GCP free tier and credits - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Understanding GCP Free Tier Limits

Which of the following statements correctly describes the GCP Free Tier's always free usage limits?

A The free tier offers limited monthly usage of specific services that renew every month indefinitely.

B The free tier is a one-time credit that expires after 12 months and cannot be renewed.

C The free tier requires a paid subscription after the first 7 days of usage.

D The free tier provides unlimited usage of all GCP services without any time limit.

💡 Hint

Think about which services have monthly limits that reset every month.

The GCP Free Tier includes always free usage limits for specific services that reset monthly and do not expire, allowing continuous free usage within those limits.

❓ service_behavior

intermediate

Behavior of GCP Free Trial Credits

What happens to your GCP resources when your $300 free trial credit expires without upgrading your account?

A Resources are immediately deleted and cannot be recovered.

B All resources continue running but you are billed automatically.

C Resources are stopped or suspended, and you lose access until you upgrade your account.

D Resources remain active but with limited performance until you upgrade.

💡 Hint

Consider what happens when billing is no longer active.

When the free trial credit expires, GCP suspends your resources and access until you upgrade to a paid account to continue usage.

❓ security

advanced

Securing Resources During Free Trial Expiry

Which is the best practice to protect your data when your GCP free trial is about to expire?

A Delete all resources immediately to avoid charges.

B Export important data to an external storage before the trial ends.

C Ignore the expiration and wait for automatic backup by GCP.

D Share your account credentials with others to maintain access.

💡 Hint

Think about how to keep your data safe without paying.

Exporting important data before the trial ends ensures you keep your data safe even if resources are suspended or deleted.

❓ Architecture

advanced

Designing a Cost-Efficient Architecture Using GCP Free Tier

You want to build a small web app using GCP Free Tier resources only. Which combination of services fits within the always free limits?

A Use Compute Engine with 2 vCPUs and 8GB RAM, Cloud SQL with 10GB storage, and Cloud Storage with 50GB.

B Use Cloud Functions with 5 million invocations, Cloud Spanner with 1 node, and Cloud Storage with 100GB.

C Use Kubernetes Engine with 3 nodes, BigQuery with 2TB queries, and Cloud Storage with 10GB.

D Use App Engine Standard Environment, Cloud Firestore in Native mode, and Cloud Storage with 5GB.

💡 Hint

Check which services have always free usage and their limits.

App Engine Standard, Firestore, and Cloud Storage have always free usage limits suitable for small apps within free tier.

✅ Best Practice

expert

Managing GCP Free Tier and Credits for Long-Term Projects

For a long-term project that starts with GCP free trial credits and then moves to always free tier, what is the best approach to avoid unexpected charges?

A Enable billing alerts and set budget limits to monitor usage and costs.

B Disable all APIs after the free trial ends to prevent charges.

C Rely on GCP to automatically stop services when credits run out.

D Use multiple accounts to extend free trial credits indefinitely.

💡 Hint

Think about how to track and control spending proactively.

Enabling billing alerts and budgets helps you monitor usage and avoid unexpected charges after free credits expire.