Preparing for Google Cloud DevOps Exam - Exam Study Resources

This is one of the numerous posts by TechCommanders in a series for studying for the Google Cloud Professional DevOps Exam

DevOps is an ever in demand skillset that companies and government entities are now clearly in need of.

Passing the Google Cloud Professional DevOps Engineer exam will distinguish you as a leader in this constantly evolving area of development.

Before discussing my insight into the exam guide here is the official blurb from Google Cloud about what a Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer is about. Ill will follow up with my thoughts about the exam after the following.

  • A Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer is responsible for efficient development operations that can balance service reliability and delivery speed.
    1. They are skilled at using Google Cloud Platform to build software delivery pipelines, deploy and monitor services, and manage and learn from incidents.
    2. The DevOps Engineer exam is not just about DevOps, it’s about how Google looks at DevOps.  What this means is that Google takes a very analytical approach to deploying applications.  You will need to know the Google way which incorporates Site Recovery Engineering Aspects.  This I can assure will challenge you on the exam if you have not read the Google SRE Workbook for example. 

Prospective Organizations that would benefit from the exam.

From an organization perspective I would also add that enterprise focused organizations would also gain value from the certification.

  • IT Vendors
  • Solutions Integrators
  • Enterprise Development Organizations
  • Consulting Organizations

Why should you take this challenging Exam?

I lay out four reasons to consider this exam over other industry DevOps and Cloud certifications.

  1. First reason is the exam will validate your knowledgeable in not only DevOps, but also Site Recovery Engineering, Kubernetes and Google Cloud Services.
  2. DevOps and Kubernetes are ever expanding areas when it comes to demand for certified professionals.  Passing this exam will clearly demonstrate you have the knowledge.
  3. Google Cloud is an ever-expanding area as well and having a Google Cloud certification can provide value to your career. This especially true when a significant amount of your competition likely has AWS or Azure already. AWS and Azure certification holders’ numbers are much greater than Google Cloud.  Distinguishing yourself is very important now adays and obtaining a Google Cloud Certification is one way to do this.
  4. The job market for IT professionals has been clearly documented to be shrinking and the pool of qualified professionals is expanding. Obtaining this career changing certification could very well be the difference between working or not working.

Please note that these references below I was able to use in preparation for the exam from sources both affiliated with my company TechCommanders, LLC and other sources that are not affiliated.

Reference links are provided, and I always encourage readers and students to provide additional resources that they feel are helpful.

Satish V has an extensive and very well maintained Github repository of resources specifically for the DevOps Exam.

https://github.com/sathishvj/awesome-gcp-certifications/blob/master/professional-cloud-devops-engineer.md

Qwiklabs has a pre-packaged lab that you can use to prepare for the exam.  There is a cost unless you can find a coupon code from Qwiklabs. Check out the Qwiklabs LinkedIn page for discounts or free coupon codes. 

https://google.qwiklabs.com/quests/96

Faun Medium Post by Joe Holbrook – The post was the first to market on the DevOps exam. 

https://medium.com/faun/top-ten-things-to-know-for-google-cloud-professional-devops-engineer-beta-exam-63e72266a016

The Art of SLOS by Google. This Site create by Google is a must read to understand how Google looks at how Google measures service reliability.

https://landing.google.com/sre/resources/practicesandprocesses/art-of-slos/

SRE vs. DevOps: competing standards or close friends?

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/sre-vs-devops-competing-standards-or-close-friends

Techcommanders Course – Google Cloud DevOps

https://www.techcommanders.com/devops

TechCommanders Course – Google Cloud Kubernetes Engine – The Basics

https://www.techcommanders.com/kubernetes

Containers and GKE Resources

Containers at Google

https://cloud.google.com/containers/

Kubernetes Engine Docs  

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs

Kubernetes Engine Quickstart

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/quickstart

Google Container Story

Kubernetes Tutorial

https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/

Kubernetes Book

https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/

Kubernetes Engine Tutorial

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/tutorials/hello-app

Kubernetes Engine Hardening

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/hardening-your-cluster

Kubernetes Comics

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/kubernetes-comic

Enterprise Best Practices

GCP Enterprise Best Practices

https://cloud.google.com/docs/enterprise/best-practices-for-enterprise-organizations

GCLOUD References

Gcloud Reference

https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/

IaaC Resources

Cloud Deployment Manager

https://cloud.google.com/deployment-manager/

GCP IAM And Security

GCP Cloud Security Whitepaper

https://cloud.google.com/security/overview/whitepaper

Secrets Management

https://cloud.google.com/solutions/secrets-management/

IAM Service Accounts

https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts

Understanding Roles in GCP

https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-roles

Networking in GCP

Load Balancing Options in GCP

https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/load-balancing-overview

Internal Load Balancing

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/internal-load-balancing

Load Balancing GKE Lab

https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/exposing-apps

Cool Related Resources

GCPING

http://www.gcping.com/

GCP ICON Library

https://cloud.google.com/icons/

Project Calico

Pricing Calculator

https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator

GCP Focused Blog Posts

https://thegcpgurus.com/

GCP Professional DevOps Engineer All in One Guide!

GCP Flowcharts a DAY

https://grumpygrace.dev/posts/gcp-flowcharts/

I wish you much success on your career and of course on passing the GCP Exam!

Joe Holbrook

Techcommanders.com

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