Six tips to pass your Google Cloud Architect exam

Whether you want to get the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification to upskill or as a requirement for work, this certification will help you design, develop, and manage robust, secure, scalable, highly available, and dynamic solutions to drive business objectives. 

If you didn’t already know, the Google Cloud Architect certification is a popular first choice Google Cloud platform certification. 

With Google Cloud certifications, you’ll advance your professional skills and increase your chances of career success and progression.

Plus, once you become certified, you can expect a range of benefits, such as digital badges to display, access to a digital directory, merchandise, and networking opportunities in the broader community, including events hosted by Google Cloud.

Finding the right time, or any time, in between a full-time job is extremely difficult. Of course, you’ll need to commit time to study - I recommend booking the date for the exam in advance to apply some pressure on yourself. There’s nothing more motivating than that immovable date on the calendar!

Cloud Architect exam details

Length: 2 hours

Registration fee: $200 (plus tax where applicable)

Language: English, Japanese

Exam format: Multiple choice and multiple select, taken remotely or in person at a test center. 

Exam Delivery Method: Take the online-proctored exam from a remote location, and review the online testing requirements. Take the onsite-proctored exam at a testing center, and locate a test center near you.

Prerequisites: None

Recommended experience: 3+ years of industry experience, including 1+ years designing and managing solutions using Google Cloud.

More information can be found here. 

Tip 1: Review the exam guide before you start

I understand how exam stress can impact your effectiveness while studying. The Professional Cloud Architect Certification exam guide is a one-stop resource, giving you all you need to ‘Ace’ your exam. This guide helps you to revise and understand the subject content and, in this way, alleviates much of the exam anxiety.

The Certification exam guide:

• easy to use
• easy to understand
• A great breakdown/checklist of all the skills you need to be able to take the exam
  
  
  

Tip 2: Get started with a course

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Architect Professional Certificate

This course will give you will gain the skills you need to advance your career in cloud architecture and gain the industry-recognized Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification. As part of the program, you'll deploy various solution elements, including infrastructure components such as networks, systems, and applications services, and gain real-world experience through hands-on Qwiklabs projects.

Additionally, you will have an opportunity to practice case analysis, identify technical watchpoints, and develop proposed solutions. The Activity Tracking Challenge Labs will test your basic abilities. The practice tests will include sample questions similar to those on the exam, solutions, and practice exam quizzes simulating the exam-taking experience.

After completing this program successfully, you will earn a certificate of completion that you can share with your professional network. 

There are 7 Courses in this Professional Certificate

• Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure
• Essential Google Cloud Infrastructure: Foundation
• Essential Google Cloud Infrastructure: Core Services
• Elastic Google Cloud Infrastructure: Scaling and Automation
• Reliable Google Cloud Infrastructure: Design and Process
• Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine: Foundations
• Preparing for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect Exam

*The training program helps you gain the skills you need to take the certification exam, but the certification fee and certification are not included in the program's cost. The Course questions are a lot easier than the exam questions.

Tip 3: Practice, practice, practice

It is well known that people who do a mock version of an exam benefit from it immensely. Some experts even say that it can be a more beneficial way to prepare for an exam than spending the same amount of time studying.

Firstly, mock exams reduce anxiety: When you complete practice exams, you develop your confidence and familiarity with the tasks and therefore helping to reduce your stress. 

Secondly, it highlights the gaps in your knowledge: Doing practice exams will help you determine what topics you know and what areas you need to concentrate on. 

Some practice exams that I recommend:

The Google Cloud Architect sample questions:

The Cloud Architect sample questions will familiarize you with the format of exam questions and example content covered on the exam.

The sample questions do not represent the range of topics or difficulty level of questions presented on the exam. Performance on the sample questions should not be used to predict your Cloud Architect exam result. You can find the exam here. 

Cloud Guru academy online course:

For this course and test (roughly 100 questions), one only has to pay after a 7-day trial. Learning from these questions helps you understand your weaknesses and provides you with the correct answers and the GCP documentation links where one could learn more. The exam preparation questions are a helpful indication of where to spend more time, given that the official GCP documentation feels endless.

Tip 4: Know your stuff

With this Google Professional Cloud Architect Practice Exam, you will get a feel for the types of questions you may encounter on the certification exam and whether you are ready or if further preparation and experience are necessary.

You can also use the Google Cloud Developer’s cheat sheet, where every product, feature, and service in the Google Cloud family is described in 4 words or less by the Google Developer Relations Team. This is a handy way to learn the primary services of GCP rapidly.

You have the Gcloud command line cheat sheet, which will help you as you’ll come across some questions about the gcloudcommand line during your exam. 

Every product in the Google Cloud family is described in the visual sketchnote format to grasp the capability of the tools quickly and easily. This is maintained by Priyanka Vergadia, lead developer advocate at Google, and is excellent if you’re a visual learner. 

Source: https://thecloudgirl.dev/run.html

Another must-watch is the “Cloud Bytes” YouTube playlist which introduces the primary 41 Google Cloud services in 2 minutes with great animations.

Startcloudnow.com has multiple preparation sheets for GCP certifications, summarizing all the services you must know for the exam with links to official doc, google cloud youtube videos, and Qwiklabs. Make sure you use these sheets after you’ve finished your Professional certificate courses.

Tip 5: Fill the gaps

A week before your exam, make sure you set out about 3-4 hours a day to review the information you are still struggling with.

Spend a few minutes reviewing new information as soon as you've learned it. Look through the material again and add to any notes you've already made. It can also help to explain any key points out loud.

This first review is a good way of checking that you've got everything you need and understand it. It will also avoid having to "relearn" it thoroughly when reviewing it later.

Simply rereading your notes is unlikely to help you remember them in the long term. Instead, try to apply what you've learned.

In some instances, this will happen naturally. For example, if you're trying to master a new software application, you'll likely need to go through it a few times before it's fixed in your mind.

Tip 6: Don’t worry, be happy!

Think Positively

It is easy to think negatively when you feel like the exam isn’t going well, but this will only cause you to become more stressed out and possibly wholly overwhelmed. Try to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. For example, instead of thinking, “I will never make it through all these questions,” think to yourself, “If I take each question, I will be able to get through them.”

Remind yourself to relax

When you’re feeling flustered, take a few moments to close your eyes, stretch and take a couple of deep breaths. Get yourself back into a calm state of mind.

What’s the worst that can happen?

This exam will probably not be the defining moment of your life. If you haven’t prepared properly and you happen to fail, there will usually be a chance to rewrite the test. Reminding yourself of this while writing will help you stay calm, and you may be surprised to find yourself passing after all!

And lastly, good luck! You’ve got this!

ABOUT CRYSTALLOIDS

Crystalloids helps companies improve their customer experiences and build marketing technology. Founded in 2006 in the Netherlands, Crystalloids builds crystal-clear solutions that turn customer data into information and knowledge into wisdom. As a leading Google Cloud Partner, Crystalloids combines experience in software development, data science, and marketing, making them one of a kind IT company. Using the Agile approach Crystalloids ensures that use cases show immediate value to their clients and frees their time to focus on decision making and less on programming