Google Certified Professional – Cloud Architect

A few weeks ago I decided to start learning about google cloud seeing as I feel I have a good amount of knowledge in the VMware domain and also good base knowledge in the AWS domain after doing my AWS: SAA and having been learning Azure Stack (yes I know it’s not exactly the same as Azure) recently for work. Alike to what I have done for other exams I have decided to start a study resources page for the Google Certified Professional – Cloud Architect exam in my preparations to take the exam and hopefully it will aid others aiming for the exam. If you are interested in my other study resources page then either click the links below or at the top of my blog

Study Resources

The place I always start for exams is going through the blueprint/exam guide as whatever is on the exam is covered in here and I like to break down my study and learning plans based on the objectives in the blueprint
Next you need to book the exam, I personally like to set a date and work really hard to not change that unless something drastic means I have to move it. This way it forces me to learn it and also stops me putting off learning. The exams are done via Kryterion alike to the AWS exams so your test centre is likely to be the same place if you’ve done an AWS exam in your past like I have.
The next resources are the sample case studies. I really like these resources and I really enjoyed learning via resources like them for my AWS: SAA so I have a feeling these are going to be extremely important in my preparations and normally in exams like these if you fully understand the sample case studies and how their issues are fixed via different methods you’ll be nicely set for the exam.
Google have also listed their own list of resources which match mine to a certain degree here
I always believe in going through the documents for each service when you are learning them and especially if you need to fill some gaps in your knowledge. This method was really great for my AWS studying and I believe it will be again for the GCP
Earl Gay from RoundTower has done an insane job breaking down loads of study resources!! I am planning to do as much as Earl has done to ensure I really understand the offering for my Dell EMC customers.
One of the courses recommended for you to do is the Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals for AWS Professionals course on Coursera. I did the course last week over a day and a bit and I would highly recommend it as a good base knowledge tool. The course is free which is always a bonus.
The next course I went through already and really enjoyed is the Architecting with Google Cloud Platform: Infrastructure course. This one took it to the next level and started to open my eyes to the possibilities of GCP. *Warning* Coursera will start charging a week after the trial period and the Qwiklabs labs are a duplicate of https://codelabs.developers.google.com/ so skip the labs and just do the course within the free week time period and then the labs in your own time. Also sign up for your free week at the beginning of a week as most of these run from a Monday and you don’t want to do what i did and lose three days.
A few of the coursera courses point you to QwikLabs labs. I used one or two of these for my AWS studies and I might use them for my GCP however having free access to google cloud to play around seems to be a better learning method for me personally than these are but each to their own
- https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/23?locale=en
- https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/24?locale=en
I am a very big fan of the pluralsight videos and have used them for years for a lot of my VMware studies and even used them for learning everything for Agile, to AWS to some python which I’ll be covering later. I watched the Pluralsight fundamentals videos and I would highly recommend them.
Udemy have two practice exams for the test
Lastly for the resources directly linked to the exam I have seen in a number of places people recommending to learn this decision tree to understand where different Google Cloud storage technologies fit. I have been using it whilst going through the first case study and even during some of the videos and it is certainly helping me rewire my mind away from just thinking about Cloud 2.0 infrastructure.

I have just come across a number of other decision trees and they have been linked to by someone I used to work with during my Conchango days Grace Mollison. Some brilliant decision trees here and I will be using quite a few of these during my preparations.
Grace has also written about her preparations for the exam and the resources she recommends
Mat has also listed the resources he used here

Python

During my preparations for the GCP: CA exam I have decided I need to finish off learning python seeing as it is a language you can use for GCP and a number of other technologies I am working with. Below are some of the resources I have found and have started using in this aim