Compute Engine
⏱ ~3-min readAceMark Guide
What this topic is really about
Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service that supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server, handling provisioning, patching, backups, and high‑availability automatically. It does not provide object storage, which is the role of Cloud Storage; therefore choice A confuses database services with storage services. Cloud SQL focuses on relational workloads, not NoSQL or data‑warehouse functions.
BigQuery is Google Cloud's fully managed, serverless data warehouse designed for running fast SQL queries on massive datasets. It is optimized for analytical workloads (OLAP) rather than transactional processing (OLTP), which makes Option A incorrect. This architecture allows it to scale automatically to meet performance needs without user intervention.
See the mechanism
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that allows users to launch and run virtual machines on demand. A diagram for this topic isn't available yet — the worked example below walks the same reasoning step by step.
An exam-style question, fully explained
Which GCP service runs VMs?
- Identify what the question tests: Which GCP service runs VMs.
- Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that allows users to launch and run virtual machines on demand.
- In contrast, Cloud Storage is designed strictly for object storage and cannot execute applications or host operating systems.
Traps the examiner sets
- Unlike standard always-on VMs, they do not guarantee continuous availability and are limited to a maximum 24-hour lifespan.
- It is optimized for analytical workloads (OLAP) rather than transactional processing (OLTP), which makes Option A incorrect.
Test your recall
Answer each from memory — you'll see instantly whether you're right and why.
Run a focused 10-question mini-mock on Compute Engine and see it stick.
Practice more of this topic →