Google Cloud certification practice
Practise Google Professional Cloud Architect PCA across all 10 official exam domains — Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability, Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure, Designing for Security and Compliance, Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes, and more — with original exam-style questions, full explanations, and wrong-answer analysis. Courseiva helps you prepare with realistic practice questions, topic-based revision, explained answers and structured study routes.
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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Recommended: 25-question diagnostic
Covers all 10 domains · takes ~5 min · no account needed · shows your weak areas immediately
Key facts for the Google Professional Cloud Architect exam.
Exam cost
$200 USD / ~£160
Duration
120 minutes
Question count
~50-60 questions
Passing score
Pass / Fail (scaled score reported)
Validity
3 years
Delivered by
Kryterion (Webassessor)
Online proctored
Yes — available
Retake policy
100% free — no account required
Everything on Courseiva for Google PCA is free — no subscription, no trial, no email wall.
Courseiva provides free Google Professional Cloud Architect (PCA) practice questions with original exam-style questions, detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics. Courseiva is an independent platform and is not affiliated with Google Cloud.
14 days between attempts (up to 3 attempts); after 3rd failure, 60-day waiting period
Question formats
The Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification validates the ability to design, develop, and manage dynamic solutions using Google Cloud technologies. Candidates must demonstrate their ability to leverage cloud technologies to enable business outcomes and ensure solution security, reliability, and scalability. The exam covers architectural design, infrastructure management, security, compliance, and technical and business processes. It is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious Google Cloud certifications.
Official prerequisite
None — no formal prerequisites required
Recommended experience
3+ years of industry experience including 1+ year designing and managing Google Cloud solutions
Professionals with hands-on experience designing enterprise-grade cloud architectures on Google Cloud
Should you skip this exam?
Skip if you are new to cloud; start with Google Cloud Digital Leader or Associate Cloud Engineer instead
Courseiva study tip
Work through official case studies (Mountkirk Games, Dress4Win, TerramEarth, Helicopter Racing League) and practice designing end-to-end solutions, not just memorising services
UK salary range
£70,000 – £110,000
US salary range
$130,000 – $180,000
Job roles that cite PCA
What certification to take next
The exam costs $200 USD. Prices may vary slightly by country.
Google does not publish a specific numerical passing score. Results are reported as Pass or Fail after exam delivery.
It is considered one of the hardest Google Cloud exams (rated 5/5). It tests deep architectural judgment across security, reliability, cost, and compliance — often using scenario-based case studies.
The exam typically contains 50-60 questions, including multiple choice and multiple select questions, some tied to case study scenarios.
It tests your ability to design secure, scalable, highly available Google Cloud solutions covering compute, storage, networking, databases, security, and cost optimisation.
The certification is valid for 3 years. You must recertify by retaking the exam before expiry.
Solutions architects, cloud engineers, and technical leads with at least 1 year of Google Cloud design experience who want to demonstrate senior-level cloud architecture skills.
See how PCA stacks up against related certifications.
Courseiva Exam Intelligence
Data confidence: BuildingDerived from Courseiva's continuously updated practice dataset: 955 exam-style questions. Updated 2 July 2026.
Question difficulty mix
Average time per question: 93s
6
Exam domains
official blueprint domains covered by the bank
955
Questions
exam-style questions in the Google PCA bank
Practice modes
Choose a mode that matches your current study phase. Use topic practice early on and mock exams closer to your exam date.
All Google PCA Questions
Browse the full question bank organised by domain and difficulty.
Practice Test
Start a 20-question session with a full explanation after each answer.
Mock Exam
Simulate the real exam with a timed, full-length question set.
Quick 25
A 25-question warm-up — ideal for a short daily study session.
Flashcards
Reinforce key terms, commands, and protocol facts with flashcards.
Domain Practice
Focus exclusively on one exam domain to target your weakest area.
50-Question Set
Mid-length practice set covering all domains.
Exam guide
Start with a short practice session, review each missed answer, then return to the topics that caused mistakes.
Google Professional Cloud Architect PCA spans 10 official exam domains (Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability, Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure, Designing for Security and Compliance, and more). Questions test whether you can apply each objective in a realistic scenario, not just recall a definition.
Related practice questions
Use these internal links to move from the exam guide into focused topic practice pages.
Practise PCA questions linked to Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability.
Practise PCA questions linked to Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure.
Practise PCA questions linked to Designing for Security and Compliance.
Practise PCA questions linked to Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes.
Practise PCA questions linked to Design and plan a cloud solution architecture.
Practise PCA questions linked to Manage and provision cloud infrastructure.
Practise PCA questions linked to Design for security and compliance.
Practise PCA questions linked to Analyze and optimize technical and business processes.
Practise PCA questions linked to Manage implementation of cloud architecture.
Practise PCA questions linked to Ensure solution and operations reliability.
Practise PCA questions linked to PCA fundamentals.
Practise PCA questions linked to PCA scenario.
Practice directory
Every practice set is a unique selection of questions — numbered tests, domain-focused sessions, and topic-specific quizzes.
Showing 8 of 62 tests. See all 62 Google PCA practice tests →
Official blueprint
Target weak areas by practising questions from a single domain. Each domain page shows all questions, difficulty breakdown, and a focused practice session.
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Deep-dive questions
The most-searched Google PCA questions — each with a detailed explanation, worked example, and full answer breakdown.
Browse all Google PCA questions →Term reference
These terms appear frequently in Google PCA questions. Understanding them precisely reduces guessing and improves scores.
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer files between a client and a server over a TCP/IP network.
Public IP address
A globally unique IP address assigned to a device that allows it to communicate directly over the internet.
Persistent Disk
Persistent Disk is a durable, high-performance block storage service for Google Cloud virtual machines that retains data even after the VM is shut down or deleted.
Sole-tenant node
A physical Compute Engine server that is dedicated solely to your project, ensuring that no other customer's virtual machines (VMs) run on that same hardware.
EBS encryption
EBS encryption is a security feature that automatically encrypts data stored on Amazon Elastic Block Store volumes, protecting it at rest and in transit between the volume and the attached EC2 instance.
Structured data
Structured data is information that is organized in a predefined format, typically in rows and columns, making it easy to search, process, and analyze by computers.
Common Criteria
Common Criteria is an international standard (ISO 15408) that provides a common framework for evaluating the security features and capabilities of information technology products.
SFTP
SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a secure method for transferring files over a network using an encrypted SSH connection.
Free study guide
The Courseiva Google PCA study guide covers exam format, the official domain blueprint with weights, a structured study plan, and domain-specific tips for each section. Use it alongside practice questions to build both conceptual depth and exam confidence.
Sample questions
Original exam-style questions — not copied from any exam or dump site. Open a question for the full answer breakdown.
A financial services company is designing a multi-region application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for high availability. They need to serve user requests from the closest regi…
A web application running on Compute Engine behind a global HTTP(S) load balancer experiences high latency during traffic spikes. Which quick fix would best address this issue with…
A startup runs a web application on App Engine standard environment. They want to ensure the application can handle sudden traffic spikes without manual intervention. Which App Eng…
A large enterprise is migrating their on-premises data center to Google Cloud. They have hundreds of VMs and need to minimize network latency between on-prem and cloud during migra…
A company deploys a critical application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and wants to ensure high availability during cluster upgrades. Which TWO practices should they follow?
A company is using BigQuery for data analytics. They want to optimize costs while maintaining query performance. Which TWO actions should they take? (Choose 2.)
Related certifications
Studying for Google PCA? These related Google Cloud certifications share concepts and are common next steps.
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Ways to study Google PCA