Google Cloud · Professional Cloud Architect
Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect practice exams
Google Cloud's flagship architecture certification — a professional-level exam for the fastest-growing major cloud.
Or read 15 sample questions with answers.
Try a real Professional Cloud Architect question
A company stores Parquet files in Cloud Storage. Analysts must query them from BigQuery, but each analyst may see only certain rows and columns. The data must stay in Cloud Storage, and analysts must not be granted direct access to the bucket. Which approach meets these requirements?
About the Professional Cloud Architect exam
The Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification validates the ability to design, provision, secure, and operate solutions on Google Cloud, and to align them with business objectives. It is a professional-level exam: harder and broader than an associate cloud certification.
The exam includes two case studies that account for a substantial share of the questions — you are given a fictional company's requirements and constraints and asked for the best-fit design. Strong candidates know the GCP service catalogue and, more importantly, the trade-offs: Spanner vs Cloud SQL, GKE vs Cloud Run, Interconnect vs VPN, committed use vs Spot.
The real exam
Public information published by Google Cloud. A CertRidge practice exam matches this format — it is not a copy of the exam's contents.
- Format
- 50–60 multiple choice and multiple select questions in 120 minutes, including two case studies. Taken online with a proctor or at a test centre.
- Cost
- 200 USD, plus applicable taxes.
- Scoring
- Google does not publish a passing score or a per-section weighting. Results are reported only as pass or fail.
- Validity
- Valid for 2 years; renewed by passing a shorter renewal exam within the eligibility window.
Practice by exam domain
CertRidge practice exams draw questions in these same proportions, from a bank of 598 Professional Cloud Architect questions. Open a domain for what it covers and free questions with answers.
- Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture· 112 questions18%
- Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure· 99 questions17%
- Designing for security and compliance· 105 questions17%
- Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes· 98 questions16%
- Managing implementation of cloud architecture· 93 questions16%
- Ensuring solution and operations excellence· 91 questions16%
Who it's for
- Cloud and solutions architects who design on Google Cloud, or who work multi-cloud and need to prove GCP depth
- AWS- or Azure-experienced architects mapping their skills onto Google Cloud's services and design patterns
- Senior engineers and tech leads responsible for GCP infrastructure decisions and cost, security, and reliability trade-offs
How to prepare
- Read the two official case studies before exam day. Many questions are 'given this company's stated constraints, what should the architect do' — knowing the scenarios cold saves time.
- Build a decision tree for the data stores (Cloud SQL, Spanner, Bigtable, Firestore, BigQuery, Memorystore) and for compute (Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, App Engine, Cloud Functions).
- Know the security building blocks: IAM predefined vs basic roles and resource-level bindings, service accounts and workload identity, VPC Service Controls, CMEK with Cloud KMS, org policy, and the resource hierarchy.
- Understand cost levers (committed use discounts, sustained use, Spot VMs, scale-to-zero, storage classes and lifecycle) and reliability practice (SLOs, error budgets, multi-region, managed instance groups).
See the free Professional Cloud Architect cheat sheet for a one-page domain summary, the Professional Cloud Architect study guide for how to plan your preparation, and the content policy for how these questions are written.
Free Professional Cloud Architect practice resources
- 15 free Professional Cloud Architect practice questionsSpread across every domain, each with the answer and an explanation for every option.
- Free 10-question diagnosticA quick, scored check of where you stand, with no account needed.
- Professional Cloud Architect cheat sheetThe domains and the facts that come up most, on one page.
- Professional Cloud Architect study guideHow to plan your preparation, week by week.
Professional Cloud Architect questions, answered
- How much does the Professional Cloud Architect exam cost?
- 200 USD, plus applicable taxes.
- What is the Professional Cloud Architect passing score?
- Google does not publish a passing score or a per-section weighting. Results are reported only as pass or fail.
- How many questions are on the Professional Cloud Architect exam?
- 50–60 multiple choice and multiple select questions in 120 minutes, including two case studies. Taken online with a proctor or at a test centre.
- How long is the Professional Cloud Architect certification valid?
- Valid for 2 years; renewed by passing a shorter renewal exam within the eligibility window.
- Are there prerequisites for the Google Professional Cloud Architect exam?
- There are no formal prerequisites. Google recommends three or more years of industry experience, including at least one year designing and managing solutions on Google Cloud.
- What are the case studies on the Professional Cloud Architect exam?
- Some questions refer to fictional company case studies that Google publishes in advance on the exam guide page. Reading them before the exam saves time, because you can recognise each company's requirements quickly.
- Where can I practise Professional Cloud Architect questions for free?
- CertRidge has a free 10-question Professional Cloud Architect diagnostic with every answer explained, no account needed, and 15 free sample questions with answers at certridge.com/certifications/gcp-professional-cloud-architect/practice-questions. All questions are original, written to the published exam objectives.