[GCP] DevOps Certification

_posts/2022-09-10-gcp-devops-prep.md

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+---
+layout: post
+comments: true
+title: GCP DevOps Certification Preparation Guide
+excerpt: Tips and resources to get ready for passing Google DevOps Engineer Certification.
+categories: certification
+tags: [gcp,cloud,devops,certification]
+toc: true
+img_excerpt:
+---
+
+<center><img alt="Professional DevOps Engineer Certification" src='https://badges.images.credential.net/1548352102758.png' width='300' height='300'></center>
+
+
+I recently passed Google Professional DevOps Engineer Certification and while preparing I went throught lot resources.
+I had to go over the documentation of a lot of Google Cloud products and at no point I felt ready.
+
+In this article, I will try to provide a summary of the resources I did found helpful for passing the exam, in addition to some of topics I wished I had spent more time reading about.
+
+
+I first started my preparation by reading this book [link](https://www.packtpub.com/product/google-cloud-for-devops-engineers/9781839218019) which is a good read even if it's not focused on the exam. It does cover general DevOps practices (particularly SRE practices as recommended by Google) and lot about the GCP resources that a DevOps engineer is expected to know when working on GCP.
+
+
+It is very good starting point for the preparation if you have little knowledge on Google Cloud services and DevOps. Google also recommends reading the SRE book - [link](https://sre.google/sre-book/table-of-contents/), you can also find other SRE resources by Google here - [link](https://sre.google/).
+
+> Keep in mind that Google update its services very often, thus any source of information other than the official documentation may become quickly out dated.
+
+The exam is relatively at the same difficulty level of the Data engineer certification exam:
+- It is recommended to have at least 3 years of industry experience with at least 1 years using GCP.
+- The format of the exam is Multiple choice quesitons, there are 50 questions to be finished within 2h.
+- You can take the exam in person at a test center or online.
+
+The exman focuses on the following areas:
+- Storage: block and persistent disks
+- Databases: sql and nosql databases, warehousing
+- Compute: AppEngine, Compute, kubernetes, functions
+- Networking: VPC, data-centers to GCP connections
+- DevOps: CI, CD, deployment strategies
+- Security: permissions, roles, groups, service accounts, etc.
+
+I could not find a comprehensive resource that covers all aspect of the exam when I started preparing. 
+
+
+
+## Other
+- Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud DevOps Engineer Professional Certificate - [link](https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/sre-devops-engineer-google-cloud)
+
+## Certification SWAG
+After passing the exam, you can choose one of the official certification swags:
+
+![devops certification swags]({{ "assets/2022/09/20220910-gc-devops-certif-swags.png" | absolute_url }}){: .center-image }
+
+## That's all folks
+Check the following preparation tips for passing other Google certifications:
+- Data Engineer certification - [link](https://dzlab.github.io/certification/2021/12/04/gcp-data-engineer-prep/) and
+- Machine Learning Engineer certification - [link](https://dzlab.github.io/certification/2022/01/08/gcp-ml-engineer-prep/).
+- Cloud Developer certification - [link](https://dzlab.github.io/certification/2022/05/16/gcp-developer-prep/).
+
+
+Feel free to leave a comment or reach out on twitter [@bachiirc](https://twitter.com/bachiirc)