Cross-Cloud Certification: From Non-Cloud to Professional Architect - Google Cloud Platform Edition

This is the final part in a series of articles for practicing IT professionals looking to gain broad cross-cloud expertise, with the end goal of earning Professional Architect certification with all three major cloud vendors. Understanding multiple cloud platforms can significantly enhance your career prospects and equip you to at least participate in the conversation on the design and implementation of robust, scalable, cloud solutions.

This guide specific to Google Cloud will cover the three exams that are in your path to achieving Azure Architect Expert certification, how I personally prepared for them, and suggestions for how you can get ready to take this exam.

As I stated in Part 1, solely taking these exams is not, despite their lofty titles, going to fully prepare you, Day 1, to actually practice as a Professional Architect. It no more qualifies you for such a senior position than getting a Computer Science degree equips you to single-handedly create large and complicated software the week after graduation. After taking these tests, you'll have a solid foundation to build from, but I can say from personal experience that there is so much more to learn!

Part 1 of this series covers my professional background, motivation for undertaking this process, and offers general study tips that apply to any cloud certification exam.

Part 2 went over earning AWS Architect Professional

Part 3 has all you need for Azure Architect Expert

(Note: I do not work for any of the cloud vendors, nor am I being compensated for any recommendations or links in this series of articles.)

Of the three vendors, getting to Google Professional Cloud Architect is unique. They take a very different approach to Certification, and this will change how you need to study. I think the GCP certifications do an excellent job to prepare you for their respective roles, but if you were planning on the same "speeds and feeds" approach that the other vendors take, you will need to adjust your expectations

This article is going to be structured similarly to my article on Azure certification (though much shorter, I promise!) If you read that article, I'm sure you'll find this one awfully familiar, as I've shamelessly copied much of the content, to the extent it applies to both clouds.

Study Materials

Due to its relative smaller size vs. AWS and Azure, there simply are not as many study materials available for the GCP exams. That doesn't mean that you won't find anything, just that there isn't a huge selection of different sources out there.

I wouldn't suggest going for GCP Architect for someone new to IT, but experienced IT pros (the target audience for these articles) should do just fine with the available materials.

CloudSkillsBoost

Well, the good news is that Google has a pretty decent learning platform, with well-ordered lessons specifically designed for the exams. Included with the platform is an extensive set of sandboxed labs to practice what you've learned. This platform is Google Cloud Skills Boost.

If you work for a GCP Partner, you receive free full access to the platform with their pre-defined "KickStart" curriculums, both available here. If you complete the course within the allotted amount of time, (and you filled out the appropriate form on that site before starting), you'll receive a complimentary exam voucher.

If you do not work for a GCP Partner, you can still access the CloudSkillsBoost, and even go through the curriculums for Cloud Digital Leader (CDL), Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE), and Professional Cloud Architect (PCA). The videos and lecture materials are free of charge, and you can even access the lab directions for free.

If you choose to purchase it, the $29/mo subscription for the site gives you access to sandboxes to run the labs in. You can certainly run the labs in your own GCP account, and none of them exercises involve particularly expensive resources. The $300 90-day credit should be more than enough if you study quickly. Even if your $300 credit expires, none of the activities should run up much of a bill if you are careful.

Personally, I found the labs to be a bit buggy at times; it's almost an impossible task to keep a full site of labs in sync with the latest changes to the platform, and this can cause issues with labs being correctly marked as "completed". This isn't a problem if you are paying for access to the labs; it just means the exercise won't be officially marked, and that's just a matter of record-keeping. However, if you are trying to get the labs complete as part of the qualifying criteria for a free voucher through Partner KickStart, it can be annoying. (I had to open a ticket to request my voucher after I had already waited a week for a buggy lab to be fixed.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: CloudSkillsBoost is very particular about their lab sandboxes. Do not create any resources besides the ones they call for in the instructions, and always pick the exact type (no smaller, no larger) than the one they call for. They actively check, in real-time, and if you generate something outside the lab parameters, you will be automatically kicked out of the lab, and you will temporarily lose your access to CloudSkillsBoost labs; you'll need to open up a support ticket to get back in.

The Official Study Guides

While normally I find book-based guides to be less-than-stellar, I thought the official guides for ACE and PCA were both pretty decent, and Google does a decent job keeping them updated. (As always, those are non-affiliate links.)

As is the case with every Wiley/Sybex study guide I've used, don't rely on the included "Practice Tests" the book offers access to. They are way, way, too easy.

Hands-on Practice

If you aren't digging into the GCP console to practice what you are reading about, you aren't really learning; there's no better way to spot things you don't understand than seeing a config option in the console, and realizing you have no idea what it does, or being puzzled over which choice to pick.

You should absolutely sign up for a GCP account. Your new account will come with a very-basic set of free resources (a small amount of storage, a free compute instance, etc.) You'll also receive a $300 use-it-on-almost-anything credit! It expires after three months, so if you study at a fast clip, that should mean your hands-on practice ends up costing you $0.

Unlike AWS, you are limited to one GCP account with a Free Tier. AWS will let you sign up for as many as you need (within reason.) Google keeps track of your name and credit card billing address and won't let you do that. If you've signed up for a GCP account a couple years ago, and are still at the same address, you aren't getting another one.

Important GCP Hands-on Tip: GCP has a fundamental concept called the "Project". This is sort of a cross between an AWS Account and an Azure Resource Group. All resources within GCP exist within a project. If using your own account (vs. a CloudSkillsBoost sandbox), it would probably be best to create "disposable" projects, deleted at the end of every study session. (This is similar to my suggested approach to Azure and a single study Resource Group.)

FreeCodeCamp (YouTube)

I took Cloud Digital Leader when it was still a very new exam, and there were few materials available for it. My primary study material at the time was a free YouTube video by Andrew Brown of FreeCodeCamp. It was enough to pass the exam, though his teaching style is not my preference (a lot of reading directly off of slides.)

FreeCodeCamp also offers a 20-hour video targeted towards Associate Cloud Engineer; I haven't watched it, though the comments seem positive. Some people claim to have used it as primary prep, with some also using the Official Study Guide (the book) mentioned above.

TutorialsDojo (Practice Tests)

Here's another opportunity for me to heartily recommend TutorialsDojo for practice. Alas, as of this writing, they only offer a practice test for Associate Cloud Engineer. It's up to their usual high standards, but you are on your own for the other exams.

WhizLabs (Practice Test)

As of August '24, it appears the only major practice test available for Professional Cloud Architect is from WhizLabs. (If you google "Google Professional Cloud Architect Practice Exams", you get a bunch of results, but they mostly appear to be exam dumps, which you should avoid at all costs; as I mentioned in my intro article, you should never use a dump, or any "practice test" that advertises (or where reviews mention) "real exam questions.")

It is only with great reluctance that I suggest you purchase it, and only because I'm not aware of any other reputable choice. While the questions have decent topic coverage and are of a similar difficulty to the actual exam, I found the quality control to be very poor. Many questions were unacceptably vague, some of the "correct" answers were not correct, and the explanations given for the right/wrong answers were poorly written.

Maybe they've improved it since I used the practice exam, but this is a general complaint I have seen often on their other practice exam products, so I wouldn't be too hopeful.

(If purchasing, make sure you remove the up-sell checkboxes for the video course, hands-on labs, and cloud sandbox; just buy the test, which is $20.)

The Exams

Google does not have any prerequisite requirements for any exam; you can take any/all of the below exams, completely independent of one another. That said, you will probably end up taking Cloud Digital Leader, Associate Cloud Engineer, and Professional Cloud Architect.

Fundamental/Foundational: Cloud Digital Leader

The Cloud Digital Leader exam came out in the Fall of '22, and I took it a couple months later. At the time, it was not a very good test; a mix of questions that were way too easy ("Should you solve a business problem with [A, B, or C non-cloud solution] or [D Cloud Solution]", and others that would have been more appropriate on an associate level test. ("Pick one from this list of three closely related overlapping products.") And according to my employer, who sent out a note congratulating so many of us for passing during an end-of-year certification push, Google was impressed with our 60% pass-rate on the exam; they had only been expecting a 40% pass-rate. Yikes.

The test was supposedly overhauled in the Spring of '23, and assume that the question bank was also overhauled at that time, and the test made more appropriate. (Though nothing can fix how grandiose that name is... you aren't "leading" anything with a test designed to be passed with less than one day of study.)

I passed this one with that FreeCodeCamp video I mentioned earlier, but if I were doing it today, I'd probably use CloudSkillsBoost.

Associate Cloud Engineer

This is roughly the Google equivalent to Associate Administrator with Azure, but I found it to be much easier. I felt CloudSkillsBoost and the Official Study Guide was adequate preparation for the exam.

It's a fact-heavy course, but not nearly as intense as AZ-104. I found the hardest part was the fact that Google loves to use product names that are similar to one another, but do entirely different things, and then ask exam questions that expect you to have memorized the difference. You'll easily spot these during your studies, and flash cards to help you remember them would not be a terrible idea.

I used CloudSkillsBoost, the Official Study Guide, and TutorialsDojo's practice exam to prepare.

Professional Cloud Architect

I thought that this exam was in the middle of difficulty between Azure Architect Expert and AWS Architect Professional. It was very well-written and fair, with questions that really did test me on understanding how the different GCP products linked together to form a solution.

One thing of note about the exam was the Case Studies. Now, if you've read my Azure article (or taken Azure exams!) you are probably quaking in fear! Well, no need for that! Google provides you with the case studies in advance, but that is just so you can use them as a thought exercise. The scenarios are short, and the questions they ask about them would have been no more difficult had they just been an ordinary test question, with nothing provided ahead of time.

The exam had an interesting structure. The case studies came first, followed by a series of tough scenario questions. At that point, I was sweating; it was using a lot of time, and the answers were not obvious. Then the difficulty quickly eased off, with the rest of the test consisting of routine "pick the correct service for this problem" questions. I don't know if the exam is "adaptive" and the system figured out I knew enough to pass by that point, or if they just put the easier questions at the end.

To prepare, again I used CloudSkillsBoost and the Official Study Guide. As I mentioned earlier, my practice test was, grudgingly, WhizLabs.

I also used the slide deck here that had a good overview of the various in-scope services so you can be sure to make yourself familiar with all of them.

Taking the Google Exams

Unlike AWS and Azure (who use Pearson Vue), Google uses Kryterion (a.k.a. webassessor) as their testing provider. While it's a different software package, it's very similar to Pearson Vue, as far as the overall experience goes.

My tips on preparing for a Vue exam here should mostly apply. (Including the parts on room preparation and not using a corporate laptop to take the exam.)

Exam Results and Scoring

When I took my Google exams, the exam results were strictly Pass/Fail. There was no score, and you received no guidance on strong/weak points. If you did not pass, you were reduced to frantically writing down what you thought the harder topics were so you could study some more and hope you did better the next time. How much better did you need to be? No idea!

Well, Google still doesn't supply a numerical score, but if you don't pass, you apparently now receive a Score Report that will inform you of the weights of the various exam topics, and is supposed to provide some feedback on how well you did on each of them.

Retakes

If you do not pass, the retake policy starts out pretty standard; your second attempt must be no less than two weeks later. (This the same as AWS.) If you fail a second time, you must wait two months before your next attempt. If you fail again (your 3rd attempt), you must wait an entire year.

And do not try and register under another e-mail to circumvent this policy; they do check (by looking at your mailing address) and can/do invalidate exam results and issue bans for trying this.

Renewals

Cloud Digital Leader is good for four years, Associate Cloud Engineer for three years, and Professional Cloud Architect good for two years. Of note is that you cannot renew more than 60 days prior to credential expiration. This gives you a pretty small window between when you are allowed to renew, and when your certification will lapse.

This may be an issue for those whose employers impose requirements on keeping certifications current (especially business partners on which Google imposes certification requirements), but otherwise it's not the end of the world if your certificate lapses.

You probably want to set a calendar alarm four months or so before your certificate expires so you are reminded to start studying.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've reached the end of my series on Cross-Cloud Professional Architect Certification! Good luck on your own journey!

I hope you found this series useful, and of course if you did, I'd really appreciate it if you did all the normal Social Media things of liking, following, and connecting!