Until now, Google didn't have a foundational exam like the AWS (Cloud Practitioner) or Azure (Azure Fundamentals). Associate Cloud Engineer was their entry level exam but it wasn't a fundamental exam but rather an Associate level exam. So Google has introduced Digital Cloud Leader - an awesome name for a foundational certification!

As for any cloud foundational exam, this exam also focuses on general cloud knowledge and understanding of Google Cloud specific products and services, which enables people to better articulate the capabilities of Google Cloud and how it can benefit their organization. Further, the exam is job-role agnostic and does not require hands-on experience with Google Cloud.

Exam Pattern

The exam assess your ability on the following:

1. General Cloud Knowledge
2. General Google Cloud Knowledge
3. Google Cloud Products and Services

The official exam guide provides a full list of individuals topics covered in the exam

About Beta exam

The beta exam registration and delivery will be the same like that of the final exam. You can register for the exam at https://www.webassessor.com. You have 2 options for taking the exam - online proctored (at a testing center) or remote proctored (at home). I took the exam at home. The final exam would cost $99.

Beta exam has got advantages like 40% discount from the retail price of final exam, failing the exam doesn't count towards the total attempts available but on the flipside, for a new exam like this, no training or practice exams may be available and exam results would not be immediate and might take 6-8 weeks but you will get the full benefits of passing the exam.

Complete guide on Google Cloud beta exam is available here

The beta exam was for 3 hours since it usually contains the complete spectrum of questions and could also provide feedback about each question but I expect the final exam to be for 2 hours.

Registration for the beta exam is now closed and general registration of this exam will be from June 2021.

Exam Preparation

I had already cleared Associate Cloud Engineer and Professional Cloud Architect exams, so I didn't actually prepare separately for this exam.

Google suggests to undertake the following courses

• Course - Business Transformation with Google Cloud (Enroll using the "Audit" option to take at no cost)
• Course - Google Cloud Product Fundamentals (Enroll using the "Audit" option to take at no cost)
• Impact Study - Google Cloud Adoption Framework
• Resource - Google Cloud Solutions

Exam Experience

The exam assess on almost all the topics mentioned in the exam guide and hence didn't call out important topics separately.

For generally available exam, the result would be announce immediately - whether pass or fail. But since I took a beta exam, the result will be announced in 6-8 weeks (when the final exam is generally available). So I am awaiting for the exam result and will update once I get the certificate.

Learning Resources

Since it's a new exam and training materials may not be widely available, I have collated the Google Cloud documentation reference for each of the individual exam topics and provided here. Hope it helps you to better prepare for the exam.

All the best for your exam preparation and success!

Since this is a new exam and training resources may not be widely available, I am sharing Google Cloud documentation reference for each of the exam topics (for most of them), which can help you to prepare for this exam.

1. General Cloud Knowledge

1.1 Define basic cloud technologies. Considerations include:

• Differentiate between traditional infrastructure, public cloud, and private cloud
• Define cloud infrastructure ownership, Shared Responsibility Model
• Essential characteristics of cloud computing

1.2 Differentiate cloud service models. Considerations include:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) , Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Describe the tradeoffs between level of management versus flexibility when comparing cloud services, Define the tradeoffs between costs versus responsibility
• Appropriate implementation and alignment with given budget and resources

1.3 Identify common cloud procurement financial concepts. Considerations include:

• Operating expenses (OpEx), capital expenditures (CapEx), and total cost of operations (TCO)
• Recognize the relationship between OpEx and CapEx related to networking and compute infrastructure
• Summarize the key cost differentiators between cloud and on-premises environments

2. General Google Cloud Knowledge

2.1 Recognize how Google Cloud meets common compliance requirements. Considerations include:

• Locating current Google Cloud compliance requirements
• Familiarity with Compliance Reports Manager

2.2 Recognize the main elements of Google Cloud resource hierarchy. Considerations include:

• Describe the relationship between organization, folders, projects, and resources 2.3 Describe controlling and optimizing Google Cloud costs. Considerations include:
• Google Cloud billing models and applicability to different service classes
• Define a consumption-based use model
• Application of discounts (e.g., flat-rate , committed use discounts [CUD] , sustained use discounts [SUD] )

2.4 Describe Google Cloud’s geographical segmentation strategy. Considerations include:

• Regions, Zones, Regional resources, Zonal resources, Multiregional resources

2.5 Define Google Cloud Support options. Considerations include:

• Distinguish between billing support, technical support, role-based support, and enterprise support
• Recognize a variety of Service Level Agreement (SLA) applications

3.General Google Cloud Knowledge

3.1 Describe the benefits of Google Cloud virtual machine (VM)-based compute options. Considerations include:

• Google Compute Engine , Google Cloud VMware Engine , and Bare Metal
• Custom versus standard sizing
• Free, premium, and custom service options
• Attached storage/disk options
• Preemptible VMs

3.2 Identify and evaluate container-based compute options. Considerations include:

• Define the function of a container registry
• Distinguish between VMs, containers, and Google Kubernetes Engine

3.3 Identify and evaluate serverless compute options. Considerations include:

• Define the function and use of App Engine, Google Cloud Functions, and Cloud Run
• Define rationale for versioning with serverless compute options
• Cost and performance tradeoffs of scale to zero

3.4 Identify and evaluate multiple data management offerings. Considerations include:

• Describe the differences and benefits of Google Cloud’s relational and non-relational database offerings (e.g., Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner, Cloud Bigtable, BigQuery)
• Describe Google Cloud’s database offerings and how they compare to commercial offerings

3.5 Distinguish between ML/AI offerings. Considerations include:

• Describe the differences and benefits of Google Cloud’s hardware accelerators (e.g., Vision API, AI Platform , TPUs )
• Identify when to train your own model, use a Google Cloud pre-trained model, or build on an existing model

3.6 Differentiate between data movement and data pipelines. Considerations include:

• Describe Google Cloud’s data pipeline offerings (e.g., Pub/Sub, Dataflow, Cloud Data Fusion, BigQuery, Looker)
• Define data ingestion options

3.7 Apply use cases to a high-level Google Cloud architecture. Considerations include:

• Define Google Cloud’s offerings around the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Describe Google Cloud’s platform visibility and alerting offerings

3.8 Describe solutions for migrating workloads to Google Cloud. Considerations include:

• Identify data migration options
• Differentiate when to use Migrate for Compute Engine versus Migrate for Anthos
• Distinguish between lift and shift versus application modernization

3.9 Describe networking to on-premises locations. Considerations include:

• Define Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)
• Determine the best connectivity option based on networking and security requirements
• Private Google Access

3.10 Define identity and access features. Considerations include:

• Cloud Identity , Google Cloud Directory Sync , and Identity Access Management (IAM)

Additional Learning Resources

• Google Cloud Essentials - YouTube Playlist
• Overview on key GCP services
• GCP Products - to have a quick understanding of various offerings
• GCP Developer Cheatsheet - one pager of all GCP service offerings
• Compare AWS & Azure to GCP services - if you are already familiar with AWS or Azure

All the best for your exam preparation and success!

I have recently cleared the exam last week. Unlike AWS or Azure, I couldn’t find an exhaustive list of learning materials for GCP. So I have collated a list of learning materials which I had followed and I hope that it helps you to better prepare for the exam.

Exam Pattern

The exam has a total of 50 questions consisting of multiple choice or multi select questions and total exam duration is 2 hours.

The GCP PCA exam assess your ability on following:

1. Design and plan a cloud solution architecture
2. Manage and provision the cloud solution infrastructure
3. Design for security and compliance
4. Analyze and optimize technical and business processes
5. Manage implementations of cloud architecture
6. Ensure solution and operations reliability

The official exam guide provides the further drill-down on the individual topics covered in the exam.

The exam would also contain questions based on certain scenarios. Currently there are 3 scenarios provided by Google.

• Mountkirk Games
• Dress4Win
• TerramEarth

Exam Preparation

I had prepared for the exam for about 3 months and referred to the following materials.

Qwiklabs - Qwiklabs provides the official learning material from Google. Try to complete the suggested learning path

Linux Academy/ A Cloud Guru - The GCP PCA course here is well structured and provide hands-on learning rather than just watching videos. It has also got a good practice exam to test our readiness.

Official GCP PCA Study Guide -The study guide gives a clear and concise details about various GCP services and various processes like DR planning an architect needs to be aware

Whizlabs - They have a very good set of exam questions . You can learn new things from the explanation given to the answers. Try to score consistently above 90%.

Finally once all you ready to take the exam, attempt the practice exam provided by Google that simulates the real exam. This will boost your confidence for taking the final exam.

Exam Registration

Kryterion is the testing partner for GCP exams. You need to register for the exam at https://www.webassessor.com. You have 2 options for taking the exam - online proctored (taking at a testing center) or remote proctored (taking at home). I took my exam at a test center

Exam Experience

The exam consists of 50 questions. Case studies will also be provided for our reference. The exam screen would be split into 2 halves vertically - left half will contain the exam questions while right half will contain the case study

Important question topics are:-

• questions based on 3 case studies.
• big query roles
• different storage options
• cloud storage lifecycle
• data analytics services like dataflow, data studio
• stackdriver services like monitor, logging, tracer
• GKE autoscaling and load balancing
• hybrid connectivity services like interconnect, vpn
• IAM services - roles, firewall rules
• billing and cost management

Once you have submitted the exam, you will receive your result immediately on screen stating pass or fail. You will receive your digital certificate within a couple of days if online proctored exam or between 1-2 weeks if remote proctored exam. Google doesn't reveal the score or pass percentage.

It was really an anxious moment for me until I see Pass in the final screen!!

All the best for your exam preparation and success!

Additional Learning Resources

• Video Playlists
  • Learn GCP with Mahesh
  • Awesome GCP
• GCP Products - to have a quick understanding of various offerings
• GCP Developer Cheatsheet - one pager of all GCP service offerings
• GCP Sketch Notes
• GCP Flowcharts
• Mapping exam guide to documentation
• Compare AWS & Azure to GCP services

As per Google, an Associate Cloud Engineer is expected to deploy applications, monitor operations, manage enterprise solutions and able to use Google Cloud Console and the command-line interface to perform common platform-based tasks to maintain one or more deployed solutions that leverage Google-managed or self-managed services on Google Cloud

Having achieved my Azure Solution Architect Expert certification in Aug '20, I was interested to explore on Google Cloud Platform as it's emerging as the preferred cloud partner for many organizations lately.

At that time Google offered a promotion of 1 month free access to their courses in Coursera and Qwiklabs plus 30% discount in the exam fee that I could make use of.

Exam Pattern

The exam has a total of 50 questions consisting of multiple choice or multi select questions and total exam duration is 2 hours

The GCP ACE exam assess your ability on following:

1. Set up a cloud solution environment
2. Plan and configure a cloud solution
3. Deploy and implement a cloud solution
4. Ensure successful operation of a cloud solution
5. Configure access and security

The official exam guide provides the further drill-down on the individual topics covered in the exam.

Exam Preparation

Since the voucher expires by Dec '20, I had 3 months to prepare for the exam. I used the following materials to learn.

Coursera - Completed the Cloud Engineering with Google Cloud Professional Certificate suggested by Google

Qwiklabs - Completed the labs provided in GCP ACE learning path. You can also complete other labs and quests in Qwiklabs to improve your exposure with Google Cloud.

Official GCP ACE Study Guide - The study guide provided a quick reference on all key topics and also has got practice questions at the end of each chapter that helps us to better prepare for the exam.

Whizlabs - They have a very good set of exam questions . You can learn new things from the explanation given to the answers. Try to score consistently above 90%.

Finally once all you ready to take the exam, attempt the practice exam provided by Google that simulates the real exam. This will boost your confidence for taking the final exam.

Exam Registration

Kryterion is the testing partner for GCP exams. You need to register for the exam at https://www.webassessor.com. It currently costs $125. With my voucher, I managed to register for $88. You have 2 options for taking the exam - online proctored (at a testing center) or remote proctored (at home). I took the exam at home.

Exam Experience

I scheduled my exam at 10AM but a proctor was available only after 45 mins. It does happen during busy schedules, so don't get panic and just wait for them. The exam time only starts after the checks are complete. So we will get the full 2 hours.

Important question topics are:-

• account billing and cost management
• IAM - roles & permissions
• compute engine - understand various options available while creating a VM
• App Engine - know the deployment options and roles
• networks - create vpc, subnets, firewalls
• GKE - commands to create and manage cluster and applications
• stackdriver services like monitor, logging, tracer
• GCP CLI commands for major services
• cloud storage options
• overview on other GCP services

Once you have submitted the exam, you will receive your result immediately on screen stating pass or fail. You will receive your digital certificate within a couple of days if online proctored exam or between 1-2 weeks if remote proctored exam. Google doesn't reveal the score or pass percentage.

It was really an anxious moment for me until I see Pass in the final screen!!

All the best for your exam preparation and success!

Additional Learning Resources

• GCP Documentation
• GCP Products - to have a quick understanding of various offerings
• GCP Developer Cheatsheet - one pager of all GCP service offerings
• GCP Command Cheatsheet - quick refresher of key commands
• GCP Sketch Notes
• Compare AWS & Azure to GCP services