An independent, self-paced exam preparation course for cloud professionals studying for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect exam. Seven lessons cover designing for business and technical requirements, the resource hierarchy and IAM, networking, choosing compute and data services, reliability and operations, security and compliance, and case-study exam technique. This is exam preparation only: it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google, does not include an exam voucher and does not award any certification. Check the current official exam guide and case studies before you book.
What you will learn
- Translate business and technical requirements into designs
- Design resource hierarchies and IAM
- Design VPC networking and hybrid connectivity
- Choose compute, storage and database services
- Design for reliability and operate with SRE practices
- Apply security and compliance controls
- Work through case-study questions efficiently
Lessons
- Requirements and Solution Design
- Resource Hierarchy and IAM
- Networking
- Compute and Data Choices
- Reliability and Operations
- Security and Compliance
- Case Studies and Exam Technique
Independent exam-preparation material from Tech Skills Library. Not accredited by, affiliated with or endorsed by any certification scheme owner or examination institute. Completing it does not award a certification, licence or credential; official exams are booked with the scheme owner or its exam provider. Verify the current exam format and fees before booking. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Lessons
Requirements and Solution Design
Resource Hierarchy and IAM
Hierarchy Organisation, folders, projects and resources. Policies set at higher levels are inherited. Use folders for departments or environments and projects for workloads. IAM Grant roles to groups rather than individuals. Prefer predefined roles; use custom roles when needed; avoid broad basic roles in production. Apply least privilege. Service accounts Workloads use service accounts. Avoid […]
Networking
VPC design VPCs are global with regional subnets. Shared VPC lets a host project provide networks to service projects, centralising network control. Connectivity VPC peering connects VPCs without transitive routing. Cloud VPN and dedicated or partner interconnects connect on-premises networks; use redundant tunnels or links for availability. Private access Private service access and private connectivity […]
Compute and Data Choices
Compute Virtual machines and managed instance groups for full control and lift-and-shift. Managed Kubernetes for container platforms. Serverless containers for stateless HTTP services with minimal operations. Functions for event-driven code. Application platforms for simple web apps. Storage and databases Object storage with storage classes for different access patterns. Managed relational databases for standard SQL workloads. […]
Reliability and Operations
Designing for reliability Use multiple zones and, where required, multiple regions. Managed instance groups with health checks and autoscaling replace failed instances. Disaster recovery Choose cold, warm or hot patterns based on RTO and RPO. Replicate data across regions where needed. SRE practices Define service level indicators and objectives, use error budgets to balance releases […]
Security and Compliance
Data protection Encryption at rest by default, customer-managed keys where required, and data loss prevention tools for sensitive data discovery. Access Identity-aware proxy for application access without VPNs, least-privilege IAM and audit logging. Compliance Choose regions for data residency, retain audit logs and document controls. The provider’s compliance reports cover its infrastructure; customers remain responsible […]
Case Studies and Exam Technique
Case studies Study each published case study: the company’s current environment, business requirements and technical requirements. Questions often reference them. Approach Identify the key qualifier in each question, eliminate options that break requirements and prefer managed services when operational effort matters. Study plan Use the official guide, documentation, architecture framework, hands-on labs and timed practice […]