PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
Your organization has an IAM policy at the folder level that grants a user the Compute Admin role. A deny policy at the project level denies the same user the compute.instances.create permission. What is the effective access for this user on the 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
✓
The user cannot create instances because deny policies override allow policies.
Deny policies always override allow policies. The deny at the project level explicitly denies compute.instances.create, so the user cannot create instances despite the folder-level allow.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The user can create instances because the allow policy at the folder level takes precedence over the deny policy at the project level.
Why it's wrong here
Deny policies override allow policies regardless of hierarchy level.
- ✗
The user can create instances because the project-level deny policy only applies to resources within the project, not to permissions inherited from the folder.
Why it's wrong here
Deny policies apply to all resources in the project and override inherited allows.
- ✗
The user can create instances because deny policies only block explicit allows, not inherited ones.
Why it's wrong here
Deny policies block all allows, inherited or explicit.
- ✓
The user cannot create instances because deny policies override allow policies.
Why this is correct
Deny policies take precedence over allow policies, so the deny at the project level blocks the inherited allow.
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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.