Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE) Certification Preparation

[DISCLAIMER] The links and materials provided here are intended as supplementary resources for learning. This personally documented material does not represent official information from Google Cloud, although some of it is sourced from official Google Cloud resources. Unofficial materials indicate that the content is not direct information from Google.

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Exam Preparation Materials

1. Google Cloud Courses

• Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure

  This course is fantastic for building a strong foundation. It covers fundamental concepts and introduces the core services you'll be tested on.

• Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Course [2025] - Pass the Exam!

  This is a key resource. It provides a complete overview of the exam topics, often with practical demonstrations of the services.

2. Kubernetes Course

• Docker Containers and Kubernetes Fundamentals – Full Hands-On Course
• Getting Started with Google Kubernetes Engine

  Containers and Kubernetes are crucial topics for the ACE exam. This video helps solidify your understanding of these concepts within the Google Cloud ecosystem.

3. Exam Guide

• Associate Cloud Engineer: Certification Exam Guide

  This is the official blueprint for the exam. Reviewing the five domains listed here is the best way to identify areas you need to focus on.

4. Exam Readiness

• Preparing for Your Associate Cloud Engineer Journey

  This e-learning course is a must-do. It offers practice questions and a guided review of key topics, helping you gauge your readiness.

• Associate Cloud Engineer Sample Questions

  Use this form to simulate the exam environment and get a feel for the types of questions you'll encounter.

• Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer - The Certified Q&A for GCP

  Practice with these sample questions and their explanations to understand the reasoning behind the correct answers.

Official Documentation

Explanation: This section contains relevant Google documentation for the exam topics. Since documentation is usually very long, I have added key points to study to make exam preparation easier. Be sure to focus on these points when reading the documentation, though it is excellent if you understand all the information in the documentation.

1. Compute Engine

• Automatically apply VM configuration updates in a MIG

  Key points to study:

  • How VM updates work in Managed Instance Groups (MIGs).
  • Using maximum surge and maximum unavailable to:
    • Ensure VM capacity doesn't decrease to handle user requests.
    • Prevent updates from causing additional costs.
  • Rolling back after an update if bugs are found in the new application version.
  • The difference between proactive and opportunistic updates.
  • The difference between canary and rolling updates.

• About OS Login

  Key points to study:

  • What OS Login is and how it works.

• Set up OS Login

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between roles/compute.osLogin and roles/compute.osAdminLogin.

• Access control overview

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between several IAM Roles, such as Compute Engine Network Admin and Compute Engine Security Admin.

2. App Engine

• Choose an App Engine environment

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between App Engine Standard and App Engine Flex.

• How instances are managed

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between automatic, basic, and manual scaling.
  • App Engine can auto-scale based on parameters like CPU utilization, concurrent requests, and throughput.
  • What happens during App Engine startup and shutdown.

• Roles that grant access

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between several IAM Roles, such as App Engine Service Admin and App Engine Deployer.
  • Whether App Engine Viewer can see source code, or if only App Engine Code Viewer can.

3. Kubernetes

• Node pools

  Key points to study:

  • What node pools are and how to use them.

• Resize a Standard cluster

  Key points to study:

  • How to resize a cluster and node pools.

• Standard cluster upgrades

  Key points to study:

  • How cluster upgrades in Google Kubernetes Engine work.
  • Node pool upgrade strategies, such as surge upgrades vs. blue-green upgrades.
  • The difference between manual and automatic upgrades.

• Release channels

  Key points to study:

  • What release channels are and how to determine the right one.

• Maintenance windows and exclusions

  Key points to study:

  • How to configure GKE to not perform cluster upgrades on specific dates using exclusions.

• GKE Sandbox

  Key points to study:

  • What GKE Sandbox is.

• Google Kubernetes Engine access control

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between protection via IAM and RBAC.

4. Cloud Storage

• Storage classes

  Key points to study:

  • The differences between storage classes.

• Object Lifecycle Management

  Key points to study:

  • What Object Lifecycle Management is.
  • How to configure lifecycle actions and lifecycle conditions.

• Object Retention Lock

  Key points to study:

  • The use of object lock and its use cases.

• IAM roles for Cloud Storage

  Key points to study:

  • The difference between several IAM Roles, such as Storage Object Creator, Storage Object Viewer, Storage Object User, Storage Object Admin, and Storage Admin.

5. BigQuery

• Introduction to BigQuery jobs

  Key points to study:

  • What a job is in BigQuery.

• Access control with IAM

  Key points to study:

  • The level of IAM Role application on a project, dataset, or table/view.
  • The difference between several IAM Roles, such as BigQuery Data Viewer, BigQuery User, and BigQuery Job User.

6. Miscellaneous

• Cloud Billing: Access control & permissions

  Key points to study:

  • How a billing account works and its relationship to projects because you can link one billing account to multiple projects.
  • The difference between several IAM Roles for billing accounts, such as Billing Account User, Project Billing Manager, and Billing Account Administrator.

• Cloud Logging: Routing and storage overview

  Key points to study:

  • How to configure logs to be stored in BigQuery for analysis or Cloud Storage for archiving.

• Moving a project

  Key points to study:

  • How to move a project in Google Cloud. A key point to remember is that when you move a project, all resources within it (like VMs, buckets, etc.) move with it.

Additional Materials (Optional)

1. Infrastructure as Code (IAC)

• HashiCorp Terraform Associate Certification Course - Pass the Exam!

  A video to learn about Terraform. This material will not be on the Google exam, but it is useful for preparing for the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate exam.