ExpertCheat Sheet
GCP ACE
GCP ACEGCP Associate Cloud Engineer Cheat Sheet 2026
The essential GCP ACE reference — compute, storage, databases, networking, IAM, and operations services with exam trigger phrases and decision rules.
ExpertMinds Editorial·3 February 2026·8 min read
The GCP ACE tests your ability to deploy and operate workloads on Google Cloud. Questions are scenario-based: a team needs to deploy X with constraint Y. The exam expects you to know gcloud CLI commands, IAM role names, and the difference between similar services (Cloud Run vs GKE, Cloud SQL vs Spanner). This reference is organised by the exam's five domains.
Key fact:50 questions · 2 hours · Pass score approximately 70%. The exam is performance-based; some questions test gcloud command knowledge directly.
Compute
| Service | What it is | Exam trigger phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Compute Engine | IaaS — VMs with full OS control | "full control", "custom OS", "lift and shift" |
| App Engine Standard | PaaS — language runtimes, auto-scale to zero | "no server management", "scales to zero", "Python/Java/Go/Node" |
| App Engine Flexible | PaaS on VMs — Docker containers, no scale to zero | "custom runtime", "background threads", "Docker" |
| Cloud Run | Serverless containers — auto-scale to zero | "stateless container", "HTTP-triggered", "no cluster" |
| Cloud Run Jobs | Run containers to completion (batch/jobs) | "batch job", "no HTTP endpoint", "runs to completion" |
| GKE Standard | Managed Kubernetes — you manage nodes | "Kubernetes", "container orchestration", "node control" |
| GKE Autopilot | Fully managed Kubernetes — Google manages nodes | "serverless Kubernetes", "no node management", "pay per pod" |
| Cloud Functions (2nd gen) | Event-driven serverless functions | "event-driven", "lightweight function", "Pub/Sub trigger" |
| Preemptible / Spot VMs | Short-lived Compute Engine VMs at up to 91% discount | "fault-tolerant batch", "can be interrupted", "cost savings" |
Tip:Cloud Run vs GKE: Cloud Run is for stateless, HTTP-driven containers that need fast auto-scaling. GKE is for complex microservices needing inter-service networking, custom scheduling, or stateful workloads. If the question says "no cluster to manage" — Cloud Run.
Storage
| Service / Class | What it is | Exam trigger phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Storage Standard | Object storage — frequently accessed | "frequently accessed", "serving web content" |
| Cloud Storage Nearline | Object storage — accessed less than once/month | "backup", "accessed monthly" |
| Cloud Storage Coldline | Object storage — accessed less than once/quarter | "DR archive", "accessed quarterly" |
| Cloud Storage Archive | Lowest cost — accessed less than once/year | "long-term retention", "compliance archive" |
| Persistent Disk (Standard) | HDD-backed block storage for VMs | "sequential reads", "large data", "cost-sensitive" |
| Persistent Disk (SSD) | SSD block storage — lower latency | "database workload", "random IO", "low latency disk" |
| Filestore | Managed NFS file storage | "shared file system", "NFS", "lift and shift NAS" |
Databases
| Service | Type | Exam trigger phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud SQL | Managed MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server | "relational", "existing MySQL/Postgres app", "managed SQL" |
| Cloud Spanner | Globally distributed relational DB with ACID transactions | "global scale", "relational + horizontal", "financial transactions" |
| Firestore | Serverless document database (NoSQL) | "mobile app", "offline sync", "document database", "Firebase" |
| Bigtable | Wide-column NoSQL — petabyte scale, low latency | "IoT time-series", "10ms latency", "petabyte", "HBase compatible" |
| BigQuery | Serverless data warehouse — SQL analytics | "analytics", "data warehouse", "petabyte SQL queries" |
| Memorystore (Redis) | Managed in-memory cache | "session cache", "sub-millisecond", "Redis" |
IAM — Roles & Permissions
| Role type | Examples | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Primitive (basic) | Owner, Editor, Viewer | Avoid — too broad; legacy; not recommended for production |
| Predefined | roles/storage.objectViewer, roles/compute.instanceAdmin | Default choice — scoped to specific service and action |
| Custom | Define exact permissions needed | Least-privilege edge cases not covered by predefined roles |
Key fact:IAM policy hierarchy: Organisation → Folder → Project → Resource. Policies are inherited downward. A DENY at a lower level cannot override an ALLOW from above — policies are additive (union). To restrict, use Deny policies (IAM Deny, distinct from IAM Allow policies).
Practice GCP ACE questions
The ACE exam tests service selection under constraints. Practice scenario questions to build the pattern recognition needed to choose quickly.
Networking
| Service | What it does | Exam trigger phrase |
|---|---|---|
| VPC | Global virtual private network (subnets are regional) | "private network", "isolate resources", "custom subnets" |
| Cloud Load Balancing — Global HTTP(S) | Layer 7, anycast, global | "global HTTP", "SSL offload", "URL-based routing" |
| Cloud Load Balancing — TCP/UDP | Regional Layer 4 | "TCP", "non-HTTP", "regional" |
| Cloud CDN | Cache content at Google edge nodes | "static content", "reduce latency", "cache" |
| Cloud Interconnect (Dedicated) | Private 10G/100G circuit to Google | "dedicated", "private", "not over internet" |
| Cloud VPN | IPsec tunnel over internet to GCP | "on-premises to GCP", "encrypted", "over internet" |
| Cloud NAT | Outbound internet for private VMs without public IPs | "private VMs need internet access", "no public IP" |
Operations & Monitoring
| Service | What it does | Key use |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Monitoring | Metrics, dashboards, alerting | Uptime checks; alert policies; custom metrics |
| Cloud Logging | Centralised log ingestion and storage | Audit logs; log-based metrics; log sinks to BigQuery/Storage |
| Cloud Trace | Distributed tracing for latency analysis | Find slow requests across microservices |
| Cloud Profiler | Continuous CPU and memory profiling | Find performance bottlenecks in running code |
| Error Reporting | Aggregate and alert on application errors | Group exceptions; alert on new error types |
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