This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of fundamental cloud concepts. 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 small business wants to host a static website with minimal management overhead. They want high availability and low cost. Which Google Cloud service should they use?
Compute Engine with Apache
Why wrong: Compute Engine requires managing VMs, not minimal effort.
Cloud Storage with a load balancer
Cloud Storage hosts static content and the load balancer provides HTTPS and high availability.
App Engine Standard Environment
Why wrong: App Engine is for dynamic apps, more complex than needed.
Cloud Run
Why wrong: Cloud Run is for containerized applications, overkill for static sites.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Cloud Storage with a load balancer
Cloud Storage with a load balancer is ideal for hosting a static website because it serves content directly from object storage, requires no server management, and the load balancer provides high availability by distributing traffic across multiple regions. This combination offers low cost (pay only for storage and egress) and minimal operational overhead, as there are no virtual machines or application runtimes to maintain.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Compute Engine with Apache
Why it's wrong here
Compute Engine requires managing VMs, not minimal effort.
Cloud Storage with a load balancer
Why this is correct
Cloud Storage hosts static content and the load balancer provides HTTPS and high availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
App Engine Standard Environment
Why it's wrong here
App Engine is for dynamic apps, more complex than needed.
Cloud Run
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Run is for containerized applications, overkill for static sites.
Common exam traps
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that any serverless or managed compute service (like App Engine or Cloud Run) is the best choice for static content, when in fact object storage with a load balancer is simpler and cheaper for purely static assets.
Detailed technical explanation
Cloud Storage can serve static content directly via its built-in web server, but for high availability, you must configure a global external HTTP(S) load balancer with a backend bucket. The load balancer uses Google Front Ends (GFEs) and Anycast IPs to route traffic to the nearest healthy backend, ensuring redundancy across regions. A subtle behavior is that the load balancer can also terminate SSL/TLS and cache content via Cloud CDN, further reducing latency and origin load without any server-side code.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
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FAQ
Fundamental cloud concepts — This question tests Fundamental cloud concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Cloud Storage with a load balancer — Cloud Storage with a load balancer is ideal for hosting a static website because it serves content directly from object storage, requires no server management, and the load balancer provides high availability by distributing traffic across multiple regions. This combination offers low cost (pay only for storage and egress) and minimal operational overhead, as there are no virtual machines or application runtimes to maintain.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
This GCDL 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 GCDL exam.
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