10 beginner questions on the Cloud Digital Leader exam guide: service models and zones (Digital Transformation), BigQuery, databases and Cloud Storage classes (Data Transformation), BigQuery ML (AI), migration terms and Cloud Run (Modernize Infrastructure and Applications), least privilege (Trust and Security) and the resource hierarchy (Scaling with Google Cloud Operations).

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  1. A company wants its staff to use a ready-made email and calendar application in the browser. The provider runs and maintains the application, the platform and the infrastructure. Which cloud service model is this?

    • A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
    • B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
    • C. Software as a Service (SaaS) ✔ correct
    • D. On-premises colocation hosting

    Answer: C. With SaaS the provider delivers a complete application and manages everything beneath it; users just use the software. With PaaS you deploy your own code, and with IaaS you also manage operating systems.

    Source: cloud.google.com/learn/paas-vs-iaas-vs-saas · Domain: Digital Transformation with Google Cloud

  2. A business wants its web application to keep running if a single Google Cloud zone has an outage. What is the simplest design choice that supports this?

    • A. Run all instances in one zone with larger machine types
    • B. Run instances in multiple zones within a region ✔ correct
    • C. Store backups only on the same disk as the application
    • D. Use a single static IP address for every instance

    Answer: B. A region contains several zones, and a zone is a single failure domain. Spreading instances across zones means the application can keep serving if one zone fails. Bigger machines in one zone do not help.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/regions-zones · Domain: Digital Transformation with Google Cloud

  3. An analytics team wants a fully managed, serverless data warehouse to run SQL queries over very large datasets without managing any infrastructure. Which product fits best?

    • A. BigQuery ✔ correct
    • B. Memorystore
    • C. Filestore
    • D. Compute Engine

    Answer: A. BigQuery is Google Cloud's fully managed, serverless data warehouse for SQL analytics at scale. Memorystore is an in-memory cache, Filestore is file storage, and Compute Engine provides virtual machines.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/introduction · Domain: Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud

  4. Which two Google Cloud products are relational database services? (Select TWO)

    • A. Cloud SQL ✔ correct
    • B. Bigtable
    • C. Spanner ✔ correct
    • D. Firestore
    • E. Memorystore

    Answer: A, C. Cloud SQL (managed MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server) and Spanner are relational databases. Bigtable is a wide-column NoSQL database, Firestore is a NoSQL document database and Memorystore is an in-memory store.

    Source: cloud.google.com/products/databases · Domain: Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud

  5. A company must keep compliance records for years and expects to read them less than once a year. Which Cloud Storage class gives the lowest storage cost for this pattern?

    • A. Standard
    • B. Nearline
    • C. Coldline
    • D. Archive ✔ correct

    Answer: D. Archive storage is for data accessed less than once a year and has the lowest storage price, with higher access costs and a 365-day minimum storage duration. Nearline fits monthly access and Coldline quarterly access.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/storage/docs/storage-classes · Domain: Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud

  6. A team of data analysts knows SQL but not Python. They want to build and run a machine learning model on data that is already in BigQuery. Which option fits best?

    • A. Export the data to spreadsheets and build formulas
    • B. Use BigQuery ML to create the model with SQL ✔ correct
    • C. Move the data to Cloud Storage and write a Java program
    • D. Rebuild the data warehouse on Compute Engine first

    Answer: B. BigQuery ML lets users create, train and run machine learning models inside BigQuery by using standard SQL queries, so analysts can use ML without moving data or learning a new language.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/bqml-introduction · Domain: Innovating with Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence

  7. An organization moves its on-premises virtual machines to Compute Engine with minor or no changes to the workloads. Which migration approach is this?

    • A. Rehost (lift and shift) ✔ correct
    • B. Refactor
    • C. Retire
    • D. Retain

    Answer: A. Rehosting, or lift and shift, moves workloads to the cloud with minor or no modifications. Refactoring changes the workloads to use cloud capabilities, retiring decommissions them and retaining keeps them where they are.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-gcp-getting-started · Domain: Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud

  8. A startup wants to run a containerized web application without managing servers or clusters, and pay nothing when the application receives no requests. Which product should it use?

    • A. Compute Engine
    • B. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard
    • C. Cloud Run ✔ correct
    • D. Bare Metal Solution

    Answer: C. Cloud Run is a fully managed platform that runs code in containers and scales to zero when there are no requests, so you are not charged for idle time unless you set minimum instances. GKE Standard requires managing clusters.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/run/docs/overview/what-is-cloud-run · Domain: Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud

  9. Following the principle of least privilege, every user should be given the Owner role on projects so they never lack the permissions they might need.

    • A. True
    • B. False ✔ correct

    Answer: B. False. Least privilege means granting only the permissions a person or service needs for their task, preferably with predefined or custom roles. Broad basic roles such as Owner increase the risk of mistakes and misuse.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/using-iam-securely · Domain: Trust and Security with Google Cloud

  10. An administrator sets an IAM policy on a folder in the Google Cloud resource hierarchy. Which resources inherit that policy?

    • A. Only the organization node above the folder
    • B. Only resources created after the policy was set, in any folder
    • C. No resources, because policies apply only to projects
    • D. The projects and resources under that folder ✔ correct

    Answer: D. The hierarchy runs organization, folders, projects and resources, and policies are inherited downward. A policy on a folder applies to all projects and resources under it, not to the parent organization.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/cloud-platform-resource-hierarchy · Domain: Scaling with Google Cloud Operations

Original practice questions written by xOps School (DevOpsSchool Private Limited) from the public Google Cloud exam objectives (Cloud Digital Leader exam guide launched 2026-08-12), checked 2026-10-25. They are not actual exam questions. xOps School is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google Cloud; exam names are trademarks of their owners. Official exam page: cloud.google.com/learn/certification/cloud-digital-leader.

Last modified: Sunday, 25 October 2026, 9:57 PM