# GCP Fundamentals (DevOps) > Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, VPC, IAM, Cloud Functions, Cloud SQL, GKE, Workload Identity - 22 interview questions - Mid-Level - [Interview Questions: DevOps](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions.md) ## 1. What is Compute Engine in Google Cloud Platform? **Answer** Compute Engine is Google Cloud's IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offering that allows creating and managing virtual machines (VMs) on Google's infrastructure. It provides high performance, flexible pricing (preemptible, on-demand, committed use), and native integration with other GCP services like Cloud Storage, VPC, and IAM. VMs can use persistent disks or SSDs and benefit from Google's global networking infrastructure. ## 2. What is the difference between preemptible instances and standard instances in Compute Engine? **Answer** Preemptible instances cost up to 80% less than standard instances but can be stopped by Google at any time (with 30 seconds notice) if resources are needed elsewhere. They have a maximum lifetime of 24 hours. They are ideal for fault-tolerant workloads like batch processing, CI/CD jobs, or video rendering. Standard instances guarantee continuous availability and are suitable for critical workloads requiring high availability. ## 3. What are the storage classes available in Cloud Storage? **Answer** Cloud Storage offers four storage classes suited to different use cases: Standard (frequent access, high performance), Nearline (monthly access, backup storage), Coldline (quarterly access, medium-term archival), and Archive (annual access, long-term archival at minimal cost). Each class offers decreasing storage costs but increasing access costs. Automatic lifecycle management allows moving objects between classes based on age or defined conditions, optimizing costs while guaranteeing availability. ## 19 more questions available - What is a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) in GCP? - What is the difference between a primitive role and a predefined role in GCP IAM? Sign up for free: https://sharpskill.dev/en/login ## Other DevOps interview topics - [Version Control & Git](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/version-control-git.md): 20 questions, Junior - [Linux Fundamentals](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/linux-fundamentals.md): 22 questions, Junior - [Shell Scripting & Bash](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/shell-scripting-bash.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Networking Basics](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/networking-basics.md): 22 questions, Junior - [Docker Fundamentals](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/docker-fundamentals.md): 24 questions, Junior - [CI/CD Fundamentals](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/ci-cd-fundamentals.md): 18 questions, Junior - [GitHub Actions](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/github-actions.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [GitLab CI/CD](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/gitlab-ci.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Jenkins](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/jenkins.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Kubernetes Basics](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/kubernetes-basics.md): 26 questions, Mid-Level - [Kubernetes Networking](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/kubernetes-networking.md): 24 questions, Mid-Level - [Kubernetes Advanced](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/kubernetes-advanced.md): 24 questions, Mid-Level - [Ingress & API Gateway](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/ingress-api-gateway.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Terraform Basics](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/terraform-basics.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Terraform Advanced](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/terraform-advanced.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Ansible & Configuration Management](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/ansible-configuration.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [AWS Essentials](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/aws-essentials.md): 26 questions, Mid-Level - [Azure Fundamentals](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/azure-fundamentals.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Monitoring & Prometheus](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/monitoring-prometheus.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [Logging & ELK Stack](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/logging-elk.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Alerting & Incident Response](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/alerting-incident-response.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Cloud Identity & Secrets](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/cloud-identity-secrets.md): 22 questions, Mid-Level - [CI/CD Pipeline Security](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/cicd-pipeline-security.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Helm & Kubernetes](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/helm-kubernetes.md): 20 questions, Mid-Level - [Runtime & Cluster Security](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/runtime-cluster-security.md): 24 questions, Senior - [Container Supply Chain Security](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/container-supply-chain.md): 22 questions, Senior - [Service Mesh & Istio](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/service-mesh-istio.md): 24 questions, Senior - [GitOps & ArgoCD](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/gitops-argocd.md): 22 questions, Senior - [Progressive Delivery](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/progressive-delivery.md): 20 questions, Senior - [Distributed Observability](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/observability-distributed.md): 22 questions, Senior - [Disaster Recovery & Backup](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/disaster-recovery.md): 20 questions, Senior - [Performance Optimization](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/performance-optimization.md): 22 questions, Senior - [Cloud Cost Optimization](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/infrastructure-cost.md): 20 questions, Senior - [SRE Principles](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/sre-principles.md): 24 questions, Senior - [Chaos Engineering](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/chaos-engineering.md): 20 questions, Senior - [Platform Engineering](https://sharpskill.dev/en/technologies/devops/interview-questions/platform-engineering.md): 22 questions, Senior --- Source: SharpSkill (https://sharpskill.dev), tech interview preparation for your real stack. 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