The answer is to attach a service account to the Compute Engine instances with the roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor role and grant that service account access to the specific secret versions. This is correct because it follows the principle of least privilege, ensuring the application retrieves passwords at runtime without exposing long-lived credentials, as the Compute Engine metadata server automatically provides OAuth 2.0 tokens for authentication. On the Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of identity-based access for Secret Manager, where a common trap is to suggest storing a service account key on the instance or granting broader roles like Secret Manager Admin. Remember that the service account itself must be granted access to the secret, not just the instance, and access should be scoped to individual secret versions. A useful memory tip is "SA to SA": the Service Account attached to the instance must be granted Secret Access on the specific secret.
PCSE Supporting compliance requirements Practice Question
This PCSE practice question tests your understanding of supporting compliance requirements. 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 company uses Cloud SQL for MySQL and needs to automate the rotation of database user passwords every 30 days. They want to store the passwords in Secret Manager and have the application retrieve them at runtime. The application runs on Compute Engine. What is the most secure way to allow the Compute Engine instances to access the secrets?
Attach a service account to the Compute Engine instances with the role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor, and grant that service account access to the specific secret versions.
This follows least privilege and uses short-lived credentials from the metadata server.
B
Grant the roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor role to all service accounts in the project.
Why wrong: This violates least privilege.
C
Create a service account key for a dedicated service account, download it to the instance, and use it to access the secret.
Why wrong: Service account keys are long-lived and should be avoided.
D
Store the password in instance metadata and have the application read it from the metadata server.
Why wrong: Instance metadata is not as secure as Secret Manager.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Attach a service account to the Compute Engine instances with the role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor, and grant that service account access to the specific secret versions.
Option A is correct because it follows the principle of least privilege by attaching a service account with the roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor role directly to the Compute Engine instances and granting that service account access only to the specific secret versions needed. This ensures that the instances can authenticate via the default service account metadata server (using OAuth 2.0 tokens) without exposing any long-lived credentials, and the access is scoped to exactly the secrets required for password rotation.
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.
✓
Attach a service account to the Compute Engine instances with the role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor, and grant that service account access to the specific secret versions.
Why this is correct
This follows least privilege and uses short-lived credentials from the metadata server.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Grant the roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor role to all service accounts in the project.
Why it's wrong here
This violates least privilege.
✗
Create a service account key for a dedicated service account, download it to the instance, and use it to access the secret.
Why it's wrong here
Service account keys are long-lived and should be avoided.
✗
Store the password in instance metadata and have the application read it from the metadata server.
Why it's wrong here
Instance metadata is not as secure as Secret Manager.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that storing secrets in instance metadata is acceptable for security, but the trap here is that metadata is not designed for secrets management and lacks encryption, access control, and audit capabilities that Secret Manager provides.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
When a Compute Engine instance has an attached service account, the instance metadata server (169.254.169.254) automatically provides OAuth 2.0 access tokens that are scoped to the service account's IAM roles. Secret Manager uses IAM conditions to allow fine-grained access to individual secret versions, and the secretmanager.secretAccessor role is the minimal role that permits reading secret payloads. This setup avoids the need to manage static credentials and ensures that access is automatically revoked if the instance is deleted or the service account is removed.
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.
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.
Supporting compliance requirements — This question tests Supporting compliance requirements — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Attach a service account to the Compute Engine instances with the role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor, and grant that service account access to the specific secret versions. — Option A is correct because it follows the principle of least privilege by attaching a service account with the roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor role directly to the Compute Engine instances and granting that service account access only to the specific secret versions needed. This ensures that the instances can authenticate via the default service account metadata server (using OAuth 2.0 tokens) without exposing any long-lived credentials, and the access is scoped to exactly the secrets required for password rotation.
What should I do if I get this PCSE 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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
This PCSE 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 PCSE exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.