On 27th July 2019 I attempted my first google certification exam i.e Associate Cloud Engineer(ACE) which is the associate level exam in google cloud certifications stack. Being an associate level exam it becomes a good stepping stone for professional level exams that I intend to give later on.
https://www.credential.net/kd8e7o3y
The followed the below mentioned approach for the exam.
Exam guide (https://cloud.google.com/certification/guides/cloud-engineer/) necessary to get to know the topics to cover.
“Architecting with Google Cloud Specialization” in coursera (https://www.coursera.org/specializations/gcp-architecture). This Specialization helped me a lot with providing me an approach towards the exam. Although I was able to complete the first two courses in this specialization before my exams.
The first course in the specialization is Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure (https://www.coursera.org/learn/gcp-fundamentals?specialization=gcp-architecture). This is an introductory course hence all Modules are in it. Google is offering this course for free under its partner kickstart program. My organization was eligible for the program and I had to use my official mail id to avail the free courses.
I found this fundamentals course as the best starting point for your preparation. Even If you like me are not able to complete all the courses in the specialization you still have basic understanding of topics covered in the exam.
You can also complete the next 3 courses in the specialization as they also provide you insights into specific modules of the exam guide.
Try to finish the GCP essential Quest from Qwiklabs (https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/23?utm_source=gcp&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=certification). These hands on labs provide you practical knowledge of working with GCP which will be helpful in exam. Most of these labs are already covered in Coursera as external labs.
Try to perform most of the commands given in the labs without copying. A lot of questions in exam will directly ask you about a command for specific task (gcloud, gsutil, kubectl, bq etc.)
Kubernetes is a major topic as you get 3-4 questions directly on kubernetes.
Most questions were scenario based some of which were not in any course. Hence try to make use of Qwiklabs to explore GCP and understand tips and tricks not covered in courses.
Most of the scenario based questions were from IAM.
App Engine appeared more than once in the exam. I was happy with that because this blog is also using app engine.
Addition Cloud Architecture quest (https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/24) will help you with a more deep dive into the services and their usage.
Try to download all resources from your coursera course which includes all slides (which the instructor is reading from) in PDF form. This will help you in exam preparation as instant notes.
In the storage section there is a nice table explaining the uses and difference between all storage services provided by google. Learn it by heart as there will be direct or scenario based questions on it.
Lastly check yourself using the practice exam (https://cloud.google.com/certification/practice-exam/cloud-engineer). Dont expect any question from this exam but this will give you idea on what to expect.
You have 2 hour to attempt 50 questions to attempt. I was able to complete the exam in 1 hour but had a lot of questions marked for review. I reviewed all questions in next half hour and exited the exam hall in 1.5 hrs.
Your provisional result will be on the screen once you submit. The Submit button is close to the next button. My heart kept pounding whenever the screen was refreshing after I clicked next assuming I had clicked on submit by accident.
I hope this information helps someone who is preparing for the exam for any further questions please drop a mail to me.
(hemantkohli1612@gmail.com)
