Studying for an exam can be a daunting prospect. Many hours need to be spent to achieve a certification, and it's not always an easy decision to dedicate a lot of personal time to achieve this goal. That said, if you currently work in the IT industry, you will know that the landscape has changed over several years. The public cloud is no longer something that worries companies, and more enterprises are shifting away from traditional on-premises solutions, meaning that the time you invest in learning new technologies will only be beneficial to your career.

But why take the exam? There are several reasons why you would take this exam, such as the following:

• You have used GCP for some time and want to have an industry-recognized certification that reflects your current skillset
• You want to achieve a new role or promotion and show...

The cost of the GCP Professional Architect exam is 200 USD, and it can be booked in several languages, such as English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. You can register for the exam by going through the following steps:

1. The first step is to visit the Google certification web page at https://cloud.google.com/certification/.
2. You will see that there are many certification paths you can take. Click on the REGISTER link under Professional Cloud Architect, as highlighted in the following screenshot:

3. Next, you will need a Webassessor account to book the exam. You can create a new account using the hyperlink in the WELCOME page:

4. Next, click on REGISTER FOR AN EXAM, as shown in the following screenshot:

5. Select your...

There are several resources that Google advises you to take advantage of to prepare for the exam. These consist of online training courses, instructor-led training, and practical labs. All of this information can be found on the cloud architect web page at https://cloud.google.com/certification/cloud-architect.

In addition, by visiting the exam guide web page at https://cloud.google.com/certification/guides/professional-cloud-architect/, you can see the expected subject knowledge of the exam applicants. The exam blueprint is critical for any exam, and GCP Architect is no different. You should review this guide and make sure you understand each section.

Like most exams, some real-life experience will also help you. The exam is created with cloud architects in mind who have experience with software development and multi-cloud/hybrid-cloud environments...

In the exam, we recommend that you make use of the fact that you can mark questions for review and come back to them later. It is a personal preference, of course, but we suggest that you don't puzzle over a question for too long. You will have around two minutes per question to provide an answer. Some of the answers to the questions will jump straight out of the screen at you, and others will take you more time to determine the correct answer. If you are spending too long on a question, then mark it for review and move on, as it's important to get to the end of the test to ensure that the maximum number of marks are scored.

We also recommend booking the exam to give you an incentive. It is easy to procrastinate or worry too much that you are not fully prepared. This is a natural feeling, but having an end date in sight gives you focus and determination. We...

In this chapter, we covered what to expect from the exam and how to actually register for the exam, as well as the benefits of being a GCP. Throughout this book, we will introduce you to the services that are needed for a successful outcome. This book's ultimate goal is to assist you in passing the exam; however, we encourage you to do more reading if you wish to deep dive into a particular topic or service that you encounter while reading this book.

In the next chapter, we will get started with the GCP.

Read the following article for more information:

• Google Cloud Certificate: https://cloud.google.com/certification