How I became a GCP Certified Professional Cloud Architect.
GCP certified professional architect certification is one of the hardest cloud certifications out there right now. I achieved this in December last year and thought it will be a good idea to share some tips with aspirants.
First things first, I was positively surprised to find out that this exam is not all google cloud, you will need some experience on how to design and support IT systems(not just cloud) which could be a good thing if you are a seasoned solutions architect however for some others it just means a little more preparation.
Exam Overview
This exam has been divided into following 6 sections each divided into sub-sections
1. Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
2. Managing and provisioning a solution Infrastructure
3. Designing for security and compliance
4. Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes
5. Managing implementation
6. Ensuring solution and operations reliability
Another very important thing to note on the exam guide is case studies, there are three case studies that you will need to prepare.
Going into the exam you’ll need to make sure you understand the case studies like the back of your hand as you might get up to 20–22 questions out of a total of 60 from these case studies. This number may be different for each student and I had about 15–16 questions from them.
Here’s a link to the exam guide
Preparation
After I had decided that I wanted to give the google cloud architect exam, it was time to set a date to give the exam. I was scheduled for a 3 week-long vacation starting January 2020 so I had to pick a date in Dec. I have found that if I register for the exam in advance, it helps keep me motivated as I am working towards achieving a goal by a target date. I booked my exam through web assessor website.
I already had an annual AcloudGuru subscription from when I did my AWS Solutions Architect exam so that was the first choice, I gave myself 4 weeks to finish all the lectures from that course. Couple of things I did not like about their course are
- No practice exam( this was in December 2019)
- For Kubernetes, there was a link to a second course which was more of a general-purpose course rather than something specific to google’s exam.
Next, I took Coursera’s Cloud Architecture with Google Cloud Professional Certificate. It is taught by google instructors and is a pretty good course as well however it can be dry at times. This course is made of 6 sub-courses and the best part is that you get access to Qwicklabs labs to do some practical hands-on.
Hands-On Practice
GCP provides USD 300 to learn about google cloud services by trying them on your own. This could be a great free resource for those who want to practice on their own. Here is a link that describes what you get when you subscribe for GCP free tier.
Qwicklabs is another great way to do some hands-on practice on the google cloud platform and I liked the concept of Quests. Quests are multiple labs combined to focus on a specific portion of the exam. The $60/month price tag for unlimited access to their lab environments is worth it and I would suggest you should complete the following Quests before you attempt the exam.
Kubernetes in the Google Cloud
Networking in the Google Cloud
Security & Identity Fundamentals
Google Cloud Solutions I: Scaling Your Infrastructure
Another thing to look for is Grace’s flowcharts on Medium itself, these cover several use cases and can help you understand when to use different compute options, storage types, network tiers etc. I would recommend going through these before you sit the exam.
With the last two weeks left for the exam, it was time to do some practice tests. I took one week trial of Linux Academy to do a skim through their course but more importantly for the practice test. I also bought practice tests from Udemy. My suggestion is to do the Udemy practice tests first and do the one from Linux Academy towards the end, analysing the score from each PT to understand and strengthen your weak area.
You can also take the free practice exam provided by google to familiarize yourself with the type of question that might appear on the exam.
Google Architect Free Practice Exam
The day before the exam
I am not a big fan of last-minute preparations as they tend to muddle the brain so my advice is to take it easy and relax the day before. I spent some time with the family, watched some TV and went to sleep early.
Day of the exam
I was in the exam centre 15 mins before the exam, there was a bit of a goof-up as they had accidentally sent someone else to my exam room for some reason. A 30 min delay then followed where the centre manager had to call people but finally, they were able to sort it out and I was ushered into my cubicle to give the exam. The way I approach exam questions is I tend to calculate the amount of time I need to spend on each question and then use the ‘Flag Question’ feature for questions that need some extra time and deal with them towards the end. I used the same technique and two hours later I got the message that I was waiting for on my computer screen
