🌐 Google Cloud Architect (PCA)

An independent, free exam-preparation course that walks through the publicly published Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect (PCA) exam guide. It covers the six official exam domains — designing and planning a cloud solution architecture; managing and provisioning infrastructure; designing for security and compliance; analyzing and optimizing technical and business processes; managing implementation; and ensuring solution and operations reliability — plus the Google Cloud product knowledge they demand across compute (GCE, GKE, Cloud Run, App Engine, Cloud Functions), storage and databases (Cloud Storage, Spanner, Bigtable, BigQuery, Cloud SQL), networking (VPC, hybrid connectivity, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud CDN), data and ML, IAM, organization policy, VPC Service Controls, Cloud KMS, cost optimization and the official case-study method. It uses visual lessons, worked scenarios, original self-check questions and a 45-question final exam to build exam-ready architectural judgement. It is awareness/prep only — not the official Google Cloud training or the certification exam — and claims no Google affiliation or endorsement. The course is organized into 22 modules, ending with a final exam (pass mark 80%). It is independent, free exam-preparation training — not an official or accredited review course.

What you'll learn

• Designing & Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture
• Managing & Provisioning Infrastructure
• Identity & Access Management (IAM)
• Security & Compliance: Org Policy, VPC-SC, KMS
• Analyzing & Optimizing Technical & Business Processes
• Managing Implementation
• Ensuring Reliability & SRE Principles
• Compute Engine (GCE) — Virtual Machines
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
• Serverless: Cloud Run, App Engine & Cloud Functions
• Cloud Storage — Objects, Classes & Lifecycle
• Relational Databases: Cloud SQL & Spanner
• NoSQL & Analytics: Bigtable, Firestore & BigQuery
• Networking: VPC, Subnets & Firewall
• Hybrid Connectivity: VPN, Interconnect & Peering
• Cloud Load Balancing & Cloud CDN
• Data Pipelines & ML Overview
• Cost Optimization & Billing
• High Availability & Disaster Recovery
• The Official Case Studies: How to Read Them
• Applying a Method to Case-Study Questions
• Exam Strategy & Final Review

Learning objectives

• Translate business requirements into a Google Cloud solution architecture and map technical, compliance and cost constraints to design choices.
• Plan a resource hierarchy (organization, folders, projects) and provision infrastructure with the gcloud CLI, Deployment Manager and Terraform.
• Design secure foundations using IAM, organization policy, VPC Service Controls, Cloud KMS, Shielded VMs and least-privilege service accounts.
• Select the right compute platform — Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, App Engine or Cloud Functions — for a given workload.
• Choose appropriate storage and databases (Cloud Storage classes, Cloud SQL, Spanner, Bigtable, Firestore, BigQuery) by consistency, scale and cost.
• Architect networking with VPC, subnets, hybrid connectivity (Cloud VPN/Interconnect), Cloud Load Balancing and Cloud CDN.
• Build reliable systems with SRE principles, SLOs, autoscaling, multi-region failover and a disaster-recovery strategy.
• Optimize cost and performance using committed-use discounts, rightsizing, lifecycle policies and monitoring with Cloud Operations.
• Apply a repeatable method to the official PCA case studies and answer scenario questions under exam conditions.
• Pass a 45-question exam (80% to earn your certificate).