An external passthrough Network Load Balancer operates at layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and preserves the original client IP address. This is a key requirement stated in the question. It's also designed for external-facing applications that need to handle TCP or UDP traffic directly without proxying at the application layer.
Option A: An internal passthrough Network Load Balancer is used for load balancing traffic within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network, not for exposing applications to the public internet.
Option C & D: Global and regional external proxy Network Load Balancers operate at layer 7 (HTTP
/HTTPS) or use a proxy for TCP/SSL, which means they terminate the client connection at the load balancer and establish a new connection to the backend instances. This does not preserve the original client IP address by default (though there are ways to retrieve it via headers, it's not a direct passthrough).
Reference to Google Cloud Certified - Associate Cloud Engineer Documents:
The different types of Google Cloud Load Balancers, their operating layers (L4 vs. L7), and their capabilities, including client IP preservation, are thoroughly documented in the Google Cloud Load Balancing documentation, a critical area for the Associate Cloud Engineer certification. The distinction between passthrough and proxy load balancers is essential.