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Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide

Google Cloud Certified - Associate Cloud Engineer

Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer is Google Cloud's associate-level certification for engineers who deploy and secure applications, services and infrastructure, monitor operations across projects and maintain enterprise solutions. It covers setting up cloud environments and billing, deploying compute, data and networking resources, day-to-day operations with monitoring and logging, and IAM and service accounts. Google recommends six months or more of hands-on experience with Google Cloud.

  • Associate level
  • 4 exam sections
  • 50 to 60 questions

This guide is free, with no sign-up. It explains every Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer exam topic in plain English, one chapter at a time. Read them in order or jump straight to the topic you need.

  • 4chapters
  • 24topics
  • 9diagrams and exhibits
  • 1 h 42 minfast track
Start with Setting up a cloud solution environment
  • Every topic follows the same simple pattern: what it is, how it works, common mistakes
  • Diagrams and real command output where a picture explains it best
  • Exam tips and worked subnetting and IPv6 practice, with answers

How the exam is weighted

Each domain is worth this share of the exam, so spend your study time in proportion. Select a domain to open its chapter.

Chapters

Open a chapter to see its topics and how long each takes.

1Setting up a cloud solution environment4 topics · 16 min fast trackResource hierarchy, org policies, IAM, Cloud Identity, APIs, quotas, locations, observability and billing.
  1. 1Resource Hierarchy and Organization Policies4 min
  2. 2IAM Roles, Cloud Identity and Workforce Identity Federation4 min
  3. 3APIs, Quotas, Locations and Asset Inventory4 min
  4. 4Billing Accounts, Budgets and Exports4 min
Read the chapter overview →
2Planning and implementing a cloud solution9 topics · 38 min fast trackCompute Engine, GKE, serverless, storage and data products, VPC networking, load balancing and IaC.
  1. 1Choosing Compute and Launching VMs5 min
  2. 2Managed Instance Groups, OS Login and VM Manager4 min
  3. 3Deploying to GKE4 min
  4. 4Serverless and Event-Driven Deployments4 min
  5. 5Choosing Data and Storage Products4 min
  6. 6Loading Data and Multi-Region Redundancy4 min
  7. 7VPCs, Subnets and Firewalls5 min
  8. 8Connectivity, Load Balancers and Network Tiers4 min
  9. 9Infrastructure as Code and AI-Assisted Tools4 min
Read the chapter overview →
3Ensuring the successful operation of a cloud solution8 topics · 35 min fast trackManaging VMs, GKE, Cloud Run, storage, databases and networks, plus monitoring, logging and diagnostics.
  1. 1Managing Compute Engine4 min
  2. 2Managing GKE Workloads4 min
  3. 3Managing Cloud Run, AI Agents and Developer Environments5 min
  4. 4Managing Cloud Storage4 min
  5. 5Managing Databases and Data Jobs4 min
  6. 6Managing Networking Resources5 min
  7. 7Monitoring, Alerting and Agents4 min
  8. 8Logging, Audit Logs and Diagnostics5 min
Read the chapter overview →
4Configuring access and security3 topics · 13 min fast trackIAM policies, role types, custom roles, inheritance, service accounts, impersonation and workload identity.
  1. 1IAM Policies, Role Types and Custom Roles4 min
  2. 2Service Accounts4 min
  3. 3Impersonation, Short-Lived Credentials and Workload Identity5 min
Read the chapter overview →

Ready for more practice?

The full Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer question bank has 661 questions, with timed practice exams and an explanation for every answer.

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This study guide is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google Cloud. Vendor names, certification names and exam codes are trademarks of their respective owners and are used for identification only.