Google ACE Planning and configuring a cloud solution Practice Question
This ACE practice question tests your understanding of planning and configuring a cloud solution. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company wants to migrate a monolithic application to Google Cloud with minimal changes to the application code. Which compute option is most suitable?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Compute Engine
Compute Engine (C) is the most suitable option because it provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) virtual machines that can run the monolithic application with minimal code changes. The application can be migrated by simply lifting and shifting the existing VM or container image to a Compute Engine instance, preserving the OS, runtime, and dependencies without refactoring.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Google Kubernetes Engine
Why it's wrong here
Requires containerization, which involves significant application changes.
✗
App Engine (Flexible Environment)
Why it's wrong here
Requires creating a Dockerfile and may require code changes for runtime compatibility.
✓
Compute Engine
Why this is correct
Provides an IaaSvirtual machine that can run the application as-is, with minimal migration effort.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Cloud Functions
Why it's wrong here
Designed for event-driven, stateless functions, not suitable for a monolithic application.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that 'containerization always means minimal changes,' but the trap here is that GKE and App Engine Flexible Environment still require containerization and potential code adjustments, while Compute Engine allows a true lift-and-shift with zero code changes.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compute Engine supports custom machine types, GPUs, and local SSDs, allowing the monolithic application to retain its existing architecture and dependencies. Under the hood, you can use a migration tool like Migrate for Anthos or simply copy the disk image to a persistent disk and attach it to a new VM, preserving the exact OS configuration. In a real-world scenario, a legacy Java EE or .NET application with a tightly coupled database and session state can be migrated to a single Compute Engine instance without re-architecting, whereas GKE would require breaking it into containers and managing orchestration overhead.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this ACE question in full detail.
Planning and configuring a cloud solution — This question tests Planning and configuring a cloud solution — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Compute Engine — Compute Engine (C) is the most suitable option because it provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) virtual machines that can run the monolithic application with minimal code changes. The application can be migrated by simply lifting and shifting the existing VM or container image to a Compute Engine instance, preserving the OS, runtime, and dependencies without refactoring.
What should I do if I get this ACE question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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This ACE 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 ACE exam.
Question Discussion
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