Yes, you can pass the Google Cloud Associate Engineer exam

HI All,

I took the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Exam on August 22, 2020 (passed), and here are a few pointers. I had previously utilized Linux Academy to pass AWS Associate Cloud Arch Exam and found the Google Cloud not as comprehensive but it was still super useful. If you have other cloud experiences such as AWS, it made it easy to translate the knowledge over to G-Cloud. It does however need to be supplemented with experience (lab or real life) and reading. Google's documentation is very well written and super easy to understand/follow.

Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer exam is intended for the Google Cloud Engineers who are expertise to deploy applications, monitor operations, and manage enterprise solutions. Associate Cloud Engineers can use Google Cloud Console and the command-line interface to perform various tasks to maintain one or more deployed solutions on the Google Cloud Platform.

The Associate Cloud Engineer exam checks one’s expertise to:

• Set up a cloud solution environment
• Plan and configure a cloud solution
• Deploy and implement a cloud solution
• Ensure the successful operation of a cloud solution
• Configure access and security

Due to COVID-19, I took the exam remotely. It is a good way if you want to do the exam at your home.

The first thing is to go to https://webassessor.com/googlecloud, create an account, and login.

Click on Register for an exam button

So there, you can search for the exam and pay it. Maybe you're thinking: Oh, it is remotely, I have the chance to see my notes and search on google, STOP there, before starting the exam, an agent from Google will contact you through the webassessor page, he/she will ask you some questions, ask you by your Passport, request you to switch on the camera in order to see and check that the place where you're is free of distractions.

Other facts:

• Test duration: 120 Minutes.
• The cost was $125.
• The final result is Pass or Fail. You never see feedback, Google cloud evaluation seems a black box.
• When you made the exam remotely, Google Cloud could take between 7-10 days to confirm your final result. Why? I'm not sure, I suppose that they need yo review the video in order to make sure you don't copy or did something illegal during the exam.

What are the Important Topics for the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Exam Preparation?

No doubt, when we discuss the preparation of an exam, the main thing is what should I study, and what are the important topics. But before sharing the important topics for the preparation of Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer exam, I’d like to answer a few questions that may be hovering into your mind.

It is very important to prepare yourself with the important topics to clear the exam in the first attempt. So, as per my experience, here a list of the important topics, you should have a proper understanding of, in order to pass the Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer exam.

IAM

• How to list and describe the roles using CLI.
• How to filter the roles and members using the GCP console.
• Assign permissions -> roles -> users.

Question example:

An application administrator is responsible for managing all resources in a project. She wants to delegate responsibility for several service accounts to another administrator. If additional service accounts are created, the other administrator should manage those as well. What is the best way to delegate privileges needed to manage the service accounts?

A. Grant iam.serviceAccountUser to the administrator at the project level. -> CORRECT
B. Grant iam.serviceAccountUser to the administrator at the service account level.
C. Grant iam.serviceProjectAccountUser to the administrator at the project level.
D. Grant iam.serviceProjectAccountUser to the administrator at the service account level.

App Engine

• How to deploy applications on App Engine using CLI.
• Use cases on App Engine Version functionality.
• How to split the traffic between multiple versions in the App Engine.
• When you should use Standard or flexible functionality.

Question example:

You are deploying a Python web application to GCP. The application uses only custom code and basic Python libraries. You expect to have sporadic use of the application for the foreseeable future and want to minimize both the cost of running the application and the DevOps overhead of managing the application. Which computing service is the best option for running the application?

A. Compute Engine
B. App Engine standard environment -> CORRECT
C. App Engine flexible environment
D. Kubernetes Engine

VPC – Networking

• How to configure firewalls and use cases.
• Shared VPC.
• VPC peering vs VPN vs Interconnect.
• Firewalls
• VPN
• Types of load balancers and use cases.

Question example:

You have created several subnets. Most of them are sending logs to Stackdriver. One subnet is not sending logs. What option may have been misconfigured when creating the subnet that is not forwarding logs?

A. Flow Logs -> CORRECT
B. Private IP Access
C. Stackdriver Logging
D. Variable-Length Subnet Masking

Projects

• How to create projects.
• Linking projects with the billing accounts.
• How to list and describe the existing configurations.
• How to create and manage projects via CLI.

Question examples:

An app for a finance company needs access to a database and a Cloud Storage bucket. There is no predefined role that grants all the needed permissions without granting some permissions that are not needed. You decide to create a custom role. When defining custom roles, you should follow which of the following principles?

A. Rotation of duties
B. Least principle
C. Defense in depth
D. Least privilege -> correct

Billing Accounts

• Required roes to create and manage the billing accounts.
• Understanding the relation between Billing accounts & Projects & Organizations.
• Setting up billing exports to estimate daily/monthly charges.

Question example:

A large enterprise is planning to use GCP across a number of subdivisions. Each subdivision is managed independently and has its own budget. Most subdivisions plan to spend tens
of thousands of dollars per month. How would you recommend they set up their billing account(s)?

A. Use a single self-service billing account.
B. Use multiple self-service billing accounts.
C. Use a single invoiced billing account.
D. Use multiple invoiced billing accounts. -> CORRECT

Compute Engine

• The understanding of market place uses cases.
• Auto-scaling types When to use External IP address.
• Importance of metadata and labels.
• High availability.
• Understanding Managed and Unmanaged instance groups.

Question example:

The marketing department in your company wants to deploy a web application but does not want to have to manage servers or clusters. A good option for them is:

A. Compute Engine
B. Kubernetes Engine
C. App Engine -> Correct
D. Cloud Functions

Cloud Storage (Object-based)

• Storage classes.
• Multi-regional vs Regional vs Nearline vs Coldline.
• Changing or conversion of storage classes.
• Automatic deletion of objects and Objects transfer between the different storage classes using lifecycle policies.
• Planning and configuring data storage options (Cloud SQL, - BigQuery, Cloud Spanner, Cloud Bigtable).

Question example:

Your manager has asked for your help in reducing Cloud Storage charges. You know that some of the files stored in Cloud Storage are rarely accessed. What kind of storage would you recommend for those files?

A. Nearline
B. Regional
C. Coldline -> CORRECT
D. Multiregional

Kubernetes Engine

• The deployment process of docker file.
• How to create a docker file and understanding of container registry.
• Autoscaling in Kubernetes.
• Deploying a container application to Google Kubernetes Engine using pods.
• Configuring Google Kubernetes Engine application monitoring and logging.

Question example:

What gcloud command will create a cluster named ch07-cluster-1 with four nodes?
A. gcloud beta container clusters create ch07-cluster-1 --num-nodes=4
B. gcloud container beta clusters create ch07-cluster-1 --num-nodes=4
C. gcloud container clusters create ch07-cluster-1 --num-nodes=4 -> CORRECT
D. gcloud beta container clusters create ch07-cluster-1 4

Databases

• Relational databases: SQL vs Spanner.
• When to use BigQuery and Cloud Bigtable.
• Initializing data systems with products (e.g., Cloud SQL, - Cloud Datastore, BigQuery, Cloud Spanner, Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud - Bigtable, Cloud Dataproc, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud Storage)
• Bigdata Tools.
• Difference between Dataproc vs Dataflow.

Question practice:

Your company’s IT department is developing a new account management application that requires transactions and the ability to perform relational database operations using fully compliant SQL. Data store options in GCP include:

A. Spanner and Cloud SQL -> CORRECT
B. Datastore and Bigtable
C. Spanner and Cloud Storage
D. Datastore and Cloud SQL

Stackdriver

• Importance of Stackdriver in the Google cloud and how it works
• Creating and configuring the workspaces
• Creating Stackdriver alerts based on resource metrics
• How to add projects form different GCP accounts to single Stackdriver account via GCP console

Question example:

What is alert fatigue, and why is it a problem?

A. Too many alert notifications are sent for events that do not require human intervention, and eventually DevOps engineers begin to pay less attention to notifications. -> CORRECT
B. Too many alerts put unnecessary load on your systems.
C. Too few alerts leave DevOps engineers uncertain of the state of your applications and
infrastructure.
D. Too many false alerts

Resources I used for studying

Site	Title/link
Coursera	Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure
Linux Academy	Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer
Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide (Book)	By Dan Sullivan -> You can get it on amazon
Whizlabs	Whizlabs

Pay attention to Whizlabs site. They have test exams you can take in order to be familiar with the real format exam. Of course, the questions AREn't the same but you will have a good introduction. This site isn't free but it isn't expensive.

Qwiklabs – Hands-On Cloud Labs

Qwiklabs give you temporary credentials to Google Cloud Platform so you can learn the cloud using the real thing – no simulations. From 30-minute individual labs to multi-day courses, from introductory level to expert, instructor-led or self-paced, with topics like machine learning, security, infrastructure, app dev, and more, we’ve got you covered.

• Google Cloud Essentials – https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/23

• Cloud Engineering – https://www.qwiklabs.com/quests/66

Official Links

• Main Link — https://cloud.google.com/certification/cloud-engineer
• Topics Outline — https://cloud.google.com/certification/guides/cloud-engineer
• Practice Exam — https://cloud.google.com/certification/practice-exam/cloud-engineer

Conclusion

Pass a certification exam always is hard but no impossible, you need to be brave and study a lot. I would be so happy to help you if you have concerns or doubts, you can get me or follow me using the following ways:

https://twitter.com/gelopfalcon
Falcon coach youtube channel
https://www.facebook.com/dockertico
https://www.facebook.com/falconcoach87
https://www.meetup.com/gdg-costarica/

I will be teaching on my youtube channel about the tips and questions of the exam that you could use in order to pass the exam.

Take care, see you