Google PCA Manage and provision cloud infrastructure Practice Question
This PCA practice question tests your understanding of manage and provision cloud infrastructure. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 team wants to allow a service account to be used only on specific Compute Engine VMs. Which IAM condition should be applied to the service account's roles?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
resource.name
Option C is correct because the `resource.name` IAM condition allows you to restrict a service account's roles to specific Compute Engine VM instances by matching the VM's resource name (e.g., `projects/project-id/zones/zone/instances/instance-name`). This ensures the service account can only be used on designated VMs, enforcing fine-grained access control.
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.
✗
resource.service
Why it's wrong here
resource.service specifies the service, not the specific resource.
✗
resource.owner
Why it's wrong here
resource.owner is not a standard condition attribute.
✓
resource.name
Why this is correct
Correct. resource.name can be used to restrict to specific resources.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
resource.type
Why it's wrong here
resource.type specifies the type of resource, not the specific instance.
✗
resource.labels
Why it's wrong here
resource.labels can be used but is less precise than resource.name.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that `resource.type` or `resource.labels` can restrict access to a specific VM, but only `resource.name` provides a unique identifier for a single instance, while labels are for grouping and can change over time.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
IAM conditions use Common Expression Language (CEL) to evaluate attributes like `resource.name` against the resource's full resource name in the format `projects/{project}/zones/{zone}/instances/{instance}`. This condition is evaluated at access time, and the service account's roles (e.g., `roles/compute.instanceAdmin`) are only effective when the condition matches the target VM. A subtle behavior is that the condition must match the exact resource name, including the zone, so a typo or zone mismatch will deny access even if the instance name is 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 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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this PCA question in full detail.
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — This question tests Manage and provision cloud infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: resource.name — Option C is correct because the `resource.name` IAM condition allows you to restrict a service account's roles to specific Compute Engine VM instances by matching the VM's resource name (e.g., `projects/project-id/zones/zone/instances/instance-name`). This ensures the service account can only be used on designated VMs, enforcing fine-grained access control.
What should I do if I get this PCA 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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Question Discussion
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