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GCP GCP-ACE Free Practice Questions — Page 3

Associate Cloud Engineer • 5 questions • Answers & explanations included

Question 11

You need a dynamic way of provisioning VMs on Compute Engine. The exact specifications will be in a dedicated configuration file. You want to follow Google's recommended practices. Which method should you use?

A. Deployment Manager
B. Cloud Composer
C. Managed Instance Group
D. Unmanaged Instance Group
Show Answer & Explanation

Correct Answer: A. Deployment Manager

Deployment Manager uses declarative YAML/Jinja2/Python config files to provision GCP resources dynamically. It's Google's native IaC tool and the recommended practice for VM provisioning from config files. Cloud Composer is a workflow orchestration tool (Apache Airflow), not for VM provisioning. MIGs (C, D) create instances from templates but don't use dedicated config files for arbitrary specifications.

Question 12

You have a Dockerfile that you need to deploy on Kubernetes Engine. What should you do?

A. Use kubectl app deploy <dockerfilename>.
B. Use gcloud app deploy <dockerfilename>.
C. Create a docker image from the Dockerfile and upload it to Container Registry. Create a Deployment YAML file to point to that image. Use kubectl to create the deployment with that file.
D. Create a docker image from the Dockerfile and upload it to Cloud Storage. Create a Deployment YAML file to point to that image. Use kubectl to create the deployment with that file.
Show Answer & Explanation

Correct Answer: C. Create a docker image from the Dockerfile and upload it to Container Registry. Create a Deployment YAML file to point to that image. Use kubectl to create the deployment with that file.

Kubernetes requires a container image from a registry — not a raw Dockerfile. You build the image with docker build, push to Container Registry (now Artifact Registry), then define a Deployment YAML referencing that image, and apply with kubectl apply. Option D uses Cloud Storage, which is not a container registry and won't work with Kubernetes. Options A and B are invalid commands for this purpose.

Question 13

Your development team needs a new Jenkins server for their project. You need to deploy the server using the fewest steps possible. What should you do?

A. Download and deploy the Jenkins Java WAR to App Engine Standard.
B. Create a new Compute Engine instance and install Jenkins through the command line interface.
C. Create a Kubernetes cluster on Compute Engine and create a deployment with the Jenkins Docker image.
D. Use GCP Marketplace to launch the Jenkins solution.
Show Answer & Explanation

Correct Answer: D. Use GCP Marketplace to launch the Jenkins solution.

GCP Marketplace offers pre-configured Jenkins solutions deployable in a few clicks — the fewest steps. Option B (manual install) and C (Kubernetes deployment) require more setup steps. Option A won't work because Jenkins WAR requires a servlet container not natively supported in App Engine Standard. Marketplace handles all configuration automatically.

Question 14

You need to update a deployment in Deployment Manager without any resource downtime in the deployment. Which command should you use?

A. gcloud deployment-manager deployments create --config <deployment-config-path>
B. gcloud deployment-manager deployments update --config <deployment-config-path>
C. gcloud deployment-manager resources create --config <deployment-config-path>
D. gcloud deployment-manager resources update --config <deployment-config-path>
Show Answer & Explanation

Correct Answer: B. gcloud deployment-manager deployments update --config <deployment-config-path>

gcloud deployment-manager deployments update updates an existing deployment in-place without deleting and recreating all resources, minimizing downtime. Option A (create) would fail if the deployment already exists. Options C and D reference resources subcommands which are not valid in Deployment Manager's gcloud CLI — there's no resources create/update command.

Question 15

You need to run an important query in BigQuery but expect it to return a lot of records. You want to find out how much it will cost to run the query. You are using on-demand pricing. What should you do?

A. Arrange to switch to Flat-Rate pricing for this query, then move back to on-demand.
B. Use the command line to run a dry run query to estimate the number of bytes read. Then convert that bytes estimate to dollars using the Pricing Calculator.
C. Use the command line to run a dry run query to estimate the number of bytes returned. Then convert that bytes estimate to dollars using the Pricing Calculator.
D. Run a select count (*) to get an idea of how many records your query will look through. Then convert that number of rows to dollars using the Pricing Calculator.
Show Answer & Explanation

Correct Answer: B. Use the command line to run a dry run query to estimate the number of bytes read. Then convert that bytes estimate to dollars using the Pricing Calculator.

BigQuery on-demand pricing is based on bytes read, not rows returned. A --dry_run flag in the bq CLI returns the bytes that would be processed without actually running the query. You then input that byte count into the GCP Pricing Calculator to get the cost estimate. Option C is wrong — pricing is based on bytes read, not bytes returned. Option D (row count) is irrelevant to BigQuery pricing.

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