A Complete Google Cloud Certification Guide (2023)

Cloud computing is the strategy of delivering computing services, including storage, servers, networking, intelligence, analytics, software, and databases over the Internet or “cloud”. This streamlines the innovation process, optimizes costs when scaling, and makes resources flexible. According to Gartner, cloud computing remains a strong technology trend for 2023 and beyond.

For Information Technology (IT) professionals, it is very interesting to obtain cloud computing certifications to take advantage of the growing investment scenario in this area and meet the growing demand of companies for projects using Cloud technologies.

Given this scenario, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is one of the main players in the cloud computing market and its certifications are increasingly becoming an object of desire and a goal of study and preparation for IT professionals.

What are the different GCP certification levels?

Google Cloud Platform has segmented its catalog of certifications into the following levels:

• Fundamentals.

This is the entry level for cloud certifications. It is a test that expects the candidate to understand the main services on the platform in a basic way and be able to solve business problems based on this knowledge.

• Associate.

Currently only Cloud Engineer is at this level. This is an ideal starting point for anyone seeking professional certifications and covers skills such as deploying, monitoring, and maintaining projects on Google Cloud.

• Professional.

The professional level, in turn, has a wide variety of tests, each focused on a specific role, such as data engineering, devops and machine learning. The tests at this level go into great detail on the specific services of each role.

Certifications

In this section of the article, we are going to go into detail about each of the tests and with that you will have a better idea of which one has a greater fit with your professional goals.

Digital Leader

This is the initial certification within the Google Cloud catalog. Its target audience is people who want to demonstrate that they have mastery of the basics of cloud computing and the GCP platform. It is also important to have basic notions about computing and the internet, in addition to knowing how to identify business demands and match them with Cloud services that are fit to solve these demands.

According to the guide provided by Google, the exam covers the following contents:

1. Digital transformation with Google Cloud (~10% of the exam).
2. Infrastructure and application modernization (~30% of the exam).
3. Innovating with data and Google Cloud (~30% of the exam).
4. Google Cloud security and operations (~30% of the exam).

Associate Cloud Engineer

Google defines a Cloud Engineer as a person who performs tasks such as deploying applications, performing monitoring of multiple projects, and maintaining solutions that use Google-managed or self-managed services on the Google Cloud. The professional who plays this role must be able to interact with the Cloud environment through the Console and via the command line.

Although it is Associate level, this test should not be considered simple as it aims to demonstrate that the professional has a solid foundation of cloud knowledge to carry out day-to-day tasks in a cloud computing context. Before attempting the Professional level exams, it is highly recommended that you take the Associate Cloud Engineer exam as it serves as the foundation for all activity within Google Cloud.

According to the test guide, these are the charged contents:

1. Set up a cloud solution environment.
2. Deploy and implement a cloud solution.
3. Configure access and security.
4. Plan and configure a cloud solution.
5. Ensure successful operation of a cloud solution.

Professional Cloud Architect

The first Professional level exam we will cover is the Professional Cloud Architect. Of the tests at this level, it is the one with the highest degree of generalization. Although it is challenging because of the large amount of content required to study it, it is certainly one of the most interesting because it gives an overview of the entire Google Cloud environment.

It is important to note that this is not just a test on Google's Cloud platform tools, but a test on Solution Architecture in the Cloud environment. This makes it more difficult on the one hand but on the other hand makes this certification more valuable. Being successful in this test means that you really know what you are doing, and it would even be a good indicator that you would be a good cloud architect on Amazon's AWS or Microsoft's Azure, as the Clouds have many similarities.

In addition to knowing the GCP tools themselves, it is necessary that the candidate, as well as the solution architect role itself, know how to use the cloud in a professional environment — balancing tradeoffs, managing costs, paying attention to security and best practices, making the sustainable environment.

According to the official guide, the Professional Cloud Architect certification exam assesses your ability in the following topics:

1. Design and plan a cloud solution architecture.
2. Design for security and compliance.
3. Manage implementations of cloud architecture.
4. Manage and provision the cloud solution infrastructure.
5. Analyze and optimize technical and business processes.
6. Ensure solution and operations reliability.

Professional Cloud Developer

In the paragraph below we can see how Google sees the role of Professional Cloud Developer.

“A Professional Cloud Developer builds scalable and highly available applications using Google-recommended practices and tools. This individual has experience with cloud-native applications, developer tools, managed services, and next-generation databases. A Professional Cloud Developer also has proficiency with at least one general-purpose programming language and is skilled at producing meaningful metrics and logs to debug and trace code.”

This is also a test that I consider quite generic, as it is aimed at software engineers who want to build applications on Google Cloud using its various services for this purpose. In addition to general knowledge of Information Technology concepts and GCP itself, it is interesting that the candidate also has experience with software engineering issues, such as code versioning, good practices in code development, among others. The Cloud Developer role overlaps with the Professional Cloud Architect role. Developers not only need to understand cloud-native architectures, they also need to be able to build those systems.

For this test, it is interesting to master certain managed services that make life easier for developers, such as Cloud Run, PubSub and, to a certain extent, the Kubernetes Engine.

According to the exam guide, these are the topics expected of the Cloud Developer candidate:

1. Design highly scalable, available, reliable cloud-native applications.
2. Deploy applications.
3. Manage deployed applications.
4. Build and test applications.
5. Integrate Google Cloud services.

Professional DevOps Engineer

“A Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer is responsible for efficient development operations that can balance service reliability and delivery speed. They are skilled at using Google Cloud Platform to build software delivery pipelines, deploy and monitor services, and manage and learn from incidents.”

In the paragraph above we can see how Google sees the role of DevOps. This certification is aimed at people who are responsible for efficient development operations in an organization and can balance service reliability and delivery speed. Although it is a deep discussion, for Google, the role of DevOps is very close or even ends up being the same as the role of Site Reliability Engineer.
At its core, this entire function of the SRE is to enable the whole team to build better software faster. And if you spend all your time just putting out fires and chasing your tail, that's not going to happen. So he uses the power of software development to amplify the impact of his time.

In the context of Google Cloud, this role encompasses a series of products that are very important in the context of software development, such as Operations Suite tools such as Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, Cloud Trace, Cloud Debugger and Cloud Trace. Also tools that engulf CI/CD such as Cloud Build, Cloud Source Code Repository, Container and Artifact Registry. And finally, the test also covers the subject of Infrastructure as code with the Cloud Deployment Manager product.

According to the exam guide, these are the subjects charged:

1. Apply site reliability engineering principles to a service.
2. Implement service monitoring strategies.
3. Manage service incidents.
4. Optimize service performance.
5. Build and implement CI/CD pipelines for a service.

Professional Cloud Security Engineer

This certification is based on the security function within the cloud environment, including identity and access management (IAM), data protection, network security defenses, and more. In the paragraph below we can see Google's understanding of this role:

“Through an understanding of security best practices and industry security requirements, this individual designs, develops, and manages a secure infrastructure leveraging Google security technologies. The Cloud Security Professional should be proficient in all aspects of Cloud Security including managing identity and access management, defining organizational structure and policies, using Google technologies to provide data protection, configuring network security defenses, collecting and analyzing Google Cloud Platform logs, managing incident responses, and an understanding of regulatory concerns.”

That is, Google expects that the Cloud Security professional, through an understanding of security best practices and the security requirements practiced by the market, will be able to help organizations a secure Cloud environment.

According to the exam guide, these are the topics charged by Google:

1. Configure access within a cloud solution environment.
2. Configure network security.
3. Ensure data protection.
4. Manage operations within a cloud solution environment.
5. Ensure compliance.

Professional Cloud Network Engineer

This certification is intended for people who implement and manage network architectures on GCP. It is important to point out that unlike the network specialist functions of the past, this one never interacts with any hardware as the network in a CLOUD environment is defined by software. Google defines this role as follows:

“Implements and manages network architectures in Google Cloud Platform… [and] may work on networking or cloud teams with architects who design the infrastructure. By leveraging experience implementing VPCs, hybrid connectivity, network services, and security for established network architectures, this individual ensures successful cloud implementations using the command line interface or the Google Cloud Platform Console.”

As with other tests, for this one it is also advisable that the professional has, in addition to knowledge about Google Cloud, specific knowledge about networking. In general, this role expects the professional to implement and manage network architectures on Google Cloud.

The official guide for this exam requires the candidate to master the following topics:

1. Design, plan, and prototype a Google Cloud network.
2. Configure network services.
3. Manage, monitor, and optimize network operations.
4. Implement Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) instances.
5. Implement hybrid interconnectivity.

Professional Data Engineer

According to Google: “A Professional Data Engineer enables data-driven decision making by collecting, transforming, and publishing data.”. In the last decade, the market in general learned that it is possible to extract a lot of value from large amounts of data, with that, the role of Data Engineer is to create systems for processing, treatment and availability of data for an entire organization. Also according to Google:

"A Data Engineer should be able to design, build, operationalize, secure, and monitor data processing systems with a particular emphasis on security and compliance; scalability and efficiency; reliability and fidelity; and flexibility and portability. A Data Engineer should also be able to leverage, deploy, and continuously train pre-existing machine learning models.".

Product-wise, this exam covers all data-related products on Google Cloud, such as Dataproc, BigQuery, Dataflow, Dataprep, Data Fusion, Cloud Storage, and PubSub. But it's not just about configuring these components. This role also involves monitoring, maintaining, debugging and, over time, improving these pipelines, so this professional must also be able to use GCP's Operations Suite products. And like other tests, it is important that the professional is proficient in subjects off Google Cloud, such as Apache Spark, Apache Map Reduce and SQL.

Although there is a test dedicated to this subject, in the Data Engineer certification it is also expected that the candidate is familiar with the subject of Machine Learning and familiar with the Vertex AI platform, from GCP.

According to the test guide, these are the topics charged:

1. Design data processing systems.
2. Ensure solution quality.
3. Operationalize machine learning models.
4. Build and operationalize data processing systems.

Professional Machine Learning Engineer

This certification is for people who design, build, and deploy machine learning models to solve business challenges using GCP technologies. Google defines the role of Machine Learning Engineer as follows:

“A Professional Machine Learning Engineer designs, builds, and productionizes ML models to solve business challenges using Google Cloud technologies and knowledge of proven ML models and techniques. The ML Engineer is proficient in all aspects of model architecture, data pipeline interaction, and metrics interpretation and needs familiarity with application development, infrastructure management, data engineering, and security.”.

It is worth highlighting the importance of the word "productize". This certification is focused not only on model training but also and even mainly on making them productive and, therefore, making them really useful for the organization. And like other professional-level exams, the ML Engineer must be proficient in all aspects of the field, not just those that relate to Google Cloud technologies.

The test consists of business questions where you must identify how Machine Learning techniques can help even more practical and direct questions about how to use Google Cloud projects for the development of ML models. But make no mistake, they are also charged with matters more related to the Cloud itself and less to the Artificial Intelligence area, such as security and privacy in its pipeline using items such as IAM and key management.

According to the test guide, these are the subjects charged:

1. Frame ML problems.
2. Architect ML solutions.
3. Design data preparation and processing systems.
4. Develop ML models.
5. Automate and orchestrate ML pipelines.
6. Monitor, optimize, and maintain ML solutions.

Professional Cloud Database Engineer

This is Google Cloud's latest professional-level certification and also the most recent, released in 2022. Below we can check Google's definition of this role:

"A Professional Cloud Database Engineer is a database professional with two years of Google Cloud experience and five years of overall database and IT experience. The Professional Cloud Database Engineer designs, creates, manages, and troubleshoots Google Cloud databases used by applications to store and retrieve data. The Professional Cloud Database Engineer should be comfortable translating business and technical requirements into scalable and cost-effective database solutions.".

This test has some congruences with the Data Engineer certification. However, the Cloud Database Engineer role is more focused on the databases themselves, whether relational or not. So you can expect more specific questions about products like Cloud SQL, Firestore (Native and Datastore mode), BigTable, BigQuery and migrating databases to the Cloud environment.

According to the exam guide, these are the knowledge required of the candidate:

1. Design scalable and highly available cloud database solutions.
2. Migrate data solutions.
3. Manage a solution that can span multiple database solutions.
4. Deploy scalable and highly available databases in Google Cloud.

Which Google Cloud certification is best for me?

Which or even which certifications to choose depends a lot on your use of the Google Cloud platform. If you are completely new to the world of cloud computing, it would be interesting to prepare for the Digital Leader test, as it will give you the knowledge base to move on to more complex and specific tests.

If you already have practical experience with Google Cloud or even have an entry-level certification from another provider, such as Azure's AZ 900 or AWS Cloud Practitioner, it would be advisable to go straight to Associate Cloud Engineer, as you already understand how the world of Cloud works and will go through the study for this test, will specialize in the Google platform.

When it comes to professional-level certifications, the choice of which certification to take is based on which one or which ones are closest to your current role in the company. But regardless of your position, I particularly advise you to take the Professional Cloud Architect test, as it will give you a privileged view of the entire Cloud, both from a technical and business point of view. By studying for this test, you will build a solid foundation to pursue any other specialization within the Cloud environment.

If you are an infrastructure professional, the DevOps, Security and Network exams might make sense for you. If you work with data on a daily basis, the Data Engineer, Database and Machine Learning tests can be good study paths. Finally, if you are a software engineer or developer, the Cloud Developer and DevOps tests can be very useful for your day to day.

Which exams to take ultimately ends up being a private decision about what you want for your career and what knowledge is needed to achieve your goals. I particularly like to have a macro view of everything that makes sense for my career and that the Cloud offers. In my specific scenario, as I work as a data engineer in my company, I chose to take the test focused on this role but also on Machine Learning and Database, because I believe that although I do not use this knowledge on a daily basis, having a good idea about these technologies can help me to stand out in the job market and also to communicate better with professionals in these careers. I also think it's worth mentioning that I followed the process of studying for Digital Leader, Associate Cloud Engineer and Professional Cloud Engineer to have a solid knowledge base about Google Cloud Platform.

How to prepare

As I mentioned several times throughout this article, for many of the certification tests it is desirable that the candidate has specific knowledge about Information Technology and its subareas of specialization, such as networks, security, machine learning and data.

I also take the opportunity to highlight something extremely relevant to keep in mind along your preparation path. The approval certificate alone does not have much value for the job market. What really adds value to the certified professional is all the practical and theoretical knowledge he acquired while studying for the exam. In other words, what actually determines the success of the process is your ability to transform your study into real value for the company through your daily work on Google Cloud.

Two of the top study sources I like to recommend is the A Cloud Guru course platform, which has courses on various certification exams. Another source of study that I find very useful is Dan Sullivan's courses on the Udemy platform.

When studying for certification exams, it is important that in addition to taking courses, you also prepare yourself by solving various simulations. For that purpose I recommend Whizlabs and Exam Topics platforms.

The last point you should keep in mind throughout your study process is to become able to navigate and extract information from the Google Cloud documentation, as in your day-to-day life it will be your main source of reference about the platform.

Conclusion

Through this article I tried to explain the context of each of the certification exams offered by Google Cloud. I hope the tips I've given provide you with insights to apply on your path to becoming a Google Cloud Certified Professional!