The answer is to grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level. This configuration is correct because it provides read-only access to model artifacts in Cloud Storage without granting any write or delete permissions, strictly adhering to the principle of least privilege. By scoping the role to the specific bucket, you prevent the service account from accessing other buckets in the project, which is a common misconfiguration that violates least privilege. On the Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam, this scenario tests your understanding of IAM role granularity versus bucket-level vs. project-level permissions, often appearing as a trap where candidates mistakenly choose a broader role like roles/storage.admin or roles/objectAdmin. A key memory tip: think "objectViewer" for read-only model sharing—it’s the most restrictive role that still allows the product team to list and read objects, just like peeking into a locked display case without touching the artifacts.
PMLE Practice Question: Collaborating within and across teams to manage data and models
This PMLE practice question tests your understanding of collaborating within and across teams to manage data and models. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 machine learning engineer needs to share a trained model with the product team for integration. The model is stored in Cloud Storage, and the product team’s service account needs read access. The engineer wants to follow the principle of least privilege. Which IAM configuration should be used?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level.
Option B is correct because granting the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level provides read-only access to objects in that specific bucket, adhering to the principle of least privilege. This role allows the service account to list and read objects without granting broader permissions, such as modifying or deleting them, and scoping it to the bucket prevents unnecessary access to other buckets in the project.
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.
✗
Generate a signed URL with read access and share it with the product team.
Why it's wrong here
Signed URLs do not require IAM but may expire and are less secure for ongoing access.
✓
Grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level.
Why this is correct
Bucket-level grants read access to objects in that bucket only, following least privilege.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectAdmin role at the bucket level.
Why it's wrong here
Grants write/delete permissions, not least privilege.
✗
Grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the project level.
Why it's wrong here
Project-level grants access to all buckets in the project.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse the principle of least privilege with convenience, choosing a signed URL (Option A) because it seems simple, or selecting a project-level role (Option D) without realizing it grants access to all buckets, both of which violate the core requirement of minimal necessary permissions.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Cloud Storage IAM roles are evaluated at the bucket level when using uniform bucket-level access, and the roles/storage.objectViewer role includes permissions like storage.objects.get and storage.objects.list. In a real-world scenario, if the product team only needs to download the model file, scoping the role to the bucket ensures that even if the service account is compromised, the blast radius is limited to that bucket, preventing access to other sensitive data in separate buckets.
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.
Collaborating within and across teams to manage data and models — This question tests Collaborating within and across teams to manage data and models — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Grant the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level. — Option B is correct because granting the product team's service account the roles/storage.objectViewer role at the bucket level provides read-only access to objects in that specific bucket, adhering to the principle of least privilege. This role allows the service account to list and read objects without granting broader permissions, such as modifying or deleting them, and scoping it to the bucket prevents unnecessary access to other buckets in the project.
What should I do if I get this PMLE 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: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.
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 PMLE 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 PMLE 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.