Simulate the real Google Professional Cloud Architect exam with full-length timed sessions. Questions drawn proportionally from all 11 official blueprint domains — the same mix you'll face on test day.
Simulate real exam conditions
For the most realistic PCA simulation, start a 60 or 120-question session, put away all notes, set a timer matching the real exam duration (120 minutes), and commit to each answer before moving forward. This trains the time management and decision-making skills the real exam tests.
This free PCA mock exam uses the same question distribution as the real Google Professional Cloud Architect exam. Each session draws questions proportionally from all 11 official blueprint domains published by Google Cloud, so the topic mix you see accurately reflects what you'll face on test day.
PCA Domain Distribution
Managing Implementation and Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability
Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture
Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
Designing for Security and Compliance
Analysing and Optimising Technical and Business Processes
Design and plan a cloud solution architecture
Manage and provision cloud infrastructure
Design for security and compliance
Analyze and optimize technical and business processes
Manage implementation of cloud architecture
Ensure solution and operations reliability
Every question is written by certified engineers against the 2026 PCA exam objectives. These are original practice questions — not dumps — so you build real understanding rather than memorising answers.
Both the mock exam and practice test use the same question bank. The difference is in how you use them — and when to use each during your PCA study plan.
Practice test — for learning
Use the PCA practice test when you are studying a domain. Answer questions, read every explanation immediately, and build understanding. Do 10–30 questions per domain per session. This is your primary study tool for the first 4 weeks.
Go to practice test →Mock exam — for simulation
Use the PCA mock exam in the final 1–2 weeks before your test date. Complete a 60 or 120-question session without stopping, manage your time, then review all results at the end. This builds exam-day stamina and surfaces final weak spots.
Start 120-question mock →Try these sample questions from the mock exam bank. Commit to an answer before revealing the explanation.
A company wants to connect their on-premises data center to Google Cloud with a dedicated private connection that provides 99.99% availability and supports up to 100 Gbps bandwidth. They have a colocation facility near a Google Cloud region. Which connectivity option should they choose?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company wants to migrate its on-premises monolithic application to Google Cloud with minimal changes. They plan to run it on a virtual machine with a predictable workload that runs 24/7 for a one-year commitment. Which compute option is MOST cost-effective?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
An engineer needs to provision a GKE cluster with a node pool that uses preemptible VMs to reduce costs. Which gcloud command should they use?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company wants to control which resources can be accessed by a service account in a specific project. Which IAM policy binding approach should be used?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company wants to reduce costs for a batch analytics job that runs nightly for 4 hours on Compute Engine VMs. The job is fault-tolerant and can handle instance restarts. Which Compute Engine VM pricing model is MOST cost-effective?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company is migrating on-premises workloads to Google Cloud. They have a critical application that requires consistent low-latency access to a database, with read replicas in multiple regions for disaster recovery. The application is expected to grow by 10x over the next year. Which database service and configuration should the architect choose to meet these requirements?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company is deploying a new application on Compute Engine. They need to ensure that the application can automatically recover from a zone failure. What is the best approach?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company is migrating sensitive customer data to Google Cloud. They need to ensure data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Which Google Cloud service provides a centralized way to manage encryption keys used by Google Cloud services?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company is migrating its on-premises Oracle database to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. The database team wants to minimize downtime during migration. Which approach should they use?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
Your team has deployed a microservices application on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with multiple services communicating via internal ClusterIP services. You notice that some requests between services are failing intermittently with 'connection refused' errors. The services are defined with readiness probes. What is the most likely cause?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A company runs a critical application on Compute Engine instances in a managed instance group (MIG) with autoscaling. During a traffic spike, some instances become unhealthy but are not automatically replaced. What is the most likely cause?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
Answer all 11 questions to see your domain score breakdown
Sitting the PCA under real exam conditions is a skill in itself. Candidates who underperform often do so not because of knowledge gaps, but because of poor time management or test anxiety. Use your final mock exam sessions to address both.
The PCA exam lasts 120 minutes. Do not spend more than 90 seconds on any single question on the first pass. Flag difficult ones and return to them after completing the rest.
On every question, immediately eliminate obviously wrong choices. Even if you are unsure between two options, narrowing to two doubles your odds. Most PCA distractors contain a subtle error — re-read the scenario constraint before committing to the answer that sounds most familiar.
Google Cloud writes many PCA questions as realistic scenarios. Read the final sentence first — it tells you what is being asked. Then re-read the scenario with the question in mind to avoid wasting time on irrelevant details.
The real PCA is a mental marathon lasting 120 minutes. In the week before your exam, complete at least two full timed mock sessions on separate days to build concentration stamina. If you cannot stay focused for 120 minutes in practice, you will struggle on exam day.
Questions
60
On the real exam
Time limit
120 min
2 min per question
Passing score
720/1000
Scaled scoring
The PCA uses scaled scoring — your raw percentage correct is converted to a score out of 1000. Consistently scoring above 80% on mock exams puts you well above the 720/1000 threshold, giving you a buffer for any unexpected question types on the real exam.
Yes. Courseiva provides free PCA mock exam questions across all official exam domains. The platform includes timed simulation, per-domain score breakdown, missed-question review, and readiness tracking. No account required — free forever, supported by advertising.
The practice test is optimised for learning: you see explanations after each question immediately. The mock exam is optimised for simulation: you answer all questions under time pressure and review at the end. Use practice tests for studying and mock exams for benchmarking.
Aim for consistent scores of 80% or above on full-length PCA mock exams before booking your test date. The official passing score of 720/1000 corresponds to roughly 72–75% correct answers, so an 80% buffer accounts for difficulty variation and question styles on the real exam.
Most candidates who pass PCA on their first attempt complete 3–5 full-length mock exams in the two weeks before their test. This is enough to identify final weak spots, build stamina, and verify readiness without over-stressing or running out of fresh questions.
No — all Courseiva questions are original, written by certified engineers against public Google Cloud exam blueprints. Exam dumps are memorised real exam questions shared illegally. Using dumps violates your Google Cloud certification agreement and can result in your certification being revoked. Our questions make you genuinely competent, not just test-day lucky.
Track your mock exam scores, see per-domain analytics, and benchmark readiness across every certification.
Sign Up FreeFree forever · Every certification included