Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam Practice Test
The Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam is a highly respected certification that validates your ability to design, develop, and deploy scalable applications on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This exam is designed for developers who build cloud-native applications leveraging Google Cloud services, tools, and best practices. Passing this exam proves your expertise in cloud development, containerization, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), and managing Google Cloud resources effectively.
What is the Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam?
This exam evaluates your skills in designing and building cloud-native applications using Google Cloud technologies. It covers a broad range of topics including application development, container orchestration with Kubernetes, service management, security, monitoring, and troubleshooting. The certification is ideal for software engineers, cloud developers, and DevOps professionals who want to demonstrate their proficiency in developing robust and scalable solutions on Google Cloud.
What Will You Learn?
Preparing for the Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam helps you gain in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in several key areas:
Developing Cloud-Native Applications: Learn how to design applications optimized for cloud scalability and resilience using services like Cloud Run, App Engine, and Cloud Functions.
Containerization and Orchestration: Master Kubernetes concepts and how to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).
CI/CD Pipelines: Understand how to automate application builds, tests, and deployments with Cloud Build, Container Registry, and other tools.
Security Best Practices: Implement authentication, authorization, and secure secrets management with Google Cloud IAM, Secret Manager, and Identity-Aware Proxy.
Application Monitoring and Troubleshooting: Use Cloud Monitoring, Logging, and Error Reporting to maintain application health and quickly resolve issues.
API Management: Learn to expose, secure, and monitor APIs with Cloud Endpoints and Apigee.
Topics Covered
This comprehensive exam covers essential topics such as:
Designing scalable and resilient cloud applications
Managing application state and data storage options
Using Google Cloud services for application deployment and management
Container orchestration and management with Kubernetes
Implementing authentication and security measures
Automating build and deployment pipelines
Monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting cloud applications
Why Choose Exam Sage for Your Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam Preparation?
At Exam Sage, we understand the importance of thorough preparation to pass this challenging exam. Our Google Professional Cloud Developer Practice Test is meticulously crafted with up-to-date questions reflecting the current exam objectives and real-world scenarios. Each question comes with detailed explanations to deepen your understanding and help you learn from your mistakes.
By practicing with Exam Sage, you can:
Gain confidence by solving a wide variety of exam-relevant questions
Identify your strengths and areas that need improvement
Prepare efficiently with an exam-like environment
Access our user-friendly platform anytime, anywhere
Our goal is to make your certification journey smooth and successful. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced cloud developer, Exam Sage’s practice test is your ideal companion for mastering Google Cloud development concepts and passing the Google Professional Cloud Developer Exam.
Sample Questions and Answers
1. Which Google Cloud service allows you to deploy containerized applications without managing the underlying infrastructure?
A) Compute Engine
B) Cloud Run
C) App Engine Standard Environment
D) Kubernetes Engine
Answer: B) Cloud Run
Explanation: Cloud Run is a fully managed platform for running containerized applications without managing servers or clusters. It abstracts away infrastructure management.
2. What is the recommended way to store sensitive configuration information for an application deployed on Google Cloud?
A) Store in source code as environment variables
B) Use Secret Manager
C) Store in Cloud Storage buckets with public access
D) Store in plaintext files on VM instances
Answer: B) Use Secret Manager
Explanation: Secret Manager provides secure, encrypted storage for sensitive data such as API keys and passwords with controlled access.
3. Which Google Cloud service offers a fully managed, serverless environment for deploying scalable web applications in Java, Python, Node.js, and other languages?
A) App Engine
B) Cloud Functions
C) Compute Engine
D) Kubernetes Engine
Answer: A) App Engine
Explanation: App Engine provides a fully managed, serverless platform to deploy web applications with automatic scaling.
4. What is the purpose of Cloud Build in a Google Cloud developer workflow?
A) To run application code in a managed environment
B) To automate build and continuous integration pipelines
C) To manage secrets securely
D) To deploy container clusters
Answer: B) To automate build and continuous integration pipelines
Explanation: Cloud Build is used for building, testing, and deploying applications in an automated CI/CD pipeline.
5. When deploying microservices on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), what is the recommended way to manage service discovery?
A) Use DNS-based service discovery with Kubernetes Services
B) Hardcode IP addresses of services
C) Use external load balancers for each service
D) Manually update service endpoints in application code
Answer: A) Use DNS-based service discovery with Kubernetes Services
Explanation: Kubernetes Services provide a stable DNS name for pods and enable dynamic discovery of services.
6. How can a Google Cloud Developer reduce cold-start latency for Cloud Functions?
A) Use App Engine instead
B) Configure minimum instances or use Cloud Run with min instances
C) Increase memory allocation to the function
D) Write synchronous functions only
Answer: B) Configure minimum instances or use Cloud Run with min instances
Explanation: Cloud Run and newer Cloud Functions allow you to configure minimum instances to keep warm instances and reduce cold starts.
7. What IAM role should you grant to a Cloud Run service account to allow it to read secrets from Secret Manager?
A) Secret Manager Admin
B) Secret Manager Secret Accessor
C) Viewer
D) Editor
Answer: B) Secret Manager Secret Accessor
Explanation: The Secret Manager Secret Accessor role grants permission to access secret versions for reading.
8. Which Google Cloud service is best suited to store and serve large, unstructured blobs of data such as images or videos used by your application?
A) Cloud SQL
B) Cloud Storage
C) Firestore
D) BigQuery
Answer: B) Cloud Storage
Explanation: Cloud Storage is designed for storing large objects, such as images, videos, and backups.
9. You want to implement distributed tracing for your Google Cloud applications to monitor latency. Which service should you use?
A) Cloud Monitoring
B) Cloud Trace
C) Cloud Logging
D) Cloud Debugger
Answer: B) Cloud Trace
Explanation: Cloud Trace collects latency data from applications and provides visualization for distributed tracing.
10. What is a key advantage of using Firestore in Native mode for application development?
A) Supports SQL queries on structured data
B) Provides real-time synchronization with offline support
C) Requires manual schema management
D) Only supports batch processing
Answer: B) Provides real-time synchronization with offline support
Explanation: Firestore offers real-time syncing of data and offline capabilities, ideal for mobile and web apps.
11. What is the main difference between App Engine Standard Environment and App Engine Flexible Environment?
A) Standard supports custom runtimes, Flexible does not
B) Flexible supports custom runtimes and allows more control over the underlying infrastructure
C) Standard Environment is for containerized apps only
D) Flexible Environment does not support automatic scaling
Answer: B) Flexible supports custom runtimes and allows more control over the underlying infrastructure
Explanation: Flexible Environment lets you customize the runtime and provides more control, while Standard has predefined runtimes.
12. When deploying an application with multiple microservices, what is the best practice for managing API versions?
A) Deploy new APIs alongside old versions and use versioned URLs
B) Replace old APIs immediately without warning
C) Use a single API endpoint and update clients to match
D) Hardcode API versions in client applications
Answer: A) Deploy new APIs alongside old versions and use versioned URLs
Explanation: Deploying multiple API versions allows smooth transition and backward compatibility.
13. Which service provides event-driven serverless functions that can respond to HTTP requests or Cloud Pub/Sub messages?
A) Cloud Run
B) Cloud Functions
C) App Engine
D) Cloud Scheduler
Answer: B) Cloud Functions
Explanation: Cloud Functions is a serverless, event-driven compute service triggered by HTTP, Pub/Sub, or other events.
14. How does Google Cloud Load Balancer support autoscaling backend services?
A) It automatically adds more VMs based on traffic without any setup
B) It distributes incoming traffic and works with managed instance groups that autoscale
C) It uses DNS round-robin to distribute traffic
D) It requires manual VM instance scaling
Answer: B) It distributes incoming traffic and works with managed instance groups that autoscale
Explanation: Load balancers distribute traffic, and managed instance groups can scale backend VMs automatically.
15. What is the most efficient way to handle user authentication for a mobile app backend deployed on Google Cloud?
A) Build a custom authentication system from scratch
B) Use Firebase Authentication integrated with Identity Platform
C) Store user passwords in Firestore
D) Authenticate users through Cloud Storage
Answer: B) Use Firebase Authentication integrated with Identity Platform
Explanation: Firebase Authentication offers secure, easy-to-integrate authentication solutions including social providers.
16. In Cloud Build, what file defines the steps and instructions for building your application?
A) build.yaml
B) cloudbuild.yaml
C) Dockerfile
D) app.yaml
Answer: B) cloudbuild.yaml
Explanation: cloudbuild.yaml defines the build steps for Cloud Build pipelines.
17. Which Cloud IAM principle is recommended to follow for granting permissions?
A) Grant all permissions to the service account
B) Principle of least privilege—only grant necessary permissions
C) Always assign the Editor role to service accounts
D) Avoid using IAM roles
Answer: B) Principle of least privilege—only grant necessary permissions
Explanation: Granting only necessary permissions minimizes security risks.
18. You want to monitor an application’s error rates and uptime on Google Cloud. Which tool would you use?
A) Cloud Trace
B) Cloud Debugger
C) Cloud Monitoring (formerly Stackdriver)
D) Cloud Storage
Answer: C) Cloud Monitoring (formerly Stackdriver)
Explanation: Cloud Monitoring provides dashboards and alerts for uptime and error rates.
19. Which storage option would you choose for a relational database in Google Cloud?
A) Firestore
B) Cloud SQL
C) BigQuery
D) Cloud Storage
Answer: B) Cloud SQL
Explanation: Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.
20. Which command-line tool is recommended to deploy an application to App Engine?
A) gcloud app deploy
B) kubectl apply
C) gsutil cp
D) docker run
Answer: A) gcloud app deploy
Explanation: gcloud app deploy deploys applications to App Engine.
21. What is the primary benefit of using Pub/Sub in an application architecture?
A) Persistent file storage
B) Asynchronous messaging and event-driven architectures
C) Synchronous API gateway
D) Static website hosting
Answer: B) Asynchronous messaging and event-driven architectures
Explanation: Pub/Sub decouples services with asynchronous messaging, enabling scalable event-driven designs.
22. When using Google Cloud Datastore or Firestore, what consistency model is provided by default for document reads?
A) Strong consistency
B) Eventual consistency
C) Causal consistency
D) No consistency guarantees
Answer: A) Strong consistency
Explanation: Firestore in Native mode provides strong consistency for document reads.
23. How can you ensure that a Cloud Run service is only accessible from within your Google Cloud project?
A) Configure Cloud Run to be private by restricting ingress to internal traffic only
B) Use IAM roles to allow public access
C) Deploy the service to App Engine
D) There is no way to restrict access to Cloud Run
Answer: A) Configure Cloud Run to be private by restricting ingress to internal traffic only
Explanation: Cloud Run allows restricting traffic ingress to internal IPs or VPC only.
24. What is the recommended way to automate testing of your Google Cloud applications before deployment?
A) Manual testing only
B) Integrate automated tests in Cloud Build pipelines
C) Test only after deployment in production
D) Use Cloud Storage as test environment
Answer: B) Integrate automated tests in Cloud Build pipelines
Explanation: Cloud Build supports running automated tests during CI/CD pipelines to catch issues early.
25. Which Google Cloud tool can help you debug live production applications without stopping or slowing them down?
A) Cloud Logging
B) Cloud Debugger
C) Cloud Trace
D) Cloud Monitoring
Answer: B) Cloud Debugger
Explanation: Cloud Debugger enables inspection of live applications in production with minimal impact.
26. What kind of traffic routing does Google Cloud Load Balancer support?
A) Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) only
B) Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) only
C) Both Layer 4 and Layer 7
D) None, it is DNS-based only
Answer: C) Both Layer 4 and Layer 7
Explanation: Google Cloud Load Balancer supports both transport (Layer 4) and application layer (Layer 7) routing.
27. When should you use Cloud Memorystore in your application architecture?
A) For persistent file storage
B) For in-memory caching to improve app performance
C) For asynchronous messaging
D) For storing secrets
Answer: B) For in-memory caching to improve app performance
Explanation: Cloud Memorystore provides managed Redis or Memcached caching for fast data access.
28. Which deployment strategy is best for minimizing downtime during application updates?
A) Blue-green deployment
B) Manual update with downtime
C) Overwrite existing deployment directly
D) Rollback after failure only
Answer: A) Blue-green deployment
Explanation: Blue-green deployment maintains two environments and switches traffic to the new version seamlessly.
29. What is the purpose of Stackdriver Logging (now Cloud Logging)?
A) To store application secrets securely
B) To collect, store, and analyze logs from your applications and infrastructure
C) To provide real-time metrics only
D) To run serverless functions
Answer: B) To collect, store, and analyze logs from your applications and infrastructure
Explanation: Cloud Logging centralizes log management for monitoring and troubleshooting.
30. How does Cloud Scheduler help in application automation?
A) It triggers batch jobs and cron jobs on a schedule
B) It scales compute instances automatically
C) It manages secrets securely
D) It provides real-time analytics
Answer: A) It triggers batch jobs and cron jobs on a schedule
Explanation: Cloud Scheduler runs tasks at scheduled times, like cron jobs, useful for periodic processes.
31. Which Google Cloud product lets you run containerized applications with full control over the cluster, including node management and autoscaling?
A) Cloud Run
B) App Engine
C) Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
D) Cloud Functions
Answer: C) Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Explanation: GKE is a managed Kubernetes service where you control the cluster and node autoscaling.
32. How can you securely allow an application running on GKE to access Google Cloud APIs?
A) Embed API keys directly in the source code
B) Use service accounts and Workload Identity for Kubernetes
C) Store credentials in environment variables on nodes
D) Use public API endpoints with no authentication
Answer: B) Use service accounts and Workload Identity for Kubernetes
Explanation: Workload Identity maps Kubernetes service accounts to Google service accounts, avoiding credential exposure.
33. What is a key benefit of using Cloud Tasks in your application architecture?
A) Real-time event processing
B) Asynchronous task execution with retries and scheduling
C) Long-term data storage
D) Streaming data analytics
Answer: B) Asynchronous task execution with retries and scheduling
Explanation: Cloud Tasks manages asynchronous execution of background work with retries and delayed execution.
34. Which tool is recommended for managing infrastructure as code on Google Cloud?
A) Terraform
B) Docker
C) Cloud Console
D) Cloud Functions
Answer: A) Terraform
Explanation: Terraform lets you define, provision, and manage cloud infrastructure using code declaratively.
35. What is the main purpose of the App Engine dispatch.yaml file?
A) Configure traffic routing between services in App Engine
B) Define application scaling parameters
C) Manage IAM roles for App Engine
D) Specify database connections
Answer: A) Configure traffic routing between services in App Engine
Explanation: dispatch.yaml routes requests to different App Engine services based on URL patterns.
36. How does Cloud Endpoints help in managing APIs?
A) It stores API data persistently
B) It provides API management features like authentication, monitoring, and quotas
C) It replaces App Engine services
D) It handles batch processing
Answer: B) It provides API management features like authentication, monitoring, and quotas
Explanation: Cloud Endpoints acts as an API gateway for securing and monitoring APIs.
37. Which programming languages are supported by Cloud Functions?
A) Only Python
B) Java, Python, Node.js, Go, .NET, Ruby (varies by region)
C) Only Java and Go
D) All languages supported by GKE
Answer: B) Java, Python, Node.js, Go, .NET, Ruby (varies by region)
Explanation: Cloud Functions supports multiple languages for writing event-driven functions.
38. What does the gcloud app browse command do?
A) Opens the default browser to your deployed App Engine app URL
B) Deploys your application
C) Lists all App Engine services
D) Deletes the application
Answer: A) Opens the default browser to your deployed App Engine app URL
Explanation: This command quickly opens your running App Engine app in the browser.
39. What is the role of a Dockerfile in containerized application deployment?
A) Stores application secrets
B) Defines how to build a container image, including dependencies and commands
C) Runs containers in production
D) Automates database migrations
Answer: B) Defines how to build a container image, including dependencies and commands
Explanation: A Dockerfile specifies the instructions to assemble a container image.
40. How can Cloud Build integrate with Container Registry?
A) To automatically build and push container images during CI/CD pipelines
B) To store logs
C) To host static websites
D) To deploy App Engine apps
Answer: A) To automatically build and push container images during CI/CD pipelines
Explanation: Cloud Build can build container images and push them to Container Registry for deployment.
41. What is a best practice when designing a scalable Google Cloud application?
A) Use monolithic architecture only
B) Decouple components using Pub/Sub or Cloud Tasks for asynchronous communication
C) Avoid managed services to reduce costs
D) Use synchronous calls for all interactions
Answer: B) Decouple components using Pub/Sub or Cloud Tasks for asynchronous communication
Explanation: Decoupling components improves scalability and fault tolerance.
42. When would you choose BigQuery over Cloud SQL?
A) For low-latency transactional data processing
B) For petabyte-scale analytics and OLAP workloads
C) For storing user session data
D) For caching frequently accessed data
Answer: B) For petabyte-scale analytics and OLAP workloads
Explanation: BigQuery is designed for large-scale data analysis, not transactional workloads.
43. What is the benefit of configuring health checks for a managed instance group?
A) Automatically restart unhealthy instances
B) Increase network bandwidth
C) Provide static IP addresses
D) Enable manual scaling only
Answer: A) Automatically restart unhealthy instances
Explanation: Health checks detect unhealthy VMs and help maintain application availability by restarting them.
44. Which Cloud service can you use to schedule batch jobs or periodic tasks?
A) Cloud Run
B) Cloud Scheduler
C) Cloud Functions
D) Cloud Pub/Sub
Answer: B) Cloud Scheduler
Explanation: Cloud Scheduler runs jobs on a schedule similar to cron jobs.
45. What happens if a Cloud Function execution exceeds its timeout?
A) The function keeps running until completion
B) The function is terminated, and an error is logged
C) The function is automatically retried indefinitely
D) The function scales horizontally
Answer: B) The function is terminated, and an error is logged
Explanation: Cloud Functions have max execution time limits; exceeding causes termination.
46. What is the default network type for Google Kubernetes Engine clusters?
A) VPC-native (alias IP)
B) Classic network
C) Shared network only
D) Public internet
Answer: A) VPC-native (alias IP)
Explanation: GKE clusters use VPC-native networking with alias IPs by default.
47. How can you enforce API keys usage in your Cloud Endpoints API?
A) Disable all authentication
B) Configure API key validation in the OpenAPI specification
C) Use IAM only
D) Use Cloud Storage to store API keys
Answer: B) Configure API key validation in the OpenAPI specification
Explanation: Cloud Endpoints can enforce API key requirements defined in the API config.
48. What is Cloud Firestore’s pricing model based on?
A) Number of queries, data storage, and network egress
B) Number of VMs used
C) Number of API calls only
D) Static monthly fee
Answer: A) Number of queries, data storage, and network egress
Explanation: Firestore charges based on usage metrics including reads, writes, and storage.
49. What does the gcloud run deploy command do?
A) Builds and deploys a container image to Cloud Run
B) Starts a Compute Engine instance
C) Deploys an App Engine app
D) Creates a Kubernetes cluster
Answer: A) Builds and deploys a container image to Cloud Run
Explanation: This command deploys your containerized app to Cloud Run.
50. What is the main advantage of using Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP) in Google Cloud?
A) Encrypts data at rest
B) Provides context-aware access control for web applications and VMs
C) Automatically scales instances
D) Manages DNS entries
Answer: B) Provides context-aware access control for web applications and VMs
Explanation: IAP secures app access by enforcing identity and access policies.
51. What is the function of a service mesh in Google Cloud environments like Anthos?
A) Store secrets securely
B) Manage and secure microservice communication
C) Run serverless functions
D) Manage Cloud Storage permissions
Answer: B) Manage and secure microservice communication
Explanation: Service meshes like Istio handle service-to-service communication, security, and monitoring.
52. Which Cloud service is optimized for real-time messaging and streaming?
A) Cloud Pub/Sub
B) Cloud SQL
C) Firestore
D) Cloud Storage
Answer: A) Cloud Pub/Sub
Explanation: Pub/Sub provides messaging for real-time event streaming and ingestion.
53. How can you secure data in transit for Google Cloud services?
A) Use unencrypted connections
B) Enable TLS/SSL encryption for network communication
C) Store data only on VMs
D) Use Cloud Storage only
Answer: B) Enable TLS/SSL encryption for network communication
Explanation: TLS/SSL ensures encrypted data transmission between clients and services.
54. What is a key feature of Google Cloud Build triggers?
A) They schedule batch jobs
B) They automatically start builds on source code repository changes
C) They manage VM instances
D) They deploy Kubernetes clusters
Answer: B) They automatically start builds on source code repository changes
Explanation: Build triggers start CI/CD workflows when code is pushed to repositories.
55. What does Cloud Spanner provide that differentiates it from other databases?
A) Horizontal scaling with strong consistency and SQL support
B) Only key-value storage
C) Eventual consistency only
D) In-memory caching only
Answer: A) Horizontal scaling with strong consistency and SQL support
Explanation: Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, strongly consistent relational database.
56. How does Google Cloud support blue-green deployments?
A) Using App Engine traffic splitting or Cloud Run revisions with traffic migration
B) Only manual deployment is possible
C) By creating permanent separate clusters
D) By using Cloud Functions exclusively
Answer: A) Using App Engine traffic splitting or Cloud Run revisions with traffic migration
Explanation: App Engine and Cloud Run support traffic splitting between versions for zero-downtime deploys.
57. Which logging level should be used to capture detailed information for diagnosing issues in production?
A) ERROR
B) DEBUG
C) INFO
D) WARNING
Answer: B) DEBUG
Explanation: DEBUG level logs provide verbose output helpful for diagnosing problems.
58. What is the primary purpose of the app.yaml file in Google App Engine?
A) Define app runtime, environment, scaling, and handlers
B) Configure IAM permissions
C) Manage Kubernetes clusters
D) Store application secrets
Answer: A) Define app runtime, environment, scaling, and handlers
Explanation: app.yaml configures your App Engine deployment.
59. Which of the following is a common use case for Cloud Storage lifecycle policies?
A) Automatically delete or archive objects based on age or conditions
B) Encrypt objects in storage
C) Manage IAM roles
D) Scale compute instances
Answer: A) Automatically delete or archive objects based on age or conditions
Explanation: Lifecycle policies automate management of storage costs and data retention.
60. When building a serverless web app on Google Cloud, which services might you combine?
A) Cloud Functions + Firestore + Cloud Storage + Firebase Authentication
B) Compute Engine + Bigtable
C) Kubernetes + Cloud SQL
D) Cloud VPN + Cloud DNS
Answer: A) Cloud Functions + Firestore + Cloud Storage + Firebase Authentication
Explanation: These serverless services work together to build scalable web apps without managing servers.
