Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture · Topic 8 of 8
Working with the Case Studies
How PCA case-study questions work: the four companies Google publishes, what each one needs, and a method for reading their requirements and answering quickly.
- 4 min
- Two of the four published case studies appear on each exam, about 20 to 30 percent of questions.
- Know each company's priorities and what must stay unchanged.
- Eliminate options that break any stated requirement first.
What it is
Each Professional Cloud Architect exam includes two case studies, and Google says case-study questions make up 20 to 30 percent of the exam. Google publishes the four possible companies in advance: Altostrat Media, Cymbal Retail, EHR Healthcare and KnightMotives Automotive. Read all four before the exam; knowing their requirements saves time and points you to the answer.
How it works
The four companies in brief
These are short summaries in our own words. Read Google's full case studies, linked from the official exam guide.
| Company | Business | Main themes |
|---|---|---|
| Altostrat Media | Large library of audio and video content on Google Cloud | Generative AI for summaries, metadata, recommendations and chat; content safety; hybrid Kubernetes; storage cost; reliability and cost first |
| Cymbal Retail | Fast-growing online retailer with a huge catalog | Gen AI catalog enrichment with human review; conversational shopping and better search; replacing SFTP and batch ETL; database migration; lower call center and hosting cost |
| EHR Healthcare | SaaS electronic health records for hospitals and insurers | Leaving colocation facilities on a deadline; 99.9% availability; consistent container platform; hybrid links to legacy insurer systems; healthcare compliance; centralized monitoring |
| KnightMotives Automotive | Car maker moving to connected, AI-driven vehicles | Hybrid cloud with mainframe and ERP modernized gradually; data monetization; EU data protection; security after breaches; autonomous driving AI; dealer build-to-order platform |
What each case rewards
| Company | Answers that usually fit |
|---|---|
| Altostrat Media | Managed services on its existing Google Cloud stack (GKE, Cloud Storage, BigQuery); Gemini on Agent Platform; Autoclass and lifecycle rules; GKE Enterprise for on-premises clusters; explainable and auditable AI |
| Cymbal Retail | Gemini with structured output and human-in-the-loop review; Conversational Agents; Pub/Sub and event-driven pipelines; Cloud SQL, Memorystore and Firestore migrations; Apigee for partners |
| EHR Healthcare | GKE with fleet management and Config Sync; Cloud SQL high availability and cross-region replicas; Interconnect or HA VPN; Cloud Monitoring with SLOs; Cloud Healthcare API; Access Approval and audit logs |
| KnightMotives | Hybrid networking and Apigee in front of legacy systems; Spanner for orders; BigQuery and clean rooms for data sharing; Assured Workloads and EU locations; Security Command Center and Google Security Operations; GPUs and TPUs for training |
Each company has stated leadership priorities. Altostrat puts reliability and cost first; KnightMotives puts safety and security first; EHR stresses availability and lower administration. When two options both work, the one that honours the stated priority wins.
A method for case-study questions
- Identify the company and its priorities from the stem.
- Find the requirement the question is really about: a deadline, a residency rule, a team limit, a system that must stay.
- Eliminate options that break any stated requirement, even if they are good designs elsewhere.
- Prefer managed services when the case mentions small teams or lower administration.
- Respect what must not change: legacy systems that stay, code that cannot be rewritten, existing identity providers.
Traps the case studies set
- Moving systems the case says will stay on premises (EHR's insurer integrations), or replacing in one step what the case modernizes gradually (KnightMotives' mainframe and ERP).
- Copying regulated data out of its region (KnightMotives' EU data).
- Building self-managed tools when the case asks for lower operating effort.
- Choosing a generic AI API when the requirement needs the company's own rules applied (for example a written content policy).
On this site
Our practice exam includes case-study questions for all four companies. Each opens with "Case study:" and the company name, and repeats in the question the facts you need, so you can answer without a separate panel.
How the exam asks about this
- "Which design best meets EHR Healthcare's availability and compliance requirements?" Check the 99.9% target, healthcare rules and the lease deadline.
- "Cymbal wants most generated attributes valid on arrival." Structured output with allowed values, then human review.
- "KnightMotives must keep EU telemetry in the EU." Location controls and EU regions.
What to remember for the exam
- Two of the four published case studies appear on each exam, about 20 to 30 percent of questions.
- Know each company's priorities and what must stay unchanged.
- Eliminate options that break any stated requirement first.
- Small teams and cost goals point to managed services.
- Read Google's full case studies before the exam day.
Do not bring outside assumptions into a case. If the case says a system stays on premises for three years, design around it.
Common mistakes
Skimming the case in the exam. Read the four cases in advance instead.
Ignoring leadership priorities. They break ties between workable options.
Designing as if the company had unlimited staff. Most cases say otherwise.
Check yourself
How many case studies appear on each Professional Cloud Architect exam?
Two, drawn from the four Google publishes.
What should you do first with a case-study question?
Identify the company, its priorities and the requirement the question is about.
Which company's legacy insurer integrations must stay on premises?
EHR Healthcare.
Topic 8 of 8 in Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
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