How I prepared for GCP Professional Data Engineer Certification.
Background:
When I was doing the project in Big Data Technology (Apache Spark, Apache Kafka), I used Scala and Python as programming languages, as the project was running in the organization’s data center. Our management decided to move this project to the cloud in stages, from DataCenter(on-premise) → AWS → GCP, as management directed us to GCP and encouraged us to learn more about GCP. During that time, a thought came to my mind: why not do some certification and get a better understanding of Google Cloud?
We decided as a team that a GCP Professional Data Engineer would be the best fit for it. So, we started collecting information in the meantime, but due to COVID, GCP migration was put on hold. In 2021, we got some assignments on using GCP Products (GCP Cloud & Cloud Storage), which again gave me a boost and confidence for preparing for the certification. I began gathering information about how to prepare and searching for information on medium.com and YouTube as well official google site https://cloud.google.com/certification/data-engineer.
Expectation:
Unlike some other certifications, the Professional Data Engineer (PDE) is definitely not a simple exam, where just study for 8 hours and you’ll be ready. Google writes its questions in a way that only someone with good hands-on experience and a depth understanding of its services can get across.
The goal is not for you to memorize questions, but to actually understand the services that the cloud offers to be able to apply them in your day-to-day work. Keep this in mind as you prepare.
Strategy:
While searching on the internet I found that ACloudGuru, read the blog about a few more associate who has completed the certification, medium.com, linkedin.com as well as youtube.
Now I will explain all course material i used
Courses:
1. A Cloud Guru: https://acloudguru.com/course/google-certified-professional-data-engineer Most professionals recommended this. This is the main course I used to prepare for the exam. This course is designed in such a way that you will relate to the content as mentioned in GCP Professional Data engineer https://cloud.google.com/certification/guides/data-engineer. They will continue updating their content as per needed. They include videos explaining GCP’s solutions, exam tips, mock exams, quizzes, labs, and sandbox cloud environments. For practice, they include lots of labs, which is more helpful to relate to the topic which you already learning.
2. Google Official learning path(https://partner.cloudskillsboost.google) to avail of this learning you need to register with the organization’s email id, google will send the course content(if your organization has a partnership with them in any form). This learning path will give an in-depth understanding of all the products and services. While doing this course you need to complete all the Qwiklabs. which google recommends while learning.
Google will give you an exam gift voucher if you are able to complete all the required Skill Badges given in the learning path. This learning boosts my confidence in preparation.
3. Official Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer Study Guide book by Dan Sullivan. This book is very well designed to understand GCP products which are part of the exam. At the end of each chapter have an assessment that will boost your confidence. This book will realize you, how each of the products is the best fit in which scenario. I recommended this book and highlight the imp point and review those points every weekend.
Mock Practice Sets:
- Testprep : https://www.testpreptraining.com/index.php?route=account/login. For the practice test, I prefer testprep, since they will cover most of the scenarios and topic-wise also cover the mock testing but for answers, u have to follow the link in the explanation.
2. Wizlabs: https://www.whizlabs.com/learn/course/google-cloud-certified-professional-data-engineer/250. I buy the practice sets rather than the course video. This also helps in preparing for the exam.
3. At last, go through the GCP’s official mock exam, you will get a better idea about the Question they may ask in the exam. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkWEzBCP0wQ09ZuFm7G2_4qtkYbfmk_0getojdnPdCYmq37Q/viewform.
Once you’ve completed all the above practice sets, you’ll be able to visualize the data pipelines and see where and why Google products fit into those scenarios. While solving practice sets, you can implement best practices shared by Google Cloud. Don’t appear for the exam unless you score 85% continuously in all the practice sets mentioned above.
Extra study:
- Apart from the content mentioned above, I frequently watch Satish VJ’s awesomeGCP YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UOX2R-xf8I&list=PLQMsfKRZZviSLraRoqXulcMKFvIXQkHdA and used to watch The Cloud Girl by Priyanka Vergadia to clear my mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQvLUMjz-g4&list=PLTWE_lmu2InBzuPmOcgAYP7U80a87cpJd.
Extra resource:
- Google cheatsheet https://github.com/xg1990/GCP-Data-Engineer-Study-Guide/blob/master/GCP%20Data%20Engineer.pdf
2. Dmitri Lerko’s post here reflects the updated exam.
3. https://github.com/sathishvj/awesome-gcp-certifications/blob/master/professional-data-engineer.md
Conclusion:
In this post, I have shared the steps that I have followed while preparing for the exam. It took me 31/2(three and a half)months for exam preparation. One important point to be noted, create your own notes in a notebook and revise every weekend. Make a habit of reading every day as per your availability.
3 times I postpone the exam date from https://www.webassessor.com/wa.do?page=login&branding=GOOGLECLOUD. since I was not confident enough to appear for the exam.
Finally, I appeared in the September 15, 2022, morning slot. On that day, while writing the exam, I realized “GCP PDE is 5X harder than any other cloud exam”(that’s what we called them GOOGLE 😉) all the Questions are unique. So please be thorough with the concepts and try to relate the scenario to real-time problem-solving. If you are not familiar with the fundamentals, you will be perplexed even when selecting options in the exam. However, after careful analysis, you will come to know the right option among others.
Finally, my result got out, to be, frankly speaking, I was a bit nervous while checking the result, but when I saw “PASS,”
This was my journey to clearing this exam. I took this platform to share my experience with all aspirants with the objective of highlighting a few lessons and takeaways. Firstly, it is very essential to start your preparation early on, so that you can afford to hit and try your strategies and bounce back from any setback. Secondly, progress cannot be abrupt or instantaneous. It is gradual and requires one to stay motivated to work hard and smart. Finally, your hard work can give you some surprise packages in life.
I wish you the very best with your GCP certifications. You can reach me via LinkedIn Please reach out to me I am happy to help you.
