PCSE Supporting compliance requirements Practice Question
This PCSE practice question tests your understanding of supporting compliance requirements. 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 healthcare organization must store protected health information (PHI) in Google Cloud and ensure compliance with HIPAA. They need to prevent data from being stored outside the United States. Which Google Cloud product should they use to enforce this requirement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Organization Policy
Organization Policy allows you to define and enforce constraints on Google Cloud resources at the organization, folder, or project level. The `gcp.resourceRestriction` constraint can be used to restrict the location where data can be stored, ensuring PHI remains within the United States to meet HIPAA requirements.
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.
✗
Cloud Healthcare API
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Healthcare API is for managing healthcare data, not enforcing geographic restrictions.
✓
Organization Policy
Why this is correct
Organization Policies with constraints like constraints/gcp.resourceLocations can restrict resources to specific regions.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
VPC Service Controls
Why it's wrong here
VPC Service Controls control data exfiltration, not data location compliance.
✗
Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) API
Why it's wrong here
DLP detects and masks sensitive data, but does not enforce storage location.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between data residency enforcement (Organization Policy) and data exfiltration prevention (VPC Service Controls), leading candidates to confuse the two when the question focuses on storage location restrictions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Organization Policy uses a constraint called `gcp.resourceRestriction` with a `listPolicy` to specify allowed or denied locations (e.g., `in:us-locations`). This policy is enforced at the resource creation level, meaning any attempt to create a Cloud Storage bucket or BigQuery dataset outside the US will be denied. Under the hood, the policy is evaluated by the Resource Manager service before any resource creation API call is completed.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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: Organization Policy — Organization Policy allows you to define and enforce constraints on Google Cloud resources at the organization, folder, or project level. The `gcp.resourceRestriction` constraint can be used to restrict the location where data can be stored, ensuring PHI remains within the United States to meet HIPAA requirements.
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.
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Question Discussion
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