PCSE Practice Question: Configuring Access Within a Cloud Solution Environment
Your organization wants to assign a set of permissions to a group of users that allows them to create and delete Compute Engine instances, but not to modify other resources like Cloud Storage buckets. Which type of IAM role should you create?
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
✓
Custom role with only compute.instances.create and compute.instances.delete
Custom IAM roles allow you to curate a specific set of permissions tailored to your needs. Predefined roles like roles/compute.instanceAdmin include broader permissions that may not be desired. Basic roles (Owner, Editor, Viewer) are too broad and should be avoided in production.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Predefined role (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1)
Why it's wrong here
This role includes permissions to manage instances and many other Compute Engine resources, which may exceed the requirement.
- ✗
Basic role (Editor)
Why it's wrong here
Editor role grants write permissions to all resources, not just Compute Engine, which is overly permissive.
- ✗
Predefined role (roles/editor)
Why it's wrong here
Same as option A; Editor role is too broad.
- ✓
Custom role with only compute.instances.create and compute.instances.delete
Why this is correct
A custom role allows you to include exactly the permissions needed, granting fine-grained access control.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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