10 beginner questions on the Associate Cloud Engineer exam guide: billing budgets, enabling APIs and billing accounts (Setting up a cloud solution environment); managed instance groups, Spot VMs and storage classes (Planning and implementing a cloud solution); Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring and lifecycle rules (Ensuring the successful operation of a cloud solution); and service accounts and custom roles (Configuring access and security).

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  1. A finance manager wants an email when a project's monthly Google Cloud spend reaches 90% of a planned amount. What should the cloud engineer configure?

    • A. A quota increase request for the project
    • B. A Cloud Billing budget with a 90% threshold rule ✔ correct
    • C. A Cloud Monitoring uptime check on the project
    • D. An organization policy that restricts regions

    Answer: B. Cloud Billing budgets compare actual or forecasted spend with a planned amount, and threshold rules trigger email notifications, for example at 90%. An alerts-only budget does not cap spending by itself.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/budgets · Domain: Setting up a cloud solution environment

  2. An engineer creates a new project and needs to turn on the Compute Engine API from Cloud Shell. Which command does this?

    • A. gcloud projects create compute.googleapis.com
    • B. gcloud compute instances list --enable
    • C. gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com ✔ correct
    • D. gcloud config set api compute

    Answer: C. gcloud services enable enables one or more APIs for the current project, here compute.googleapis.com. The other commands create projects, list instances or set CLI properties.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/services/enable · Domain: Setting up a cloud solution environment

  3. To use paid Google Cloud services in a project, the project must be linked to an active Cloud Billing account.

    • A. True ✔ correct
    • B. False

    Answer: A. True. A Cloud Billing account pays for the usage of the projects linked to it. If a project has no active billing account, its paid services cannot be used.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/modify-project · Domain: Setting up a cloud solution environment

  4. A team needs a group of identical Compute Engine VMs that adds or removes instances with load and recreates unhealthy instances automatically. What should the engineer create?

    • A. A managed instance group based on an instance template ✔ correct
    • B. An unmanaged instance group of hand-built VMs
    • C. A single VM with a larger machine type
    • D. A snapshot schedule on the boot disk

    Answer: A. A managed instance group (MIG) creates identical VMs from an instance template and supports autoscaling and autohealing. Unmanaged instance groups hold different VMs and do not autoscale.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instance-groups · Domain: Planning and implementing a cloud solution

  5. A company runs batch jobs that can tolerate interruptions and wants the lowest possible Compute Engine price. Which option fits best?

    • A. Sole-tenant nodes
    • B. Spot VMs ✔ correct
    • C. Regional persistent disks
    • D. Reserved static IP addresses

    Answer: B. Spot VMs use spare capacity at a large discount, but Compute Engine can preempt them at any time, so they suit fault-tolerant batch work. Sole-tenant nodes cost more because they give dedicated hardware.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/spot · Domain: Planning and implementing a cloud solution

  6. An engineer stores backup files in Cloud Storage that are read about once a month on average. Which storage class is the best fit for cost?

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

    Answer: D. Nearline is designed for data read or modified on average once per month or less (30-day minimum). Coldline fits about once a quarter and Archive less than once a year; their higher access costs make monthly reads more expensive.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/storage/docs/storage-classes · Domain: Planning and implementing a cloud solution

  7. An engineer must view and filter an application's log entries and also get notified when CPU utilization on its VMs stays high. Which two products should the engineer use? (Select TWO)

    • A. Cloud Logging ✔ correct
    • B. Cloud Build
    • C. Artifact Registry
    • D. Cloud Monitoring ✔ correct
    • E. Cloud Deploy

    Answer: A, D. Cloud Logging stores, searches and filters log entries, and Cloud Monitoring alerting policies notify you when a metric such as CPU utilization crosses a condition. Cloud Build, Artifact Registry and Cloud Deploy are CI/CD tools.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts · Domain: Ensuring the successful operation of a cloud solution

  8. A team wants objects in a Cloud Storage bucket to be deleted automatically once they are older than 365 days. What should they configure on the bucket?

    • A. An Object Lifecycle Management rule ✔ correct
    • B. A signed URL with a one-year expiry
    • C. A retention policy of 365 days
    • D. Object versioning

    Answer: A. Object Lifecycle Management rules take actions, such as Delete or SetStorageClass, when conditions like object age are met. A retention policy does the opposite: it prevents deletion until the period ends.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/storage/docs/lifecycle · Domain: Ensuring the successful operation of a cloud solution

  9. An application on a Compute Engine VM only needs to read objects from one Cloud Storage bucket. What is the recommended way to give it access?

    • A. Grant the default compute service account the Editor role on the project
    • B. Store a user's password in the application's configuration file
    • C. Attach a user-managed service account with only the needed read role on the bucket ✔ correct
    • D. Make the bucket public so the VM can read it without credentials

    Answer: C. Attach a dedicated, user-managed service account to the VM and grant it only the role it needs, such as Storage Object Viewer on that bucket. The Editor basic role and public buckets give far too much access.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/service-accounts · Domain: Configuring access and security

  10. No predefined IAM role matches the exact set of permissions that a support team needs. What should the administrator create?

    • A. A new basic role
    • B. A custom role ✔ correct
    • C. A new organization node
    • D. A second billing account

    Answer: B. Custom roles let you bundle exactly the permissions a group needs when no predefined role fits. Basic roles (such as Owner, Editor and Viewer) are defined by Google, highly permissive, and you cannot create your own.

    Source: docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/roles-overview · Domain: Configuring access and security

Original practice questions written by xOps School (DevOpsSchool Private Limited) from the public Google Cloud exam objectives (Associate Cloud Engineer standard exam guide (current PDF, checked 2026-10-25; updated for recent branding changes)), 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-engineer.

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