Google Cloud certifications

Google Cloud's certifications begin at two different doors. Cloud Digital Leader is the foundational, non-technical credential: six sections on digital transformation, data, AI, infrastructure modernisation, trust and security, and operations, each weighted roughly equally, aimed at people who work with cloud decisions rather than build on the platform. Associate Cloud Engineer is the hands-on associate credential: setting up a cloud environment, planning and implementing a solution, ensuring its operation, configuring access and security — the exam guide lists the tasks under each.

Both are proctored, online or at a test centre, under Google Cloud's exam terms, which also govern retakes and conduct. Neither has a prerequisite, and Google recommends hands-on experience for the associate exam rather than requiring it. Certifications are valid for a fixed period and renewed by recertifying.

Google's exam guide lists tasks rather than percentages for the associate exam, and the practice questions here are organised by those tasks; the Cloud Digital Leader guide, by contrast, publishes section weights. Both exams are multiple choice and multiple select, taken under exam terms that require a valid ID and, for online delivery, a private room and continuous monitoring, and Google reports a pass or fail without a numeric score.

How to use this family page: match your role to the door, open the exam guide for the section weights or task list, and work the practice sets by section. Because Google reports pass or fail without a score, the practice sets are the only calibration you get before the real exam, so treat their domain coverage as the map of what to study next.

Which first: Cloud Digital Leader is not a prerequisite for the associate exam, and engineers usually skip it. It earns its place for people whose work is adjacent to the platform — sales, product, project roles — who need the vocabulary rather than the console.