GCP Core Services and Architecture Basics Questions

Core Google Cloud Platform services and architecture concepts, including Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine (GKE), App Engine, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud SQL/Spanner, and IAM. Covers foundational cloud architecture topics such as projects and resource organization, VPC networking (regions, zones, subnets), identity and access management, security considerations, and scalable design patterns for cloud-native applications on GCP.

EasyTechnical

65 practiced

A customer needs two storage use-cases: long-term encrypted backups and hosting CDN-backed static website assets. For each use-case, recommend Cloud Storage class (Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive), bucket location type (multi-region vs regional), ACL/uniform access and lifecycle rules. Explain reasoning in terms of access patterns, retrieval cost, durability, and compliance.

HardTechnical

77 practiced

A global financial application requires strong consistency for transactions at 100k transactions per second. Compare design options: Cloud Spanner, sharded Cloud SQL, and building a custom consensus layer. For each option, discuss transaction model, latency expectations, operational complexity, cost considerations, and how you'd justify your recommendation to both architects and finance stakeholders.

MediumTechnical

86 practiced

You're tasked with creating a 20-minute POC demo that shows migrating a monolithic Java web app to Cloud Run. Outline the demo architecture, step-by-step run-through of the demo (what you'll do live vs pre-provision), the minimal code/config changes to containerize the app, data connectivity considerations, and clear success criteria to present to the customer at the end of the demo.

HardTechnical

61 practiced

A healthcare customer subject to HIPAA wants to run workloads using Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and GKE. As a Sales Engineer, design a compliant GCP architecture covering encryption at rest and in transit, KMS and CMEK options, audit logging, VPC Service Controls, DLP scanning, IAM controls, and data residency. Also outline what documentation and attestation steps you would recommend the customer request or maintain.

MediumSystem Design

60 practiced

Design a serverless streaming pipeline to ingest mobile app events using Pub/Sub, Dataflow or Cloud Run, and BigQuery for analytics. The pipeline must handle bursty traffic, maintain ordering per user, support late-arriving events, and keep aggregation results accurate. Describe partitioning, windowing, deduplication strategies, and how you would present scalability and cost trade-offs to the customer.

Unlock Full Question Bank

Get access to hundreds of GCP Core Services and Architecture Basics interview questions and detailed answers.

Join thousands of developers preparing for their dream job.