Google Professional Cloud Architect

 July 30, 2025

At this point, it has become kind of a ritual for me: renewing my Google Professional Architect Certification during the summer months. This time around, I renewed it slightly earlier than usual, which is today instead of the second half of August, as I did two years back.

Knowing the usual difficulties I have with scheduling the Google Cloud certification renewal exam, I started very early and, after a couple of attempts, managed to book the exam! I’m not sure whether I’m getting better at booking Google Cloud exams or whether the system is improving, making it easier to use.

While booking the exam, I saw that I had two options: I could either take the full exam or a shorter renewal exam. Since the renewal exam was shorter and less expensive, I opted for this option.

As for the full exam, it is heavily based on fictional case studies. Though for the renewal exam, the case studies are different. I like this case study approach, at least in theory. The reality is that all the questions I was asked about the case studies had a clear, correct answer, even when the referenced case study was ignored. It felt more like a cosmetic choice than a real case-study-driven exam.

Overall, I found the exam questions very reasonable, and very few questions were tricky questions, mostly because of imprecise wording or the usage of wording that has multiple meanings.

Although the Google certification experience is rough, it is getting better. Maybe next time I’ll have to renew my Google Cloud certifications (2027), it will be as smooth as the other vendors!

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