Professional Certification – Going Further-1
This book has aimed to lay a solid foundation for you to build upon. If you’ve come this far, you have covered a lot of ground, but there’s still much more to learn.
Fortunately, there’s a vast community of people who are eager for you to succeed and willing to lend a hand. Regardless of how good the platform is, the applications that run on it are only as good as the people who build them. The most daunting task any platform faces is not just attracting skilled individuals but also nurturing their success. This is true for Google Cloud as well; a scarcity of necessary skills can make organizations apprehensive about adopting the platform.
In 2021, for instance, Google pledged to equip 40 million people with Google Cloud skills. That is a huge number, equivalent to the entire population of California. From my perspective, Google is addressing this by promoting four key areas for Google Cloud learning:
- Professional certification
- Online learning resources
- Community groups
- Conferences and events
Professional Certification
Google, in line with other cloud providers, offers certifications on many facets of Google Cloud. These certifications are structured into general certifications and specialist certifications, which align with the common job roles in the industry.
Each certification requires passing an exam that is normally two hours long. The exam typically consists of 50–60 multiple-choice or multiple-select questions. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that the exams are easy. The questions are designed to test your knowledge and understanding of the platform, often requiring you to make a judgment on the best answer from several possible options. The questions are not designed to trick you but to make you think. They are not designed to test your ability to remember facts but to test your ability to apply your knowledge to solve problems.
A third-party provider administers these exams. Professional-level exams are priced at $200 plus tax (as of the time of writing); the Associate Cloud Engineer costs $125 and the Cloud Digital Leader is around $90. All these exams can be undertaken either at a testing center or from the comfort of your home, with a remote proctor overseeing the process via your webcam. Further information about the exams and registration can be found on the certification site.
The Cloud Digital Leader certification serves as the entry point. It is a foundational-level exam intended for individuals with no prior Google Cloud experience. It is a good place to start if you are new to Google Cloud; this certification is often pursued by less technical people wishing to grasp the basic understanding of Google Cloud. Nonetheless, it requires a surprisingly broad understanding of the diverse products and services Google Cloud provides.
The Associate Cloud Engineer certification is the next tier, aimed at individuals with 6+ months of Google Cloud experience. It is a good starting point for developers or administrators and covers the basics of Google Cloud, requiring a comprehensive understanding of the various products and services offered by Google Cloud. This exam also includes the most hands-on skills, such as gcloud commands, while remaining multiple choice. Even though it is promoted as an associate rather than a professional-level qualification, there is a substantial amount of material to cover, and the knowledge gap is not as large as it might initially seem.
In this book, you have covered content applicable to the Associate Cloud Engineer exam, Professional Cloud Architect, and Professional Cloud Developer. You also touched on aspects of the Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer in Chapters 12 and 13. The Professional Cloud Architect certification covers the broadest scope of the Google Cloud Platform and is often deemed the most challenging of the exams. All professional-level exams recommend over a year of Google Cloud experience.