My perspective on the difficulty level of the 3 Cloud Architect Certification exams I’ve cleared.
Published in · 4 min read · Jul 1, 2023
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In June 2023, I cleared the Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect exam.
When I started preparing for this certification, I wanted to set timelines and be mentally prepared for the difficulty level of the exam. Therefore, I was looking for some kind of comparison with my already-acquired AWS certificates. This unfortunately wasn't easy to find (especially with AWS CSA — Professional). And that's the reason to write this short blog.
Before GCP-Cloud Architect, I had already cleared AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional (AWS-SAP) in 2021. And AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate (AWS-SAA) in 2020.
Just a note, AWS-SAP has got a new version of exam in 2022 — SAP-C02, I haven't appeared for this exam as yet & this writeup is based on my experience with SAP-C01.
AWS-SAA is a beginner-level cloud architect certification in my view. It covers the breadth of the services from AWS & cloud concepts but it does not go in deep.
In the remaining write-up, I’ll talk about AWS-SAP & Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect as they both sound similar & cover scenario-based questions.
1. AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional
There are 75 questions to be answered in 3 hours. This makes it very hard to crack, as it tests the ability to make the most optimal decisions in a short time. Deep knowledge and hands-on practice are crucial to making these decisions fast without contemplating much.
Selection by elimination absorbs time and needs to be avoided for this exam.
Moreover, the constant context switch from one question to another is a little nerve-wracking in my view & needs practice.
Certainly, there are some simpler questions, but there are 2 profiles of questions which make it difficult —
- Very lengthy but straightforward — These questions describe a situation & could even take the entire screen. It takes time to wrap your head around the mentioned situation, but once the situation is clear its are usually straightforward.
- Short but tricky — These could trick based on the limits of the service or certain constraints about the operational environment or some minor detail. Often there is more than one correct answer but the challenge is to pick the most optimal one(s).
2. Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect
There are 50 questions to be answered in 2 hours. While it still follows the same 25 questions/ hour as AWS-SAP, I found this exam way more balanced and relaxed as compared to AWS-SAP.
There is a mix of simple questions and advanced-level questions (Perhaps it's designed this way because Google Cloud offers a single Architect certification unlike AWS).
While the advanced-level questions do need deep knowledge, I found that there was enough time to contemplate and arrive at the correct answer.
Moreover, the case studies are already part of the curriculum of the exam. This makes it possible to wrap your head around the situation before the exam. And during the exam, it's possible to attempt all questions from a case study together to avoid context switching.
The professional titled certificates go into the scenarios, therefore the official case studies & blogs are helpful.
Additionally, for AWS-SAP (and AWS in general), I find content from Neal Davis to be very comprehensive & up to date. For AWS-SAP, I had taken an additional course from Stéphane Maarek.
For GCP-Cloud Architect, I’m not aware of a single course which is comprehensive enough to tackle the breadth & depth of the exam. Course Ranga Rao Karanam is pretty helpful but the exam goes into more detail on Hybrid connectivity, Migration use cases & ML possibilities. The course from Dr Nizar Msadek is also good.
While both “Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect” & “AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional” sound similar in their titles & are considered advanced-level certifications: In my view, AWS-SAP is way more difficult to clear than GCP-Cloud Architect.
As per Chee Siong Chan (who has cleared all Google Cloud and AWS certifications), Google Cloud certifications are generally easier.
In fact, he rates AWS-SAP as the toughest in his blog here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/passing-all-12-google-cloud-certifications-chee-siong/
