How many questions are on the GCP Professional Cloud Architect exam?

The GCP PCA exam contains 50 questions in 120 minutes. Approximately 40% of questions are tied to 4 official case studies (EHR Healthcare, Helicopter Racing League, Mountkirk Games, TerramEarth).

What is the passing score for the GCP Professional Cloud Architect?

Google Cloud does not disclose a specific passing score for the Professional Cloud Architect exam.

Are the GCP PCA case studies published in advance?

Yes — Google publishes the 4 official case studies on the exam guide page. Candidates are expected to study them before the exam, as questions reference these companies directly.

How long is the GCP Professional Cloud Architect certification valid?

GCP Professional certifications are valid for 2 years.

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GCP Professional Cloud Architect

GCP Professional Cloud Architect Practice Exam 3

50 free questions · No sign-up required to browse

Comprehensive practice exam for the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification. Tests advanced architectural design, business case analysis, and enterprise solution deployment on GCP.

Questions

Mixed

Difficulty

70%

Pass mark

Difficulty breakdown

Easy(8)

Medium(25)

Hard(17)

Topics covered

Browse all topics →

Domain 1: Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture Domain 2: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure Domain 3: Designing for Security and Compliance Domain 4: Analyzing and Optimizing Technical and Business Processes Domain 5: Managing Implementation and Ensuring Reliability

Sample questions

Q01Medium1 mark

CASE STUDY: TechStream Gaming

Company Overview:
TechStream Gaming is a global gaming company with 500 employees and $100M in annual revenue. They develop multiplayer online games.

Current Technical Environment:

On-premises data centers in US and EU
200 servers (mix of Windows and Linux)
MySQL databases (5 TB total)
Peak concurrent users: 2 million
Current monthly infrastructure cost: $100K

Business Requirements:

Reduce infrastructure costs by 40%
Support 5x user growth over 2 years
Launch in 3 new regions (APAC, SA, Africa)
Improve deployment speed (current: 1 week -> target: daily)

Executive Statements:

CEO: "We need to scale rapidly to compete with larger gaming companies. Cloud migration is critical to our growth strategy."
CFO: "Cost reduction is paramount. We cannot exceed $60K/month in cloud costs. ROI must be achieved within 18 months."
CTO: "Our team has limited cloud experience. We need a solution that doesn't require extensive retraining. Reliability is non-negotiable - 99.95% uptime minimum."

Technical Requirements:

Sub-100ms latency for players globally
Real-time analytics on player behavior
Seasonal traffic spikes (5x during holidays)
DDoS protection
CI/CD pipeline for daily deployments

Constraints:

Migration must complete in 12 months
Cannot exceed 4-hour downtime during cutover
Development team: 20 engineers (Java, MySQL expertise)
Operations team: 5 engineers (limited cloud experience)

QUESTION:
Based on the CTO's constraints and the business requirements for daily deployments and scalability, which migration strategy should you recommend for the application tier?

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Q02Hard1 mark

CASE STUDY: TechStream Gaming

Company Overview:
TechStream Gaming is a global gaming company with 500 employees and $100M in annual revenue. They develop multiplayer online games.

Current Technical Environment:

On-premises data centers in US and EU
200 servers (mix of Windows and Linux)
MySQL databases (5 TB total)
Peak concurrent users: 2 million
Current monthly infrastructure cost: $100K

Business Requirements:

Reduce infrastructure costs by 40%
Support 5x user growth over 2 years
Launch in 3 new regions (APAC, SA, Africa)
Improve deployment speed (current: 1 week -> target: daily)

Executive Statements:

CEO: "We need to scale rapidly to compete with larger gaming companies. Cloud migration is critical to our growth strategy."
CFO: "Cost reduction is paramount. We cannot exceed $60K/month in cloud costs. ROI must be achieved within 18 months."
CTO: "Our team has limited cloud experience. We need a solution that doesn't require extensive retraining. Reliability is non-negotiable - 99.95% uptime minimum."

Technical Requirements:

Sub-100ms latency for players globally
Real-time analytics on player behavior
Seasonal traffic spikes (5x during holidays)
DDoS protection
CI/CD pipeline for daily deployments

Constraints:

Migration must complete in 12 months
Cannot exceed 4-hour downtime during cutover
Development team: 20 engineers (Java, MySQL expertise)
Operations team: 5 engineers (limited cloud experience)

QUESTION:
To meet the technical requirements for global latency and security, how should you design the network ingress architecture?

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Q03Medium1 mark

CASE STUDY: TechStream Gaming

Company Overview:
TechStream Gaming is a global gaming company with 500 employees and $100M in annual revenue. They develop multiplayer online games.

Current Technical Environment:

On-premises data centers in US and EU
200 servers (mix of Windows and Linux)
MySQL databases (5 TB total)
Peak concurrent users: 2 million
Current monthly infrastructure cost: $100K

Business Requirements:

Reduce infrastructure costs by 40%
Support 5x user growth over 2 years
Launch in 3 new regions (APAC, SA, Africa)
Improve deployment speed (current: 1 week -> target: daily)

Executive Statements:

CEO: "We need to scale rapidly to compete with larger gaming companies. Cloud migration is critical to our growth strategy."
CFO: "Cost reduction is paramount. We cannot exceed $60K/month in cloud costs. ROI must be achieved within 18 months."
CTO: "Our team has limited cloud experience. We need a solution that doesn't require extensive retraining. Reliability is non-negotiable - 99.95% uptime minimum."

Technical Requirements:

Sub-100ms latency for players globally
Real-time analytics on player behavior
Seasonal traffic spikes (5x during holidays)
DDoS protection
CI/CD pipeline for daily deployments

Constraints:

Migration must complete in 12 months
Cannot exceed 4-hour downtime during cutover
Development team: 20 engineers (Java, MySQL expertise)
Operations team: 5 engineers (limited cloud experience)

QUESTION:
Which database solution should you recommend to replace the on-premises MySQL databases, considering the team's skills, the need for global expansion, and the 99.95% uptime requirement?

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Q04Easy1 mark

CASE STUDY: TechStream Gaming

Company Overview:
TechStream Gaming is a global gaming company with 500 employees and $100M in annual revenue. They develop multiplayer online games.

Current Technical Environment:

On-premises data centers in US and EU
200 servers (mix of Windows and Linux)
MySQL databases (5 TB total)
Peak concurrent users: 2 million
Current monthly infrastructure cost: $100K

Business Requirements:

Reduce infrastructure costs by 40%
Support 5x user growth over 2 years
Launch in 3 new regions (APAC, SA, Africa)
Improve deployment speed (current: 1 week -> target: daily)

Executive Statements:

CEO: "We need to scale rapidly to compete with larger gaming companies. Cloud migration is critical to our growth strategy."
CFO: "Cost reduction is paramount. We cannot exceed $60K/month in cloud costs. ROI must be achieved within 18 months."
CTO: "Our team has limited cloud experience. We need a solution that doesn't require extensive retraining. Reliability is non-negotiable - 99.95% uptime minimum."

Technical Requirements:

Sub-100ms latency for players globally
Real-time analytics on player behavior
Seasonal traffic spikes (5x during holidays)
DDoS protection
CI/CD pipeline for daily deployments

Constraints:

Migration must complete in 12 months
Cannot exceed 4-hour downtime during cutover
Development team: 20 engineers (Java, MySQL expertise)
Operations team: 5 engineers (limited cloud experience)

QUESTION:
How should you address the CTO's concern regarding the operations team's limited cloud experience while ensuring the 12-month migration timeline is met?

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Q05Medium1 mark

CASE STUDY: TechStream Gaming

Company Overview:
TechStream Gaming is a global gaming company with 500 employees and $100M in annual revenue. They develop multiplayer online games.

Current Technical Environment:

On-premises data centers in US and EU
200 servers (mix of Windows and Linux)
MySQL databases (5 TB total)
Peak concurrent users: 2 million
Current monthly infrastructure cost: $100K

Business Requirements:

Reduce infrastructure costs by 40%
Support 5x user growth over 2 years
Launch in 3 new regions (APAC, SA, Africa)
Improve deployment speed (current: 1 week -> target: daily)

Executive Statements:

CEO: "We need to scale rapidly to compete with larger gaming companies. Cloud migration is critical to our growth strategy."
CFO: "Cost reduction is paramount. We cannot exceed $60K/month in cloud costs. ROI must be achieved within 18 months."
CTO: "Our team has limited cloud experience. We need a solution that doesn't require extensive retraining. Reliability is non-negotiable - 99.95% uptime minimum."

Technical Requirements:

Sub-100ms latency for players globally
Real-time analytics on player behavior
Seasonal traffic spikes (5x during holidays)
DDoS protection
CI/CD pipeline for daily deployments

Constraints:

Migration must complete in 12 months
Cannot exceed 4-hour downtime during cutover
Development team: 20 engineers (Java, MySQL expertise)
Operations team: 5 engineers (limited cloud experience)

QUESTION:
To meet the CFO's requirement of reducing costs to under $60K/month while handling seasonal traffic spikes, which cost optimization strategy should you implement?

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