on buckets (create, delete, or configure). The user needs to manage objects (which includes write and delete operations) but should not be able to create or delete buckets. Storage Object Admin fits this requirement. Option C, roles/storage.objectViewer, only provides read-only access and does not allow management. Option B, roles/storage.admin, provides full control over both buckets and objects, including create and delete permissions. Option A, roles/storage.legacyBucketReader, only allows reading bucket metadata, not objects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
roles/storage.legacyBucketReader
Why it's wrong here
This role only provides read access to bucket metadata and does not allow managing objects.
- ✗
roles/storage.admin
Why it's wrong here
This role grants full control over all storage resources, including the ability to create and delete buckets and objects, which violates the 'not create or delete' criterion.
- ✗
roles/storage.objectViewer
Why it's wrong here
This role provides read-only access to objects and their metadata; it does not allow management (write) operations such as updating metadata or setting permissions.
- ✓
roles/storage.objectAdmin
Why this is correct
Correct. This role allows full management of objects (create, read, update, delete) without allowing bucket creation or deletion.
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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.