Google Professional Cloud Architect

 September 20, 2021

After having renewed the Google Associate Cloud Engineer certification, it was the moment to renew the Google Professional Cloud Architect certification as well.

Since I wanted to keep Windows on my laptop for the smallest amount of time possible, I decided to book the Professional Cloud Architect exam the day after the Associate Cloud Engineer one.

On the exam day (18th of August), having had experience the previous day, I ensured to set up everything correctly. As I did the previous day, I decided to use my Lenovo Bluetooth Laser Mouse. The exam started without any hiccups at 15:00. At around 15:30, I moved the mouse wheel to the left, triggering a “back” signal, equivalent to press the “back” button in a browser. Kryterion Sentinel decided that the proper way to handle such a signal was to interrupt the exam. I tried to call the Kriterion call centers, but a recorded voice informed me that the fastest way to access their customer care was via chat. I opened a chat with their support and got put in a queue of about 20 people. After 40 minutes, I managed to chat with a support representative, and they managed to schedule a new exam session for me a couple of minutes later (16:15).

Trying to re-start the exam at 16:15, it failed without a clear error, if not that the exam was “in progress” and at the same time “suspended”. I started a new chat session with their support. Another 20ish people in front of me, another 40 minutes of waiting. When I managed to speak with their operator, they informed me that everything seemed ok, so they agreed to reschedule my exam session. I asked to do so the following day at 15:00 since, by that time, it was already after 17:00.

The day after, at 15:00, I was ready to sit the exam again. Kriterion Sentinel allowed me into the session. I started to talk with the operator to check the identity, as usual. After checking my identity, the operator informed me that I was not allowed to sit that exam and should have contacted Google via email to understand how to proceed. Pointless to say that I would not have done my exam that day.

I contacted Google support via email, and in five days, the situation was cleared. Google support informed me that the attempt I made would be resulting in a failure but provided me a 100% discount coupon code since the cause was a technical issue. I tried to book a new session with the coupon code, but I was not able to do so since Google Certifications can not be re-tried for 14 days after a failed test. On the 25th, the exam was marked as failed. I tried to re-book the new exam for the 5th of September but failed. The system was aware that I was not allowed to do my exam before the 5th of September but decided to be over-cautious, so it did not allow me to even book the exam for a date after the 5th of September.

On the 5th of September, I was able to book my exam, and even if there were very few slots available, I managed to find one for the 7th of September.

On the 7th of September, I sat the exam (this time with a different mouse with no back button!) and passed it without issues.

I think there are three considerations to be made out of this experience:

• Kriterion Sentinel is very fragile, so try not to do anything weird such as doing anything that could emit a “back” signal.
• If you exit the happy path, the experience can be very frustrating.
• In the end, helpful people managed to fix the issues caused by a very fragile system and process.

I hope next time around I’ll be able to go to a test center to renew the certifications so that I will not have to deal with possible unhappy paths!

Disclaimer: I have not personally paid for this exam since my current employer has covered the certification expenses.