Cloud certification is one of the most sought things these days, if you are in technology world. It is even more important to have a Cloud Certification like Associate Cloud Engineer from Google. I was able to pass my Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Exam yesterday, below is the methodology I followed to prepare, tips after taking the exam, so that you can pass the exam as well.
How to Prepare for Google Associate Cloud Engineer to Pass the exam ?
I followed the below approach to pass the exam
- I took the LinuxAcademy’s Subscription for a month.
- Completed GCP Essentials course on Linux Academy
- Then completed GCP Associate Cloud Course Engineer Course.
- Make sure you do the labs as well to get an idea in both of these courses
- Once you are done, then you take the test on Linux Academy for Associate Cloud Engineer.
- You need to take the exam like 6 to 7 times. There will be new questions every time you take the exam
- Make sure you are getting about 90% or more after second attempt.
- If you are not getting 90%, then you need to study more and understand the concepts
- Revise the Material, which is about 25 pages given for the Associate Cloud Engineer Course. Do it everyday
- Buy the tests for Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer on BrainCert.com
- Take the exams there as well.
- The good part is that they give you details on the answers and explanation, spend time to understand that.
- Take all the tests and then read all the concepts.
- If you have time and money, you can buy WhizLabs tests. But, they are very hard and they go to a lot more depth and nittry gritty, which may not be needed. But, if you have time and want to prep, you can read that as well.
- Sign-up for Coursera’s Cloud Architecture with GCP Professional , no need to pay for the course, just do Audit, it will be free
- Download the slides and revise them, you don’t need to watch the videos as well, you can read through the slides notes.
- The slides are really in depth, as these are 4 courses. No need to do the Last Site Reliability Engineering one as it is not meant for the Associate cloud engineer.
- Use the slides to revise last few days.
- Learn the GCP COmmands, create a cheatsheet and learn GSUTIL and GCLOUD commands. They are important. You may get them in exam.
Once you are done with tests, material, last 2 days just revise the slides, the questions, and then make sure you understand the concepts well.
How was the actual Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam ?
The exam was tricky and considerably tough. You need to know the concepts. There were some straightforward questions from the above prep material, but expect that questions will change and Google will give you new questions. Only 20% were straightforward, rest of them were tricky, so you need to understand concepts. I had to use all my 2 hours for the exam.
Overall, if you work hard and put in 3 hours or so per day, you can do it in about 4 weeks time. You need to have some background of cloud and some general concepts, it will make it easier.
The test is not difficult per se, but they test your understanding of the concepts and the product info on what to use and what to do as engineer…It is not super difficult, can be done…Good Luck !