Exam Certification (Feb 2023)
Disclaimer: Non official content, errors and omissions excepted.
Are you a developer? Do you use Google Cloud? Well you might want to consider studying for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Developer exam. First thing — yes it’s a terrible name for an exam. However the content is actually super useful and this blog post will qualify how this might relate to you.
The Cloud Developer exam covers a wide spectrum of topics. If you perform any sort of development in your role, it is worth considering studying for this exam. Lets walk through the exam guide and what that means.
Exam Topics
The exam guidelines cover five sections that can be summarized as follows:
- Cloud Native Applications
- Build and Testing Applications
- Deploying Applications
- Integrating Google Cloud Services
- Managing Deployed Applications
In the above list the thing that stood out for me was the overlap with a typical application design life-cycle.
Section 1. Cloud Native applications are targeted at the cloud. Understanding how this relates to an environment is an important element of passing the exam. From the perspective of Google Cloud, a good overview is available on their blog site. 5 principles for cloud native architecture delivers an insightful and clarifying overview of the principle being tested.
Section 2. Build and testing applications is where most people have invested a lot of time. Modern languages have made testing remarkably easy with deep integration. Whether you follow a particular methodology or not, understanding software engineering requires an iterative build and test cycles. As a Cloud Native developer on Google Cloud you should be aware of tools like Cloud Code and Skaffold. Also knowledge of Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) tooling such as Cloud Build will be useful to understand. I learned a lot from studying for this section.
Section 3. Deploying Applications includes elements associated with application maintenance and hosting. The type of application to be deployed may require additional knowledge of access, runtime and data persistence. For the candidate, remember Google Cloud lives in the future, so knowledge of containers, Kubernetes and APIs are a given! Considering how Google Cloud products are aligned with these tasks will be helpful to understand.
Section 4. Integrating Google Cloud Services is the section I found to be most useful. Google Cloud engineering has performed an awesome job to build a platform that has deep integrations. For most use cases, these are not used by Cloud Developers. In this section, learn about how to access, use and take advantage of these topics.
Section 5. Managing Deployed Applications focuses on accessing information to make sure an application provides useful information. The starting point for revision is the Ops Suite documentation. If you have taken the Google Cloud Professional DevOps Engineer exam, the content here will be very familiar. Essentially this section is about utilizing application telemetry to understand issues and resolve them as quickly as possible.
Exam Experience
The exam can be taken in an exam facility or remotely.
Taking the exam at a facility is the easiest option, as the environment is set up for you in advance. All you need to do is turn up and provide identification to verify your participation.
If you choose to take a proctored exam remotely, remember to leave time for the pre-check. Realistically, you should budget an additional 30 minutes on top of the 2 hour exam.
I typically take the exam remotely as there isn’t a provider close to my location. While the remote option sounds super useful, it comes with its own challenges. Below is a quick summary of the pre-exam activities.
- Kryterion Sentinel software (Windows/Mac) installation requires administrator rights
- Kryterion system check, try and do this at least a day before to be on the safe side
- No breaks allowed during the two hour exam
- Do take the practice exam to build some confidence prior to the actual exam
- (Try and) get a good night’s sleep before the exam
- The exam is multiple choice, so rule out the wrong answers first!!
Training Material
If you have gotten this far, I haven’t put you off taking the exam.
In which case, the material I used to get ready for the exam is listed below.
Feedback on my Professional Cloud Architect post was that folks wanted links to the training material. Therefore I have created a specific Google Cloud Professional Cloud Developer blog page for easier access (and updating for me).
Exam Extras
On successfully passing the exam, you are officially welcomed to the Cloud Certified Professionals. In previous years this included some pretty nice swag.
At the time of writing, completing the Professional Cloud Developer exam successfully still meant you were eligible for a very nice sweatshirt. The goodies you receive will vary overtime, and geographic region.
Exam Summary
So is the Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Developer still worth it in 2023?
If you are a developer and would like to improve your understanding of Google Cloud. I would highly recommend studying for this exam. The key benefit is learning the tools available such as Skaffold and Cloud Build. If you are a Java/Go/Node.js developer, for example, you probably want to use these tools on a daily basis. The initial learning curve is totally worth it.
As always these exams are not free so do think carefully before signing up for an exam. While the knowledge attained is very worthwhile, having a certificate will only really be useful if your role demands it. Generally Cloud Architect is still the most commonly requested CV booster.
There are a number of other exams to take in this series. In no particular order:
