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.
An organization needs to ensure that only Compute Engine instances with a specific label can access a Cloud Storage bucket. Which policy type should be used?
Organization policy
Why wrong: Organization policies enforce organization-wide constraints, not fine-grained access.
Firewall rule
Why wrong: Firewall rules control network traffic, not Cloud Storage access.
IAM policy
IAM conditions can enforce label-based access to Cloud Storage.
Signed URL
Why wrong: Signed URLs grant time-limited access, not label-specific.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
IAM policy
IAM policies are the correct mechanism to control access to Cloud Storage buckets based on identity and conditions. By attaching an IAM policy to the bucket with a condition that checks for a specific label on the requesting Compute Engine instance (e.g., using `resource.labels.tag`), you can restrict access to only those instances that have that label. This is the native Google Cloud way to implement attribute-based access control (ABAC) for storage 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.
Organization policy
Why it's wrong here
Organization policies enforce organization-wide constraints, not fine-grained access.
Firewall rule
Why it's wrong here
Firewall rules control network traffic, not Cloud Storage access.
IAM policy
Why this is correct
IAM conditions can enforce label-based access to Cloud Storage.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Signed URL
Why it's wrong here
Signed URLs grant time-limited access, not label-specific.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse IAM conditions with Organization policies or firewall rules, thinking that network-level controls can enforce label-based access to Cloud Storage, when in fact only IAM with conditions can evaluate resource metadata like labels at the API level.
Detailed technical explanation
IAM conditions use Common Expression Language (CEL) to evaluate attributes such as `resource.labels` or `resource.service` at request time. For Compute Engine instances, the label must be set on the instance resource itself, and the condition is evaluated against the caller's identity (the instance's service account). This allows fine-grained access control without managing individual service accounts per instance, and it works even if the instance's IP address changes or if it uses a shared VPC.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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.
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: IAM policy — IAM policies are the correct mechanism to control access to Cloud Storage buckets based on identity and conditions. By attaching an IAM policy to the bucket with a condition that checks for a specific label on the requesting Compute Engine instance (e.g., using `resource.labels.tag`), you can restrict access to only those instances that have that label. This is the native Google Cloud way to implement attribute-based access control (ABAC) for storage 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 25, 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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