<p>Google App Engine (Flex) has an elegant way to ensure that apps are exposed to the internet using HTTPS. (From what I know, you just specify <code>secure: always</code> in app.yaml, and you are good to go (<a href="https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/config/appref#handlers_element" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/config/appref#handlers_element</a>) </p>

<p>Does the Google Container Engine have a similar straight forward way to ensure HTTPS connections, for instance when using the <code>kubectl expose</code> command? (e.g. 
<code>kubectl expose deployment my_app --type=LoadBalancer --port [433]</code>) </p>

<p>Assuming you have a containerized application that already knows how to terminate TLS connections and has TLS certificates, you can use the <code>kubectl expose</code> command you mentioned to create a load balancer on port 443. It should work.</p>

<p>If you do not have TLS certificates and you're expecting Google Cloud to terminate the TLS for you, that is possible as well. You can use kube-lego to fetch TLS certificates from LetsEncrypt for free and create a kubernetes <code>Ingress</code> resource which later configures the Cloud Load Balancer to terminate the TLS for you. You can find a tutorial here: <a href="https://github.com/jetstack/kube-lego/tree/master/examples/gce" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/jetstack/kube-lego/tree/master/examples/gce</a></p>
