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Start guided practiceGoogle’s flagship architecture exam: designing and planning cloud architectures, managing infrastructure, designing for security and compliance, and ensuring operational reliability.
Google Cloud does not publish numeric exam codes — PCA is the common abbreviation.
Google Professional Cloud Architect is Google Cloud's professional-level cloud computing certification, referred to across the industry by the shorthand PCA. The exam runs for 2 hours and presents up to 55 questions, with a pass mark of not published by Google. It costs US$200 at the standard rate.
Google Cloud publishes the syllabus as 6 weighted domains. Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture carries the most weight at 24%, and the three largest domains together account for roughly 60% of the scored content — worth knowing before you decide where study time goes.
Roughly a third of the exam is drawn from published case studies. Reading them in advance — and deciding what you would recommend before exam day — is the single most effective preparation step.
Confirm these details on the official Google Cloud page before booking — vendors adjust format and pricing without notice.
Some forms include unscored trial questions
Standard rate, before local taxes
The published exam guide for PCA, in the vendor's own order.
01Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture
24%02Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure
15%03Designing for security and compliance
18%04Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes
18%05Managing implementations of cloud architecture
11%06Ensuring solution and operations reliability
14%Three or more years of industry experience including at least one year on Google Cloud.
Professional level — Advanced credentials covering design, scale and trade-off decisions.
Preview 25 supported questions before unlocking the 335-question PCA bank.
Community-contributedCompiled from publicly posted community exam discussions. Contributed by third parties rather than written here, so accuracy varies and most items carry no explanation. Progress and bookmarks stay in this browser.
Answer support: 275 explanations, 335 questions with candidate context and 248 questions with direct citations. Bank updated .
Choose an answer, reveal the key, and review available explanations, citations and candidate context.
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Compiled from exam discussions posted publicly by other people on ExamTopics. Copyright in each contribution rests with its original author; it is reproduced here for study. Not verified by us — most items carry no explanation. To request removal, see our content policy.
Google Cloud lists up to 55 questions, to be completed in 2 hours. Question counts can vary slightly between exam forms, and unscored trial questions are sometimes included.
Not published by Google. Confirm the current figure on the official exam page before booking, as vendors adjust cut scores when an exam form is refreshed.
The standard price is US$200. Local pricing, taxes and any retake policy vary by region, so check the official page for the figure that applies to you.
Three or more years of industry experience including at least one year on Google Cloud.
The exam guide covers Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture, Managing and provisioning a solution infrastructure, Designing for security and compliance, Analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes and Managing implementations of cloud architecture, plus 1 further domain. The full weighted breakdown is listed above.
Yes — this exam has 335 practice questions available here, each with the correct answer marked. They are community-contributed, compiled from exam discussions posted publicly by other people rather than written here, and most do not carry an explanation.