Introduction
This is Part 1 of a blog series about Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification. Part 1 focuses on my experience — how I prepared and what the exam was like the first time. Part 2 covers my renewal experience with AI centred exam. Part 3 shares the resources I used and my notes on GCP products. Part 4 includes my notes on case studies.
I passed the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect exam two years ago. Here’s what really helped me succeed the first time.
Experience Isn’t Enough
I already had many years of experience with Google Cloud, but in my daily work I only use about 5% of its services. The exam covers a much wider ecosystem, including setups and architectural decisions.
These are not things most engineers configure daily. When we do, we usually read the documentation, configure, move on — and forget the details. At least that was the case for me. Maybe if you’re a full-time cloud devops, it’s different.
The following example comes from the official sample questions for the Professional Cloud Architect exam (13 of 21) provided by google.
Example Question
You are designing a future-proof hybrid environment that will require network connectivity between Google Cloud and your on-premises environment. You want to ensure that the Google Cloud environment you are designing is compatible with your on-premises networking environment. What should you do?
A. Use the default VPC in your Google Cloud project. Use a Cloud VPN connection between your on-premises environment and Google Cloud.
B. Create a custom VPC in Google Cloud in auto mode. Use a Cloud VPN connection between your on-premises environment and Google Cloud.
C. Create a network plan for your VPC in Google Cloud that uses CIDR ranges that overlap with your on-premises environment. Use a Cloud Interconnect connection between your on-premises environment and Google Cloud.
D. Create a network plan for your VPC in Google Cloud that uses non-overlapping CIDR ranges with your on-premises environment. Use a Cloud Interconnect connection between your on-premises environment and Google Cloud.
Maybe you’ve connected things in Google Cloud before, but it’s hard to keep track of all the different services, how they interconnect, configurations details etc...
So experience alone is not enough.
How I start to study
First, I took a practice exam — and failed.
It was frustrating, but it showed me what the exam is really about: knowing the broad range of services and their main use cases.
My company gave me access to a Google Cloud course with a Google-affiliated company — three months online and a free exam voucher if you completed all graded labs. The course followed the Cloud Architect Path.
I attended the online sessions at the beginning, but they weren’t really suited for me. The videos were too generic and full of marketing-style language: “secure, reliable, optimized, cloud-based, managed…”
On the other hand, the labs were better. About 1 in 5 was useful — maybe not directly for the exam, but they taught me something. Especially the longer ones (1.5 to 2 hours). They give you a mental image — you attach your knowledge to something concrete in the console.
For a couple of weeks, I followed the learning path half-seriously — doing some labs mainly to get the voucher.
How I really studied (last week)
About one week before the exam, I started my real preparation.
First, I used practice exam questions to identify my weak points. Then I went back to the documentation and wrote short, focused notes on the areas where I struggled.
To find good practice questions, I started (again) with the official Google practice exam . After that, I went through Preparing for your Professional Cloud Architect Journey under Cloud Architect Learning Path on Google Cloud Skills Boost. You have 5 lessons called Study plan resources, each with 10 questions covering different topics and including detailed explanations, resources. That’s already around 70 practice questions in total. If it's not enough, you can search for more...
Don’t get discouraged — some of the questions are very specific. In my experience, the real exam questions are sometimes actually easier than certain practice ones.
Secondly, I didn’t understand how important the case studies were. But they matter. They expose blind spots as well and teach you how to reason through questions. For example: How to connect on-premise systems with GCP, Which product to use for ETL, what can replace Mongo, When to choose managed vs. self-managed solutions
Read the case studies carefully. Summarize them. Ask yourself: What kind of questions could come from this scenario?
To avoid making this post too long, in Part 3 I’ll share my notes and in Part 4 summaries of the case studies. They’re not complete, but they might give you a useful direction.