Taking the Google Cloud Certification Online Exam
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p.s. This is a refactored post which was originally part of my DevOps certification exam notes. These points apply to all exams and therefore I thought it would be valuable on its own.
The Online Exam
The DevOps Engineer certification was the first Google Cloud exam that I was taking online. So, let me put down my experience on that.
Booking the online exam is easier compared to the test center exam and more slots are available. For the exam in the test center, I had to book at least two days in advance. For this online exam, I booked it on the night of 21st October and took the exam on the morning of 22nd October. I’ve seen posts from other people saying that they prefer to book weeks or months in advance so that it gives them a deadline to work against. I don’t seem to need that and my bigger concern is my availability. I knew I’d be free the next morning, that I’d also prepared reasonably well, and I was able to book it and get it done. So that worked for me.
You have to install a software called Sentinel on your computer before the exam. Don’t wait until the exam date to do that. I’d recommend that you do it when you book the exam and get it done with. The software also asks you take a photograph for identification. If everything is done prior, you won’t get flustered with it just before taking the exam; get your focus on the exam and don’t allow these little things to increase your nervousness or anxiety.
Prior to the exam, clean out the area you are sitting in. Usually I have a lot of electronic paraphernalia and books around me. I cleared it out the previous night and only left a water bottle and my government issued identification on the table. When taking the exam at the test center, I had to carry two IDs, while here, one was enough. Again, don’t do this last minute just before the exam — it’s just going to be a distraction. If you have a small/medium sized mirror, keep that also at hand. We’ll soon see why. If not that, you would need your mobile phone temporarily.
Ten minutes prior to the exam time, login to Webassessor (https://www.webassessor.com/wa.do?page=publicHome&branding=GOOGLECLOUD). Go to “My Assessments” tab. Under “Scheduled Exams”, you should see your exam listed. There should now be a “Launch” button. Click the launch button which will launch Sentinel. It will take over your computer and no other applications will be accessible. I shut down all other apps before taking the exam. Of course, my web browser was open to launch the exam app. But even within that, I recommend that you close any tabs that can make some sound. I didn’t shut down one messaging app. Somebody sent a message, it had that notification sound, and though I couldn’t access the app, it deflected my attention making me wonder who might it have been.
You have to take the exam on a computer with a camera and mic. If you do not have it in-built into the computer, get an external one. The person overseeing your exam (called the proctor) is going to come online in a while. The primary communication medium with them is through chat, but I guess they can also speak to you (though they didn’t have to do it with me). That person will ask you to show all corners of the room you are sitting in and also below your chair and table. Then the mirror. They want to see that you don’t have anything attached to the screen itself. So reflect your screen and keyboard back to your webcam so that they can see that also. You are not allowed to wear headphones. Your ears should be visible in the video. So I’m assuming that those with long hair will have to tie it back. Don’t allow anybody to enter the room while you are taking the exam. Tell your family that in advance and establish the seriousness of it. You are not allowed to speak or gesture to anybody during the period of the exam. You are not allowed to get up from your seat. The video must capture you at all times. All this is done to ensure the integrity of the exams and to ensure that there is no cheating. Once satisfied with your setting and surroundings for the exam, the proctor will enable a Launch button. You can click that, accept the agreement and start the exam.
During the exam if there is any issue, the proctor will freeze the exam. For another renewal exam that I took after the DevOps exam, apparently the video was not being streamed. It was working on my side but it wasn’t going through to them. The proctor came online on chat, discussed the issue, asked me to restart the computer, and I was able to continue the exam from the point that it was automatically paused. So, if this happens to you, don’t panic. It’s normal — you continue from where you left off and you don’t lose the time that the exam was paused.
Somebody else who took another exam was reading out the questions loud. This is not allowed. The proctor will stop the exam and inform you about that. Obviously, if you continue doing that, there could be repercussions. Now, the way I work through these questions, I typically need to voice it out a bit and also draw diagrams in the air to give me a visual view of whatever was the architecture described in the question. You are not allowed to have pen/pencil/paper during the exam. So I would whisper-read a few key parts and do the air drawing also. None of that seemed to be a problem.
For the DevOps exam there are no case studies. However, a split window did show up for case studies. You can drag/minimize it to a side and ignore it. For certifications that do have a case study, of course, you can keep that open if you want.
My screen has high resolution and the questions were getting difficult to read. There is a zoom-in/zoom-out button on the top bar. Customize to your convenience.
It would be a good idea to find out the total number of questions right at the beginning so that you can pace yourself. For that, click the “Review All” button at the bottom right. It will show you the total number of questions.
Notes from each of my exams
For those appearing for the various certification exams, here is a list of sanitized notes (no direct question, only general topics) about the exam.
Overall notes across all GCP certification exams
Notes from the Professional Cloud Architect exam
Notes from the beta Professional Cloud Developer exam
Notes from the Professional Data Engineer exam
Notes from the Associate Cloud Engineer exam
Notes from the beta Professional Cloud Network Engineer Exam
Notes from the beta Professional Cloud Security Engineer Exam
Notes from the Professional Collaboration Engineer Exam
Notes from the Professional DevOps Engineer Exam
Github Repo
A collection of posts, videos, courses, qwiklabs, and other exam details for all exams: https://github.com/sathishvj/awesome-gcp-certifications
youtube.com/AwesomeGCP
I’ve been making videos on applying Google Cloud and preparing for the exams. You can subscribe to the channel here:
More Questions?
Check the FAQs here: https://medium.com/@sathishvj/frequently-asked-follow-up-questions-on-google-cloud-gcp-certifications-438e1addb91d.
Wish you the very best with your GCP certifications. You can reach me at LinkedIn and Twitter. If you can support my work creating videos on my YouTube channel AwesomeGCP, you can do so on Patreon or BuyMeACoffee.
