Google Cloud · GCP-PCDB · Advanced
Professional Cloud Database Engineer — Practice Questions and Mock Exam
Practice real GCP-PCDB questions, never dumps. Alex explains every answer, and your readiness score tells you when you're ready to pass.
Checked against Google Cloud · April 2026Current exam version
Overview
About the exam
The Professional Cloud Database Engineer certification validates your ability to design, create, manage, and troubleshoot Google Cloud databases. This credential is aimed at database professionals who translate business and technical requirements into scalable, resilient, and cost-effective database solutions. The exam covers a broad range of Google Cloud database services including Cloud SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server), AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Spanner, Firestore, Bigtable, and Memorystore, as well as migration and multi-database management scenarios.
Exam Domains
What's on the exam
The exam consists of 50-60 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions to be completed within 2 hours. Questions test your ability to design database solutions, manage multi-database environments, plan and execute migrations, and deploy highly available database architectures on Google Cloud. The exam is available in English and Japanese.
SourceGoogle Cloud exam page
Format
What to expect
Watch out
Where candidates struggle
Candidates often underestimate the breadth of Google Cloud database services covered. Key pitfalls include confusing when to use Cloud SQL vs AlloyDB vs Spanner for relational workloads, not understanding the HA and DR tradeoffs between regional and multi-regional deployments, overlooking Database Migration Service capabilities for heterogeneous migrations, and neglecting IAM best practices for database access control. Understanding cost optimization across different database tiers and storage options is also frequently tested.
- 01Cloud SQL vs Spanner — Confusing when to use Cloud SQL (single-region relational) vs Spanner (globally distributed relational) based on consistency and scale requirements
- 02AlloyDB positioning — Not understanding AlloyDB's position as a high-performance PostgreSQL-compatible option between Cloud SQL and Spanner
- 03Migration tools — Overlooking Database Migration Service and Datastream capabilities for zero-downtime and CDC migrations
- 04HA vs DR — Confusing high availability (automatic failover within a region) with disaster recovery (cross-region replication and failover)
- 05IAM for databases — Not distinguishing between Cloud IAM roles and database-level user permissions for access control
- 06NoSQL selection — Choosing the wrong NoSQL service (Firestore for documents vs Bigtable for wide-column analytics vs Memorystore for caching)
Details
Exam logistics
The exam costs $200 USD (plus applicable taxes) and can be taken online-proctored or at a Pearson VUE testing center. Registration is through the Certmetrics portal. Google recommends 5+ years of overall database and IT experience, including 2+ years of hands-on Google Cloud database experience. The certification is valid for 2 years and can be renewed during the renewal eligibility period.
SourceGoogle Cloud exam page
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