This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage and provision cloud infrastructure. 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 service account needs to be able to start and stop Compute Engine instances in a specific project. Which IAM role should be assigned at the project level?
roles/iam.serviceAccountUser
Why wrong: Allows using service accounts, not managing instances.
roles/editor
Why wrong: Too broad; not following principle of least privilege.
roles/compute.viewer
Why wrong: Read-only; cannot start/stop.
roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
Grants necessary permissions to start and stop instances.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
The correct answer is D, roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1, because this role grants the necessary permissions to start, stop, and manage Compute Engine instances, including operations like instances.start and instances.stop, at the project level. This role is specifically designed for managing compute resources without granting broader project-level access like editing all resources.
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.
roles/iam.serviceAccountUser
Why it's wrong here
Allows using service accounts, not managing instances.
roles/editor
Why it's wrong here
Too broad; not following principle of least privilege.
roles/compute.viewer
Why it's wrong here
Read-only; cannot start/stop.
roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
Why this is correct
Grants necessary permissions to start and stop instances.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between primitive roles (like roles/editor) and predefined roles (like roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1), where candidates mistakenly choose the broader role due to its apparent convenience, overlooking the principle of least privilege and the specific permissions required for the task.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, the roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1 role includes permissions such as compute.instances.start, compute.instances.stop, compute.instances.reset, and compute.instances.delete, which are part of the Compute Engine API's instance management operations. In a real-world scenario, this role is ideal for a CI/CD pipeline service account that needs to power down instances during off-hours and restart them for batch processing, ensuring it cannot accidentally delete other project resources like Cloud Storage buckets or Cloud SQL instances.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
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FAQ
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — This question tests Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1 — The correct answer is D, roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1, because this role grants the necessary permissions to start, stop, and manage Compute Engine instances, including operations like instances.start and instances.stop, at the project level. This role is specifically designed for managing compute resources without granting broader project-level access like editing all resources.
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 PCA 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 PCA exam.
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