My Journey to Become a Certified GCP PCA — Google Cloud Innovators Get Certified
Introduction
Last week, I attempted my Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification. I got this free certification from the Google Cloud Innovators Get Certified program https://cloud.google.com/innovators/getcertified.
While registering for the program, you should choose the path/journey that you would like to take. Since I already have the Associate Cloud Engineer from Bangkit, I upskill my cloud skills by taking the Professional Cloud Architect. The program duration is 10 Weeks and started in June 2024. There will be Instructor Led Training (ILT) using Google Meet and if you can’t attend the meeting, you can watch the recording later. Also, We should finish the required labs in the Google Cloud Skills Boost. This is important so that we can get the voucher later.
Booking the Exam
Since I finished the GCSB tasks near the deadline, I didn’t know the last day to take the exam was on the 4th of October 2024 while I got the voucher on the 23rd of September 2024. I only have less than 2 weeks to take the exam.
I decided to take the online proctored exam on 3rd October 2024 at 09:00 AM GMT+7.
Preparing the Exam
Before taking the exam, I should learn seriously (of course). From what I got from the Google Cloud site, there are some sections in the exam including:
- Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
- Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure
- Designing for security and compliance
- Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes
- Managing implementation
- Ensuring solution and operations reliability
The different part between ACE and PCA is the PCA exam has a case studies that we should follow. There are 4 case studies including:
- EHR Healthcare
- Helicopter Racing League
- Mountkirk Games
- TerramEarth
So, I tried to understand each case study before the exam and take the example questions of the PCA Exam from the official site here. Also, I finishing the Preparing for your Professional Cloud Architect Journey on the Google Cloud Skills Boost.
I tried to familiarize myself with GCP services like IAM, GKE, Cloud VPN, Dedicated Interconnect, and many more. Since I haven’t used all of them, I tried to read the documentation and play some quizzes that the questions generated by AI on my practice site. While practicing, I tried to understand the case, understand the current situation of that company, and finally decide the best solutions for them.
Exam
If you haven’t taken an online proctored exam previously, make sure you already filled out the biometric profile and downloaded the lockdown browser from the Webasessor.
Based on the schedule, the exam started at 09:00 AM, but at 8.50 I already started the verification process. The verification looks different from my exam last year. Now they have a website where we should take a picture of some angles and send it to them. After submitting it, we move to video verification. That part took some time because the proctor required me to scan some angles repeatedly. Also, there were some connection issues before the exam started and during the exam ☠️
If you’re from Indonesia, before the exam starts, try to do a speed test and choose the server from Oregon. We should have a ping of less than 200ms! Thanks, Mas Angga for telling me this information :D.
Sadly, I can’t remember all of the exam questions. I just attended, answered, and forgot it :p. As far as I can remember, my questions were about the Google best practices, Export billing to BigQuery, Cloud VPN, Cloud Interconnect, Dataprep, Scaling a PaaS, and Multi-region load balancer. It took 1 hour for me to finish the exam. Actually, we have 2 hours to finish the exam.
The annoying part of online proctored is I should make my eye only see the screen, if you want to think you should close your eyes :/. I can’t let my eyes see anything in the room outside the monitor.
Overall the exam was fine and I passed the exam. But I should be waiting for the verification results.
Around 20 hours after the exam time, finally I received the badge! And I am officially a Certified Professional Cloud Architecture!
Claiming Swag!
This is the part that I loved most! Claiming the swag! If you’re certified for P-Level in Google Cloud, you can claim the Certification Gift/Swag. Check the voucher code on your Certmetrics Dashboard and don’t forget to claim it!
You should choose one among all of the available swags. I chose the fleece jacket, it looks pretty good!
Closing
If you’re currently practicing for PCA, keep it up! all the best and good luck! as long as you know the GCP Services and their functionality, I think it would make it easier to answer the question. Feel free to contact me or reply to this post if you have any questions!
#CertifiedPCA #GoogleCloud #GetCertified #GoogleCloudInnovators
