Recently I have prepared for GCP Associate Cloud Engineer exam and passed. Here are some of by observations –
• Exam questions are quite tricky not so much tough but basic knowledge of GCP should be there, some of the questions are really requires more attention as answers are really close to each other with some wording difference — take your time to read the question properly then respond.
• As Google FAQ said that some of the questions are not marked, they are just trial questions but actually you don’t know which one is trial so better to focus on the questions & make your attempt successful.
• There are also scenario-based questions which requires your knowledge to understand & respond.
• Topics mentioned in the exam details on Google site were covered. GCE, IAM, Google Groups, Copy Roles, GKE / App Engine, Cloud Storage (for Archiving – Coldline), Deployment Manager, KMS, Traffic Splitting VPC, gcloud commands, BigQuery & BigTable etc.
• I have an work experience on SAP BASIS & also working on cloud SAP projects, now this has been an added advantage for me to understand the cloud concepts however I had to learn a lot & also do hands on experience on Google Cloud.
• I have learned through Google official documentation for understanding the GCP concepts. It’s very comprehensive guide but obviously it’s requires hands on experience too because you don’t know when it goes deeper & wider.
• The self assessment tests given on Google official site is only for giving you a fair idea where you stand but doesn’t mean that you are ready to pass the exam. You have to go through each & every topic which mentioned in the official exam guide.
• Once you complete the test in the end you will get the provisional result indicating whether you passed or failed. Once you passed, within a day or so, you will get an official email from Google with Certification link.
• Like for any other exams, there is no break in this too. if you take break then it will minus from your exam time.
• Resources for learning –
o Google official documentation
o Udemy / Cloudera
o Braincert (for Practice exams)
Learning Resources
• https://cloud.google.com/certification/cloud-engineer
• GCE: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/faq
• App Engine: https://cloud.google.com/appengine/kb/
• Google IAM: https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/faq
• gcloud: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/
• gcloud command reference: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/
• Storage FAQs: https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/faq
• Cloud SQL FAQs: https://cloud.google.com/sql/faq
• gsutil command reference: https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/gsutil (refer to gsutils Commands section)
• bq CLI reference: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/bq-cli-reference
• Free Tier FAQs: https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/frequently-asked-questions
• Support: https://cloud.google.com/support/docs/
• Selecting storage options:https://cloud.google.com/images/storage-options/flowchart.svg
• GCP mapping to AWS & Azure:https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/map-aws-google-cloud-platform
https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/map-azure-google-cloud-platform
• Google Cost Calculator & Comparison: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator/
https://cloud.google.com/pricing/#calculators
• 3rd Party Online Cost Comparison Websites:
https://calculator.unigma.com/
https://www.cloudorado.com/
• Practice Test:https://cloud.google.com/certification/practice-exam/cloud-engineer
Wish you the very best with your GCP certification. You can reach out to me for SAP BASIS or GCP short time consulting.