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How to Grant Access to VPC-SC Protected Resources from Outside the Perimeter

This ACE practice question tests your understanding of ace exam topics. 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.

Your organization uses VPC Service Controls to protect BigQuery and Cloud Storage. A data pipeline service account needs to read from a protected Cloud Storage bucket and write results to a protected BigQuery dataset. Both resources are in the same perimeter. The service account is outside the perimeter (it runs in a Cloud Run service in a different project). How do you grant the pipeline access?

Quick Answer

The correct answer is to create an ingress rule in the VPC Service Controls perimeter that allows the external service account to access the specific BigQuery and Cloud Storage resources. This works because VPC Service Controls enforce a security boundary around protected services, and by default, any identity outside that perimeter is denied access. An ingress rule explicitly bridges this boundary, granting the external service account permission to reach the designated resources while keeping everything else locked down. On the Google Associate Cloud Engineer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to handle cross-perimeter access for service accounts, a common trap being the mistaken assumption that an egress rule is needed—egress controls outbound traffic from the perimeter, not inbound. Remember the memory tip: “Ingress lets them in, egress lets them out.” For a pipeline outside the perimeter, you always configure an ingress rule to allow the external identity in.

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

✓

Create an Ingress Rule in the VPC-SC perimeter that allows the service account from the external project to access the specific BigQuery and Storage resources.

Option B is correct because VPC Service Controls (VPC-SC) allow you to define ingress rules that grant access to protected resources from identities outside the perimeter. In this scenario, the service account running in Cloud Run is outside the perimeter, so an ingress rule must explicitly permit that service account to access the specific BigQuery dataset and Cloud Storage bucket. This approach maintains the security boundary while enabling the required data pipeline access.

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.

  • ✗

    Add the Cloud Run project to the VPC Service Controls perimeter.

    Why it's wrong here

    Adding the entire Cloud Run project to the perimeter allows all identities in that project to access perimeter resources — violating least privilege. An ingress rule is more targeted.

  • ✓

    Create an Ingress Rule in the VPC-SC perimeter that allows the service account from the external project to access the specific BigQuery and Storage resources.

    Why this is correct

    Ingress rules in VPC Service Controls allow fine-grained external access: specify the source identity (SA), source project, and which services/resources can be accessed inside the perimeter.

    Related concept

    Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

  • ✗

    Grant the service account `roles/bigquery.admin` and `roles/storage.admin` to bypass the perimeter restrictions.

    Why it's wrong here

    IAM permissions are evaluated after VPC-SC perimeter checks. Even with admin roles, a request denied by the perimeter will fail. IAM cannot override VPC-SC.

  • ✗

    Move the Cloud Run service into a VPC and set up VPC peering to the perimeter VPC.

    Why it's wrong here

    VPC peering addresses network connectivity but not VPC Service Controls access. VPC-SC controls are identity and context-based, not network-level.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Google Cloud often tests the misconception that IAM roles can override VPC Service Controls, but the trap here is that VPC-SC operates independently of IAM and requires explicit ingress or egress rules for cross-perimeter access.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

VPC Service Controls use a context-aware access model where ingress rules can specify allowed identities (e.g., service accounts), projects, and resources. The ingress rule must include the service account's email and the specific resource names (e.g., `//storage.googleapis.com/projects/_/buckets/BUCKET_NAME` and `//bigquery.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_ID/datasets/DATASET_ID`). A common real-world scenario is when a data pipeline runs in a separate project for isolation but needs to read from a protected bucket; without an ingress rule, the pipeline will receive a 403 error even if IAM permissions are correct.

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

A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this ACE question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Create an Ingress Rule in the VPC-SC perimeter that allows the service account from the external project to access the specific BigQuery and Storage resources. — Option B is correct because VPC Service Controls (VPC-SC) allow you to define ingress rules that grant access to protected resources from identities outside the perimeter. In this scenario, the service account running in Cloud Run is outside the perimeter, so an ingress rule must explicitly permit that service account to access the specific BigQuery dataset and Cloud Storage bucket. This approach maintains the security boundary while enabling the required data pipeline access.

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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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026

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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.