PCDOE Practice Question: Bootstrapping a Google Cloud organization for DevOps
This PCDOE practice question tests your understanding of bootstrapping a google cloud organization for devops. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 DevOps engineer is setting up a Cloud Build trigger that builds a container image and deploys it to Cloud Run. The build fails with a permission error when trying to access resources in a different project. The engineer has created a service account in the project where Cloud Build runs and granted it roles/run.admin and roles/storage.objectViewer on the target project. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The Cloud Build service account lacks the iam.serviceAccounts.actAs permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account.
The error occurs because Cloud Build needs the `iam.serviceAccounts.actAs` permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account to impersonate it when deploying the container. Even though the custom service account has `roles/run.admin` and `roles/storage.objectViewer` on the target project, without the `actAs` permission, Cloud Build cannot assume the runtime service account's identity to push the image and deploy the revision. This permission is typically granted via `roles/iam.serviceAccountUser` on the runtime service account itself.
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.
✗
The service account has been deleted or disabled.
Why it's wrong here
The problem is not about existence but permissions.
✗
Cloud Build’s default compute engine service account is being used instead of the custom one.
Why it's wrong here
The engineer created a custom service account, but the issue is about the actAs permission.
✓
The Cloud Build service account lacks the iam.serviceAccounts.actAs permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account.
Why this is correct
To deploy to Cloud Run, Cloud Build must act as the Cloud Run runtime service account.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The service account must be created in the target project instead of the source project.
Why it's wrong here
Service accounts can be used across projects with appropriate permissions.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume granting high-level roles like `roles/run.admin` on the target project is sufficient, overlooking the separate requirement for the `iam.serviceAccounts.actAs` permission on the specific runtime service account that Cloud Run uses.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Cloud Run deployments require the Cloud Build service account to call the `iam.serviceAccounts.actAs` permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account (e.g., `PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com`) to obtain a short-lived access token for the deployment API. This is enforced by the IAM system's delegation chain: even if the Cloud Build service account has `run.admin`, it cannot impersonate the runtime service account without `roles/iam.serviceAccountUser`. In real-world scenarios, forgetting this permission is a common cause of 'Permission 'iam.serviceAccounts.actAs' denied' errors, especially when using custom service accounts across projects.
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.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Bootstrapping a Google Cloud organization for DevOps — This question tests Bootstrapping a Google Cloud organization for DevOps — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The Cloud Build service account lacks the iam.serviceAccounts.actAs permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account. — The error occurs because Cloud Build needs the `iam.serviceAccounts.actAs` permission on the Cloud Run runtime service account to impersonate it when deploying the container. Even though the custom service account has `roles/run.admin` and `roles/storage.objectViewer` on the target project, without the `actAs` permission, Cloud Build cannot assume the runtime service account's identity to push the image and deploy the revision. This permission is typically granted via `roles/iam.serviceAccountUser` on the runtime service account itself.
What should I do if I get this PCDOE question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
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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