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Cloud Computing, Google Cloud (GCP)
3 Mins Read
September 6, 2018I cleared my first Google Cloud Certification Exam in June 2017, which was for their Professional Architect Track. Since then many new features have been announced and another Certification, Associate Cloud Engineer has been introduced. Recently, I cleared the exam for Associate Cloud Engineer Certification and I am sharing my experiences for the same in this blog article.
One major difference between the Associate Cloud Engineer and Professional Cloud Architect is that Architect Certification Exam expects you to know the best practices and theory around high availability, application deployment, managing security, resiliency, etc. whereas, the Cloud Engineer Certification Exam expects you to have hands-on experience working on certain GCP services. So, a lot of practical implementation level details are required for most of the core infrastructure services. You are also expected to have a very thorough experience in using the command line utilities like gcloud, gsutil and kubectl. Although this exam does not discuss a lot about data services e.g. PubSub, BigQuery or DataFlow, etc. it is still recommended to at least be aware of what each of these services is used for.
Like I mentioned above, the Associate Cloud Engineer Exam requires a good amount of hands-on practice to be familiar with many implementation level details. Here are some tips to prepare for the exam.
Work a lot with gcloud command line utility. You should be able to use it with multiple services like Compute, IAM, App Engine, etc. to an extent that you remember basic command patterns. The exam might ask you to choose from a set of answers that’ll require you to know the right syntax for gcloud CLI.
Also, use the gcloud to handle multiple projects by managing different gcloud configurations.
Be ready for a lot of IAM related questions. You should have an in-depth knowledge of how to use IAM Users, Roles and Service Accounts. It’ll also help, if you can practically grant access to certain users/resources using service accounts within the same project and across projects. You should also be able to check the audit trail either by logs or activity history.
GCE VMs are definitely one of the core infrastructure components that you should read about. You should be aware of scaling activities, authentication types, using keys and metadata.
Kubernetes also has its definite place in the exam. Be ready to handle some Kubernetes questions. Even if you have Kubernetes experience outside the context of GCP, it’ll be quite helpful.
The third type of Compute service that the exam asks about is Google App Engine. Ensure that you know how to handle multiple services and versions of the application in GAE.
Although the exam was not very heavy on networking concepts, but a basic understanding of how VPCs, Firewalls and some other networking components work helps a lot. Also, read about using multiple VPCs together in GCP or with your on-premise network.
In the end, I would say that the exam was a good test of my GCP knowledge.
If you are planning to prepare for this exam or other GCP Certifications, please check out our Google Cloud Platform (GCP) courses on https://cloudthat.in
Feel free to post your comments in the comment section below.
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sampada Deshmukh
Feb 25, 2021
Hello everyone, Cloud computing is a really amazing choice of career, here I would love to share my recent writeup on advantages of cloud computing
nikhitha
Sep 10, 2019
hi i am nikhitha i am fresher i was thinking of doing a gcp certification for associate cloud engineer from where can i prepare and how to prepare
Heo
Aug 7, 2019
What’s the difference between google cloud engineer and google cloud architects
prateek petshali
Jul 31, 2019
hii,wanna ask that is loadbalancing important or kubernetes for associate
amit
May 1, 2019
hello! thank you for sharing your experience!
I am pursuing computer science engineering ,currently in my 3rd year. do you think coursera specialization course in google cloud enough to pass GOOGLE CLOUD CERTIFIED Associate Cloud Engineer?
Filip
Jan 16, 2019
Hi, I’m a computer science student and I’m looking to extend my knowledge and skills towards the cloud solutions. What would be the path to do it? I do not have any working experience so far in the It. What should I start it would trying to do preparation courses and attempting the Professional Cloud Architect
or Associate Cloud Engineer be a good choice?
Sangram Rath
Mar 22, 2019
Hello Filip,
Congratulations on deciding to #moveup to learning Cloud Technologies. I would recommend starting with a Cloud Fundamentals course (click here to access the course from CloudThat for free) and then taking up the GCP specific courses we have targeted towards the Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer track. Our GCP courses are also available through online delivery mode.
Click here to know more about GCP L2 course and register your interest.
Click here to know more about the GCP L3 course.
Mark
Dec 23, 2018
Dear,
Thanks for the useful information, the problem is that i have no idea where to start from with cloud computing, i never used cloud services, but and i even do not know the basics, what’s your advice to start from 0 until getting certified ?
Sangram Rath
Mar 22, 2019
Hello Mark,
Congratulations on deciding to #moveup to learning Cloud Technologies. I would recommend starting with a Cloud Fundamentals course (click here to access the course from CloudThat for free) and then taking up the GCP specific courses we have targeted towards the Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer track. Our GCP courses are also available through online delivery mode.
Click here to know more about GCP L2 course and register your interest.
Click here to know more about the GCP L3 course.
Ajay Kumar
Dec 12, 2018
Hi Himanshu,
Thanks for providing this useful information.
I have already done AWS associate Architect certification and now I want to do certification for Google cloud as well , Please suggest, I should start with the GCP Architect or Associate Engineer, Kindly suggest how should I prepare for the same and which practice tests should I refer.
Regards
Ajay
vijay
Dec 11, 2018
Hi – Can you please share me the content for GCP associate exam guide.
Anil
Dec 7, 2018
GCP cert queries
Sangram Rath
Dec 11, 2018
Hi Anil, please post your queries or get in touch with our sales team @ 88800 02200.
Dami
Dec 4, 2018
Hi, thanks for the detailed information.
I do not have any experience with GCP with looking to have a career change to Google Cloud. I was looking to take the Associate Cloud Engineer training and then get certified. Do you think this is a good start based on my lack of experience in the cloud environment? If not, which of the certifications would you recommend. Thanks.
Sangram Rath
Dec 11, 2018
Hello Dami, you can certainly make the transition to cloud. We would recommend a Cloud Fundamentals course to begin with, we have a free course from CloudThat linked below. The Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer certification will definitely prove your knowledge on the Google Cloud Platform as it requires both conceptual & hands-on experience. Take a look at our GCP courses that prepare you for the certification, also linked below.
Fundamentals of Cloud Computing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX4lx9RRc10&list=PLDns5jVqEmIoNrmSY0aRHwK5LqGM9u3LL
GCP L2: https://cloudthat.in/course/cloud-computing-with-google-cloud-platform-level-2/
GCP L3: https://cloudthat.in/course/google-cloud-platform-gcp-architect-certification-bootcamp-level-3/
Dami
Dec 13, 2018
Thank you! Do you think I will be able to take the training and exam in the space of 2 weeks? I will be off work for this period so hoping I can get this done then.
Sangram Rath
Mar 22, 2019
I think it’s doable provided you dedicate the necessary amount of time for preparation.
Tar
Dec 1, 2018
Himanshu- Besides the hands on what case studies and docs/articles do you think helped most with prep for the associate exam? Some chapters at Google documentation have over 515 articles included
Sangram Rath
Dec 11, 2018
FAQs and command line ‘how to’ documents on the scoped services definitely helps.
Nihaz
Nov 21, 2018
Iam Planning to go for GCP Associate Cloud Certification… Have so many queries as i have learned self… Could someone help me as number is 855xxxxxxx
Himanshu Sachdeva
Nov 26, 2018
Hello Nihaz,
Thanks for contacting. Someone from our team will give you a call to understand your requirement.
For security reasons, I have masked your phone number in the comment above.
Sandeep Naik
Oct 18, 2018
How much time is berde to prepare for associate exam ?
Himanshu Sachdeva
Oct 22, 2018
Well that will depend if you completely new to the cloud or have experience with some other cloud e.g. AWS
I would say 4-6 weeks should be good enough if you are starting from scratch.
Chris
Nov 4, 2018
I plan of obtaining my GCP certs as well. In your opinion, is the associate cloud engineer more difficult than the GCP Solution Architect Cert?
Himanshu Sachdeva
Nov 12, 2018
Both the exams have their own objective. If you are already Architecting on any other cloud platform and are not doing a lot of hands-on, it might be easier to apply those best practices to GCP cloud and write the Architecture exam. Engineer exam expects you to have implementation level hands-on knowledge and just high-level concepts or best practices might not be good enough.
Vikas Goyal
Dec 27, 2018
Please help me from where I can read and learn to clear Associate cloud engineer certification of GCP.
rahul joshi
Dec 28, 2018
could you please share the tm frm?
Navin Jain
Sep 8, 2018
Thanks for Sharing the Info !
Himanshu Sachdeva
Sep 18, 2018
You are welcome Navin 🙂