How i passed my Google Cloud Certifications (and what I learned from failure): Plus study tips

I recently achieved something I’m pretty proud of: I passed both the Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE) and the Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer (PDE) certification exams.

It feels good to say that now, but I want to be real with you, it wasn’t a straight line to the finish. I passed the ACE on my first try, which gave me a nice confidence boost. But the PDE? That was a different beast. I actually took the Professional Data Engineer exam twice. The first time, I didn’t make it.

It was kind of hard to swallow at the time. Failing an exam is never fun, especially when you feel like you put in the work. But looking back, that failure forced me to stop, re-evaluate, and change my strategy. I had to prepare again, but this time I prepared well. When I went back for round two, I made it.

Since I’ve been through the wringer with these exams, having seen both the "Pass" and "Fail" screens, I want to share exactly what I used and how I shifted my mindset. If you are preparing for these or any other google cloud certification exam, hopefully, my experience can save you some time and stress.

Context

For the Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE) exam, things went pretty smooth. I passed the first time. I think a big part of that was simply having hands-on experience. I have had some experience with the Google Cloud Platform before jumping into the books, and I believe that helped me in this regard. When you’ve actually clicked the buttons and deployed things, the questions make a lot more sense.

The Professional Data Engineer (PDE), however, humbled me. The first attempt was rough. I realized my previous strategy just wasn't enough. I needed to go deeper. So, for the second attempt, I focused heavily on covering previous exam questions and doing a lot of specific research online.

Here are the specific resources that got me across the line.

My resource stack

I didn't use a thousand different books. I focused on a few key places that helped me understand the style of questions Google asks.

1. Examprepper: Examprepper.co

This one is free, which is always a plus. They have a lot of pass questions available. I found this to be a great starting point to test my knowledge without having to pull out a credit card immediately. It helped me gauge where I was weak.

2. Skillcertpro: skillcertpro.com

This one is paid, but honestly, it’s worth it. They have a massive volume of questions. I did notice something, though, in my opinion, their questions are kind of a little old and outdated according to the current services google cloud has. Even so, the volume of practice you get here is great for building endurance and spotting patterns.

3. AwesomeGCP (YouTube) Channel: AwesomeGCP

If you get tired of reading text-based questions, go watch this guy. He has awesome videos to prepare for the exams. Sometimes hearing someone explain a concept makes it stick way better than reading it in a documentation file.

4. Examtopics: examtopics.com

This is a good one that a lot of people use. It’s similar to Examprepper in my experience, to say the least. However, you have to be careful. Since the answers are mostly community-voted, some of them might be outdated or just plain wrong. Don't blindly trust the selected answer. Read the discussions. That’s where the real value is.

The strategy: previous questions and broad views

I noticed something huge while I was studying for my second PDE attempt. Covering more and more of the previous questions helps a lot. It’s not just about testing yourself; it’s about discovery.

Going through these questions helps cover a lot of those topics that you might not have otherwise covered before the exams or something. It gives you a broader view of the topics. When you stick only to the official study guide, you might miss the weird edge cases. The practice questions expose you to those scenarios.

I even had some situations where some questions were repeated on the actual exam.

Now, I want to be super clear here: the idea is not to memorize the answers. No. If you just memorize "Option A is correct," you will fail if they change one word in the question. The goal is to actually understand “why” it is the right answer.

My secret weapon: gemini

Whenever I was in doubt about a question, especially on sites like examtopics where the community was fighting over the answer, I didn't just guess. I asked Gemini.

Of course, you have to prompt it correctly. Before asking Gemini, you should prompt it with something like:

"You are a professional Data Engineer and you are helping me prepare for my google certification exams. You use the most accurate and uptodate information to answer to any questions I share with you."

Why Gemini? Well, I think this is pretty obvious. Gemini is a Google product. It most definitely knows more about their services than any other AI chatbot out there, in my opinion.

I tried ChatGPT, and it was fine, but I noticed Gemini was a lot more accurate regarding specific Google Cloud nuances. It just makes sense to use Google’s brain to study for Google’s exam.

Don't forget the labs

One more thing before I forget: do the labs they have. It helps get a practical sense of all the theory you learn.

It’s easy to get stuck in "tutorial hell" or just reading questions all day. But until you actually configure a Dataflow pipeline or set up BigQuery permissions yourself, it’s all just abstract concepts. The labs ground you. They make the theory real.

Final thoughts on stress

Stress is normal. When I sat down for that second PDE attempt, I was nervous. But once you cover all these resources and really understand the "why" behind the answers, I am pretty sure you will be more than ready to tackle the exam.

Well, that is the strategy I took. It worked for me (eventually!), and I hope it helps anyone reading this.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at hello@fotiecodes.com.

All the best for your exams. You got this.