I’d like to share my journey to becoming an officially certified Google Professional Cloud Architect.
It all started when my company suggested that I pursue a Google certification. I chose the Professional Cloud Architect course, and they provided me with access to Google Cloud Qwiklabs (cloudskillsboost.google). The course took me over two months to complete, with a mix of videos and challenging labs. However, I didn’t manage to finish a few videos and labs towards the end.
When it was time to schedule the exam, we set the date for August 17th, 2024. In the final week, I began taking mock exams. I purchased the Architect course on SkillCertPro, which offers a variety of practice exam sets. My first attempt was a bit of a wake-up call, as I only scored 35%. This prompted me to dive deeper into the areas where I was weak. My second attempt yielded 55%, and my score continued to improve with each subsequent set, eventually reaching 78%. Initially, the practice sets didn’t include mixed questions like those on the actual exam, which kept me on edge. However, later sets did, and I consistently scored around 65%.
In total, I attempted around 600 questions on that platform. I also explored free questions on ExamTopics, only to discover that they were already included in the SkillCertPro practice sets. Some of the answers on SkillCertPro seemed off, so I cross-referenced them with discussions on ExamTopics, opting for the ones that received the most votes.
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Table of Contents
Exam Day
On the day of the exam, I thoroughly prepared my environment. I cleared the room and the table where I planned to sit. I had already installed the required Lockdown Browser. The Webassessor site displayed a “Join” button 10 minutes before the exam started. After joining, I was prompted to scan a QR code with my mobile device. Although I had initially turned off my phone (as recommended), I powered it on to complete the scan. The QR code led to a link where I was asked to take a selfie, capture a photo of my government ID, and photograph all four walls of my room along with the corners of the table where I would sit for the exam. After submitting these, I was instructed to close the mobile tab and continue in the Lockdown Browser.
However, a support person informed me that they couldn’t see my video feed, so I had to reboot my machine. After rebooting, I repeated the entire process—selfies, wall scans, and all. This time, the proctor could see the video but requested that I show the walls again, pausing for three seconds on each wall. I complied, but the proctor remained unsatisfied, so I showed them again. The entire process took more than half an hour. Eventually, the proctor approved my setup, and I was finally able to start the exam. They assured me that the exam time remained unaffected.
The Exam
The first 10 questions were based on two case studies: Mountkirk Games and TerramEarth. The remaining 40 questions were not case study-based. The interface allowed me to view the case study descriptions in a split page on the right side, so I didn’t need to memorize them.
I completed all the questions within an hour, leaving me with another hour to review my answers. During the review, I corrected a couple of answers I had previously marked. Half an hour into my review, a power cut hit my area, and my Wi-Fi was running out of battery. I decided not to risk it and submitted the exam. After skipping the obligatory survey, I clicked through to the next page, where I saw the word “Pass.” It was an incredibly satisfying moment—I had done it in my first attempt itself. I took a screenshot of the result and exited the exam.
Two days later, I received an email from Credly with a link to claim my certificate. I created an account, and now, here we are. Below is the certificate I received.
Types of GCP PCA Questions
The questions on the Google Cloud Professional Architect exam primarily test your ability to think critically and evaluate trade-offs. There may be multiple correct answers, but the key lies in carefully reading the question, sometimes multiple times, to determine the best answer.
Google expects solutions to be reliable, scalable, durable, and maintainable with minimal operational effort and low latency, all while adhering to their recommended practices.
Moreover, they emphasize automation and the use of their provided services. When it comes to IAM permissions, they advocate for a least privilege approach, ensuring that users have the minimal level of access required to perform a task.
GCP PCA Study Materials
There are a wealth of resources available online to help you prepare for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect exam. Below are some of the materials I personally used:
- Qwiklabs: I studied the videos, labs, and challenging exercises offered on Qwiklabs. They provide a comprehensive learning experience.
Qwiklabs – Google Cloud Skills Boost - SkillCertPro: I purchased a GCP PCA practice set from SkillCertPro, which provided me with a broad range of mock exams that closely mimic the real exam environment.
SkillCertPro – GCP PCA Practice Exam - ExamTopics: I also reviewed free questions available on ExamTopics to get additional practice.
ExamTopics – Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect - Google Cloud Docs: For topics where I struggled during mock exams, I referred to Google Cloud’s official documentation, which was quite valuable in clearing up my doubts.
Example: Google Cloud VPN Concepts - YouTube: For case studies, I didn’t focus extensively on specific resources but did watch a few helpful videos on YouTube to gain more insight.
SkillCertPro covers many case study-related questions, so it’s crucial to understand the concepts to make informed trade-offs. Once you’re clear on the topics, you can more easily identify solutions and weigh the trade-offs between different options.
The exam places a strong emphasis on migrating applications from on-premises or other cloud platforms to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), choosing the appropriate storage, selecting the right services for deployment, and ensuring that applications are scalable and available with low latency. It’s also important to design systems that are easy to maintain and upgrade.
Bonus
I’ve also prepared some rough notes during my study process, and I’m happy to share them with anyone who might benefit.
My GCP Architect Notes
