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ASSOCIATE-CLOUD-ENGINEER · Question #60

A VM instance is trying to read from a Cloud Storage bucket. IAM roles assigned to the VM service account allows the VM instance to read from the bucket. But the scopes assigned to the VM deny the rea

The correct answer is B. The read will not execute as IAM roles and scopes both determine what operations will be. This question assesses understanding of how IAM roles and VM access scopes interact when permissions conflict on Google Cloud.

Submitted by yuki_2020· Mar 30, 2026Configuring access and security

Question

A VM instance is trying to read from a Cloud Storage bucket. IAM roles assigned to the VM service account allows the VM instance to read from the bucket. But the scopes assigned to the VM deny the reading bucket. What will happen when VM tries to read from the bucket?

Options

  • AThe application performing the read will drop the read operation
  • BThe read will not execute as IAM roles and scopes both determine what operations will be
  • CThe read will succeed because the most permissive permission is allowed
  • DThe read operation will execute, but a message will be sent to the Stackdriver Logging

How the community answered

(26 responses)
  • A
    8% (2)
  • B
    54% (14)
  • C
    12% (3)
  • D
    27% (7)

Why each option

This question assesses understanding of how IAM roles and VM access scopes interact when permissions conflict on Google Cloud.

AThe application performing the read will drop the read operation

The application will not just drop the read operation; the underlying Google Cloud security mechanisms will explicitly deny it.

BThe read will not execute as IAM roles and scopes both determine what operations will beCorrect

For a VM instance to perform an action on a Google Cloud resource, both the IAM roles assigned to its service account and the access scopes configured for the VM must grant the necessary permissions. If either the IAM role or the access scope denies the action, the operation will fail, as scopes effectively filter down the permissions granted by IAM roles.

CThe read will succeed because the most permissive permission is allowed

The read will not succeed because Google Cloud's security model for VMs is restrictive, requiring both IAM roles and VM access scopes to be permissive for an action to be allowed.

DThe read operation will execute, but a message will be sent to the Stackdriver Logging

While logging might occur, the primary outcome is that the read operation will be denied due to the scope restriction, not that it executes with a log message.

Concept tested: VM Instance Access Scopes and IAM Interaction

Source: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/service-accounts#access_scopes_best_practice

Topics

#IAM roles#service account scopes#access control#Cloud Storage

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