The real graded Google Cloud Platform tasks the portal assigns, grouped into three levels.
The portal assigns these Google Cloud Platform tasks. Finish Level 1 before Level 2 and Level 2 before Level 3. Your mentor may mark some tasks as required for the certificate.
Level 1: Foundations (12 tasks)
Task
What to do
Set up a free GCP account safely
Create a Google Cloud free-trial or free-tier project, set a budget alert at Rs 100 and enable two-step verification. Screenshot each step (hide billing details).
Cloud basics
In a repo named gcp-internship, explain regions, zones, projects, billing accounts and IaaS/PaaS/SaaS with GCP examples.
IAM roles
Create a test user or service account with only Storage Object Viewer and prove it can read but not delete objects.
Cloud Shell and gcloud
Use Cloud Shell to list projects, set the default region and create and delete a bucket with gcloud commands.
Compute Engine VM
Create an e2-micro VM, connect with SSH and install a web server that shows your name. Stop it when done.
Firewall rules
Allow HTTP to your VM only on port 80 and SSH only from your IP. Explain each rule.
Cloud Storage static site
Host a static portfolio page from a Cloud Storage bucket or Firebase Hosting and share the link.
Storage classes and lifecycle
Add a lifecycle rule that moves old objects to Nearline or Coldline and explain when each class is used.
VPC networks
Create a custom VPC with two subnets in different regions and explain routes and internal IPs.
Cloud Monitoring
Create an uptime check and an alert on VM CPU, and trigger it with a stress test.
BigQuery first queries
Query a BigQuery public dataset (for example GitHub or COVID data) and explain how bytes scanned affect cost.
Pricing calculator
Use the GCP pricing calculator to estimate the monthly cost of a small web app with a VM, a database and 50 GB of storage.
Level 2: Building real features (10 tasks)
Task
What to do
Cloud Run deployment
Containerise a small API and deploy it to Cloud Run with a custom environment variable. Share the HTTPS URL.
Cloud Functions
Write a Cloud Function (2nd gen) that runs when a file is uploaded to a bucket and writes the file details to a log.
Cloud SQL
Create a small Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL or MySQL) instance, connect your Cloud Run API to it and run CRUD operations. Delete it after testing.
Firestore app
Build a to-do or attendance app on Firestore with security rules that let users read and write only their own data.
Pub/Sub messaging
Publish messages to a Pub/Sub topic from one service and process them in another. Show retries for a failing message.
Secret Manager
Store an API key in Secret Manager and read it from Cloud Run without putting it in code or environment files.
CI/CD with Cloud Build
Set up Cloud Build or GitHub Actions to build and deploy your Cloud Run service on every push to main.
Load your data into BigQuery
Load a CSV into BigQuery, write 5 analytical queries with GROUP BY and window functions and build a Looker Studio chart.
Terraform on GCP
Create a bucket, a service account and a Cloud Run service with Terraform. Show plan, apply and destroy.
Vertex AI or Gemini API
Call the Gemini API (or a Vertex AI model) from your Cloud Run service to summarise text, and keep the key out of the code.
Level 3: Professional work and capstone (8 tasks)
Task
What to do
GKE basics
Create a small GKE Autopilot cluster, deploy your container with a Service and delete the cluster after testing. Record the cost.
Load balancing
Put an HTTPS load balancer in front of your service or two instances and show traffic shared between them.
Logging and error reporting
Use Cloud Logging queries and Error Reporting to find a bug you add on purpose, and write how you found it.
Security review
Check your project for public buckets, owner roles given to users, unused service-account keys and open firewall rules, and fix what you find.
Cost optimisation
Review your billing report, find the top 3 cost items and reduce them (scale to zero, smaller instances, lifecycle rules).
Architecture diagram
Draw the architecture of your app on GCP (draw.io or Excalidraw) showing services, data flow and security boundaries.
Certification prep
Make study notes and a 30-question practice set for the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer exam topics.
Capstone: full app on GCP
Ship a complete app on GCP using Cloud Run, a database, Cloud Storage, CI/CD and monitoring. Submit the live link, repo, diagram and a 2-minute demo video.
Internship