How I passed Google Cloud Certified — Associate Cloud Engineer Exam
By: Adam Tworkiewicz
Tags: Certification, Google, Associate Cloud Engineer, Gcp, Exam Preparation

GCP — Associate Cloud Engineer Badge

This story captures my path to passing the GCP Associate Cloud Engineer exam. I’ve tried to optimize for reduced read time. The story may feel as dry as Beef Jerky but you will be able to chew it and swallow quickly.

My Starting Point

Experience: 20 years of commercial IT experience — dev, ops, architecture, people management, product management;10 years with AWS as dev and ops; 2h of GCP experience

Certifications: AWS Certified Developer Associate (2 years ago), AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (2 years ago), Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (last month), Certified Kubernetes Admin (last month)

Learning Process

Duration: 30 days

Time invested: 40 hours

Resources used:

Linux Academy * (30 hours)— to learn, practice GCP, practice tests.

Whizlabs (5h)— to practice tests.

GCP (5h) — to practice GCP. Linux Academy sandboxes are great, but they expire quickly. I wanted something on my own that would survive days, weeks.

Sequence:

Completed the following Linux Academy courses. I skipped units that overlapped between the courses. I played most videos at x1.75 — x2 speed.

- Google Cloud Network Concepts (81% complete)

- Google Cloud Network Management (54%)

- Google App Engine Deep Dive (67%)

- Google Cloud Essentials (32%)

- Google Cloud Security Essentials (62%)

- Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer (100%)

- Learn Google Cloud by Doing (100%)

- Google Cloud Network Concepts (81% complete) - Google Cloud Network Management (54%) - Google App Engine Deep Dive (67%) - Google Cloud Essentials (32%) - Google Cloud Security Essentials (62%) - Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer (100%) - Learn Google Cloud by Doing (100%) Went through Whizlabs tests twice to get over a 90% success rate.

Exam Experience

Before The Exam

I had to show 2 identification cards. I went with my driver's license and a credit card. Before I was let to the exam room I had to leave all my belongings in a locker. The supervisor asked me to demonstrate that my packets were empty. I had a hoodie and had to show that I was not hiding anything there.

The supervisor prepared the PC and started the exam. I had to click through a couple of screens with terms and conditions.

During

50 questions, 2 hours. I went through all the questions responding to all of them. I marked those that I was not sure of for review. I ended up marking ~30% of the questions. I then did a second pass and modified some responses.

After

Check webassessor.com . It will have a provisional result. You will need to wait (usually 2 days but they say max 10 days) for an official confirmation from Google. During that time, Google reviews data from the exam process. From what I’ve heard, as long as you didn’t violate the terms of the exam, Google will confirm the result posted on webassessor.com.

Opinion About the Exam

I think the exam was difficult. You need to be familiar with low-level things like command line parameters of gcloud and gsutil. At the same time, you need to understand the high-level concepts of many GCP products.

I’ve recently passed both Kubernetes exams. They are “open book” exams. You are allowed to use the documentation published at kubernetes.io. The exams were difficult. There was not enough time to browse through documentation. You had to know your stuff and only look for specific things. At the same time, the exams were fun. You didn’t have to memorize stuff that you can easily find online. Also, solving real problems in the command line gave me a sense of accomplishment. The GCP ACE exam was nothing like that. I felt I had to memorize things that I’ll copy/paste in my daily work. Also, since the exam was not hands-on, it’s hard for me to tell if I’m ready to solve real problems on GCP.

*This story contains affiliate links. I benefit when you sign up using these links. I don’t advertise products that I have not used or don’t enjoy using.