50 Unique GCP Interview Questions: From Beginner to Advanced Levels

Beginner Level:

  1. What is Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and what are its main services?
    • GCP is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure as Google’s end-user products, offering services like computing, storage, and machine learning.
  2. What is the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS in GCP?
    • IaaS provides virtualized computing resources, PaaS offers a platform for developing applications, and SaaS delivers software over the internet.
  3. What is Google Compute Engine?
    • Google Compute Engine is an IaaS service that allows you to create and run virtual machines on Google’s infrastructure.
  4. What is Google Cloud Storage?
    • Google Cloud Storage is a service for storing and retrieving any amount of data at any time, offering high availability and durability.
  5. What is Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)?
    • GKE is a managed Kubernetes service that simplifies the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications using Kubernetes.
  6. Scenario: You need to host a static website on GCP. Which service would you choose?**
    • I would use Google Cloud Storage to host the static website.
  7. What is Google Cloud Pub/Sub?
    • Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a messaging service that allows you to send and receive messages between independent applications.
  8. What is Google Cloud Functions?
    • Google Cloud Functions is a serverless compute service that allows you to run your code in response to events without provisioning or managing servers.
  9. What is Google BigQuery?
    • Google BigQuery is a fully-managed, serverless data warehouse that allows you to perform fast SQL queries on large datasets.
  10. Scenario: Your application requires a relational database. Which GCP service would you use?**
  • I would use Google Cloud SQL, a fully-managed relational database service.

Intermediate Level:

  1. What are Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks?
  • Google Cloud VPC networks provide a private network for your resources, allowing for secure communication between them.
  1. How does Google Cloud IAM work?
  • Google Cloud IAM (Identity and Access Management) allows you to manage access to resources by defining who (identity) has what access (roles) to which resources.
  1. Scenario: You need to analyze streaming data in real time. Which GCP service would you use?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Dataflow to process and analyze streaming data.
  1. What is Google Cloud Spanner?
  • Google Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, horizontally scalable, and strongly consistent relational database service.
  1. What is the purpose of Google Cloud Monitoring?
  • Google Cloud Monitoring helps you visualize and understand the performance of your applications and infrastructure.
  1. Scenario: Your application needs to send notifications to users. What service would you use?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Pub/Sub to manage message-driven communication for notifications.
  1. What is Google Cloud Identity?
  • Google Cloud Identity is an identity management service that helps you manage user accounts and access to GCP services.
  1. What is Google Cloud Run?
  • Google Cloud Run is a managed compute platform that automatically scales your stateless containers.
  1. Scenario: You want to implement CI/CD for your applications on GCP. Which tools would you use?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Build and Google Cloud Source Repositories for CI/CD.
  1. What is Google Cloud Armor?
  • Google Cloud Armor is a security service that provides protection against DDoS attacks and helps you secure your applications.

Advanced Level:

  1. What is the purpose of Google Cloud Dataflow?
  • Google Cloud Dataflow is a fully managed service for stream and batch data processing.
  1. Scenario: Your organization needs to store sensitive data securely. What would you implement?**
  • I would use Google Cloud KMS (Key Management Service) to manage encryption keys securely.
  1. What are Google Cloud Functions triggers?
  • Cloud Functions triggers allow your functions to respond to events from various Google Cloud services and external sources.
  1. What is Google Cloud Scheduler?
  • Google Cloud Scheduler is a fully managed cron job service that allows you to run arbitrary functions at specified times.
  1. Scenario: You need to implement a disaster recovery plan for your GCP resources. What strategies would you consider?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Backup and DR for data backups and set up cross-region replication for critical resources.
  1. What is the difference between Google Cloud Storage classes?
  • Google Cloud Storage offers various storage classes (Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive) based on access frequency and retrieval times.
  1. What is Google Anthos?
  • Google Anthos is a hybrid and multi-cloud application platform that enables you to run applications on-premises and across multiple cloud environments.
  1. Scenario: Your application processes large datasets. Which GCP service would you use for data analysis?**
  • I would use Google BigQuery for data analysis due to its serverless architecture and fast querying capabilities.
  1. What is the purpose of Google Cloud Endpoints?
  • Google Cloud Endpoints is an API management service that helps you create, deploy, and manage APIs.
  1. How can you ensure high availability for your GCP applications?
  • I would use regional and multi-regional deployments, load balancing, and autoscaling features to ensure high availability.
  1. Scenario: You want to log and analyze requests to your application. Which GCP service would you choose?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Logging to collect and analyze logs from my applications.
  1. What is Google Cloud VPC peering?
  • VPC peering allows you to connect two VPC networks privately, enabling resources in both networks to communicate with each other.
  1. What is the purpose of Google Cloud’s AI Platform?
  • The AI Platform provides tools for building, training, and deploying machine learning models on GCP.
  1. Scenario: Your team is working on multiple projects in GCP. How would you manage permissions?**
  • I would use Google Cloud IAM roles and create service accounts to manage permissions effectively across projects.
  1. What is the difference between Google Cloud Pub/Sub and Google Cloud Tasks?
  • Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a messaging service for event-driven architectures, while Cloud Tasks is a service for managing the execution of asynchronous tasks.
  1. How does Google Cloud Load Balancing work?
  • Google Cloud Load Balancing automatically distributes traffic across multiple backend instances to ensure high availability and reliability.
  1. Scenario: Your organization wants to monitor network traffic. Which GCP service would you use?**
  • I would use Google Cloud VPC Flow Logs to monitor and analyze network traffic.
  1. What is the Google Cloud Marketplace?
  • The Google Cloud Marketplace is an online store for third-party applications and services that run on GCP.
  1. How do you implement security best practices in GCP?
  • I would use IAM policies, enable encryption at rest and in transit, and regularly audit resources for compliance.
  1. What is Google Cloud Resource Manager?
  • Google Cloud Resource Manager provides a unified view of your cloud resources, enabling you to organize, manage, and track them efficiently.
  1. Scenario: Your application needs to scale automatically based on traffic. How would you achieve this in GCP?**
  • I would configure autoscaling for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or use managed instance groups for Compute Engine.
  1. What is Google Cloud Monitoring?
  • Google Cloud Monitoring provides visibility into the performance and health of applications and infrastructure in real time.
  1. What are Google Cloud Billing accounts?
  • Billing accounts are used to manage and track your GCP costs, allowing you to set budgets and receive notifications.
  1. Scenario: You need to create an API for your application. What service would you choose?**
  • I would use Google Cloud Endpoints to create and manage the API.
  1. What is the purpose of Google Cloud Firestore?
  • Google Cloud Firestore is a NoSQL document database for building serverless applications and storing data in a flexible, scalable way.
  1. How does Google Cloud Security Command Center help?
  • It provides security and risk management insights across GCP resources, helping you identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
  1. Scenario: Your organization needs to perform data analytics on user behavior. Which GCP service would you use?**
  • I would use Google BigQuery to analyze user behavior data for insights.
  1. What is Google Cloud Task Queues?
  • Google Cloud Task Queues manage the execution of tasks asynchronously, enabling you to distribute workload among multiple workers.
  1. What is Google Cloud Dataproc?
  • Google Cloud Dataproc is a fully-managed service for running Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop clusters for data processing.
  1. What is the role of Google Cloud Functions in microservices architecture?
  • Google Cloud Functions can be used to build lightweight, event-driven microservices that respond to specific events or HTTP requests.