--- title: Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners | daily.dev description: A beginner-focused crash course walking through Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, covering both the console UI and the gcloud CLI. Topics include creating... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners | daily.dev og:description: A beginner-focused crash course walking through Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, covering both the console UI and the gcloud CLI. Topics include creating... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vsyB9CmAL.png og:image:alt: Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners **[NeuralNine](https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine)** · 68 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A beginner-focused crash course walking through Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, covering both the console UI and the gcloud CLI. Topics include creating projects and billing accounts, Cloud Storage buckets and storage classes, deploying applications with Cloud Run (both from source and via Docker containers in Artifact Registry), configuring IAM roles and service accounts, spinning up VMs with Compute Engine, setting up managed Postgres databases with Cloud SQL, and running a basic BigQuery query on a public dataset. The video is sponsored by Infisical, an open-source secrets management platform. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I give the default Cloud Run service account permission to build containers in GCP? Grant the default compute service account the Cloud Run Builder role from the IAM & Admin section. Without this role, a 'gcloud run deploy --source' command fails with a permission denied error because the default service account lacks the required IAM permissions to build the container image for Cloud Run. _Developers wiring up Cloud Run deployments can find more permission fixes like this one on daily.dev._ ### How do I create a Postgres database on Google Cloud SQL using the cheapest configuration via the CLI? Use 'gcloud sql instances create' with --database-version=POSTGRES_15, a single CPU, and --memory=3840 (the minimum in megabytes), plus a region like europe-west1. Newer versions such as Postgres 18 force you into enterprise tiers with less manual CPU/memory control, so Postgres 15 is the simplest path for a minimal, low-cost instance. _Anyone comparing managed database tiers can track these Cloud SQL configuration quirks on daily.dev._ ### Why can't I create real folders in a Google Cloud Storage bucket? Folders only become real directory objects if hierarchical namespace is enabled when the bucket is created; otherwise, what looks like a folder is just a string prefix on the file name (e.g., 'files/test.txt'), not an actual filesystem folder, and commands to create a folder resource will fail with an error saying the bucket doesn't support hierarchical namespace. _Developers structuring data in cloud storage buckets can dig into details like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Google Cloud Platform for Data Engineering: The Definitive Masterclass](https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-platform-for-data-engineering-the-definitive-masterclass-kl8hrdzy8) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Where to begin a cloud career](https://daily.dev/posts/where-to-begin-a-cloud-career-ll6avc8vt) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Top 5 Udemy Courses to Learn Cloud Computing in 2026 \(with AWS, Azure, and GCP\)](https://daily.dev/posts/top-5-udemy-courses-to-learn-cloud-computing-in-2026-with-aws-azure-and-gcp--pnmybfdbo) · Javarevisited · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Medium](https://daily.dev/posts/medium-vydqefujy) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#gcp](https://daily.dev/tags/gcp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal"},"datePublished":"2026-10-02T16:20:28.672Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T16:20:47.969Z","description":"A beginner-focused crash course walking through Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, covering both the console UI and the gcloud CLI. Topics include creating...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aNLjh3S1IXg/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aNLjh3S1IXg/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"NeuralNine","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NeuralNine","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--bMYO07OB--/f_auto,q_auto/v1777800757/logos/neuralnine?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"cloud,gcp","timeRequired":"PT68M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners","description":"A beginner-focused crash course walking through Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, covering both the console UI and the gcloud CLI. Topics include creating...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aNLjh3S1IXg/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-10-02T16:20:28.672Z","duration":"PT68M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/vsyB9CmAL","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/aNLjh3S1IXg"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NeuralNine","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Google Cloud Crash Course: GCP For Beginners"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-crash-course-gcp-for-beginners-vsyb9cmal#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I give the default Cloud Run service account permission to build containers in GCP?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Grant the default compute service account the Cloud Run Builder role from the IAM & Admin section. Without this role, a 'gcloud run deploy --source' command fails with a permission denied error because the default service account lacks the required IAM permissions to build the container image for Cloud Run. Developers wiring up Cloud Run deployments can find more permission fixes like this one on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I create a Postgres database on Google Cloud SQL using the cheapest configuration via the CLI?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Use 'gcloud sql instances create' with --database-version=POSTGRES_15, a single CPU, and --memory=3840 (the minimum in megabytes), plus a region like europe-west1. Newer versions such as Postgres 18 force you into enterprise tiers with less manual CPU/memory control, so Postgres 15 is the simplest path for a minimal, low-cost instance. Anyone comparing managed database tiers can track these Cloud SQL configuration quirks on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why can't I create real folders in a Google Cloud Storage bucket?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Folders only become real directory objects if hierarchical namespace is enabled when the bucket is created; otherwise, what looks like a folder is just a string prefix on the file name (e.g., 'files/test.txt'), not an actual filesystem folder, and commands to create a folder resource will fail with an error saying the bucket doesn't support hierarchical namespace. Developers structuring data in cloud storage buckets can dig into details like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```