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In this era of artificial intelligence, where some companies have slowed down hiring, having a cloud certification will elevate the credibility of your cloud skills along with your software development skills.
In January 2021, I took the GCP Associate Cloud Exam for the first time and passed successfully. That preparation and notes really helped me in my work at my workplace.
Since then, I have worked extensively in several Google Cloud services, such as Dataflow, Cloud Functions, Cloud Pub/Sub, Scheduler, Cloud Storage, Memorystore (Google Cloud’s managed instance for Redis database), and many others.
My certification was going to expire, and hence, I prepared it for two weeks, reviewed all my notes, and passed the exam — the second time.
About the Exam
This is a multiple-choice exam with 50 questions in total to be answered in 2 hours. The questions have become longer than the last time I appeared.
The prerequisite is to have familiarity with all the Google Cloud services that would only come if you use the services for a while. Google expects you to know 40+ services for the exam. There’s no negative marking and after completing the exam, you can easily review your answers before submitting.
Resources I used For The Exam
The first resource, that I would ask everyone to go through to review the topics that is there for the Google Cloud’s Associate Cloud Exam as the syllabus has been getting updated more often.
Associate Cloud Engineer Certification exam guide
For reviewing all the topics that would come in the exam, Parvez Mulla, now a Google Cloud Architect, had a created a video (some years back) that would summarize all the topics in the best possible way. I referred to this video the first time and this video is still incredibly useful.
I already had the Udemy course by Dan Sullivan, who is the author of the Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide. This course would break down several topics and would list down all the necessary points that you should know about the service. Additionally, Dan also provides some hands-on that would help you remember some services.
But, if you don’t want to buy an Udemy course, there’s also a YouTube course by Antoni Tzavelas on freeCodeCamp’s YouTube channel for free. It is also incredibly concise.
And finally, the YouTube playlist created by Sathish VJ on how to tackle the GCP ACE’s exam questions. Every video in this playlist asks a question and also provides a solution with complete explanation.
I also published a blog having concise notes and tips here, and I have used the same for prepping at the last minute.
A Developer’s Guide For Passing Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Exam
Final Thoughts
Before writing the exam, I practised a lot to get familiar with the types of questions that would be asked.
If I had to compare the questions this time around against the last time, the questions would have become longer and more scenario- and situation-based.
Yes, the exam can be passed if you know about all the services. However, I still think one should never appear for the cloud exam without taking the practice tests.
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