Google Cloud · GCP-PCD · Advanced
Professional Cloud Developer — Practice Questions and Mock Exam
Practice real GCP-PCD questions, never dumps. Alex explains every answer, and your readiness score tells you when you're ready to pass.
Checked against Google Cloud · July 2026Current exam version
Overview
About the exam
The Professional Cloud Developer certification validates the ability to design, build, test, and deploy cloud-native applications on Google Cloud. It covers application architecture, CI/CD integration, containerization with Cloud Run and GKE, and leveraging Google Cloud services for storage, messaging, and AI.
The April 2026 update restructures the exam with streamlined content and reduced repetition, focusing more heavily on modern development patterns including serverless architectures and generative AI integration.
Exam Domains
What's on the exam
The exam features 50-60 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions over 2 hours. Questions present development scenarios requiring you to choose the right architecture, service, or approach. Expect questions about Cloud Run, GKE, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, Firestore, and application security best practices.
Designing high-performing applications and APIs, designing secure applications, storing and accessing data. Covers compute platforms (Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run), load balancing, caching, API design (REST, gRPC), event-driven architecture (Eventarc, Pub/Sub), data replication, traffic splitting, and service orchestration (Workflows, Cloud Tasks, Cloud Scheduler).
Setting up development environments, building, and testing. Covers Google Cloud CLI emulators, Cloud SDK, Cloud Code, Gemini Cloud Assist, Cloud Shell, Cloud Workstations, Cloud Build, Artifact Registry, Binary Authorization, unit testing, and integration testing.
Deploying applications to Cloud Run and GKE. Covers deploying from source code, triggers (Eventarc, Pub/Sub), event receivers, API exposure (Apigee), Cloud Endpoints backward compatibility, containerized deployments, resource requirements, Kubernetes health checks, and Horizontal Pod Autoscaler.
Integrating with data/storage services, consuming Google Cloud APIs, troubleshooting and observability. Covers Cloud SQL, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, Cloud Client Libraries, REST API, gRPC, API Explorer, service accounts, Google Cloud Observability (metrics, logs, traces), Error Reporting, and Gemini Cloud Assist.
SourceGoogle Cloud exam page
Format
What to expect
Watch out
Where candidates struggle
This exam assumes strong software development fundamentals. Candidates who are primarily infrastructure-focused may struggle with questions about application design patterns, API management, and CI/CD pipelines.
- 01Serverless Selection — Not knowing when Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, or App Engine is the best fit
- 02Database Selection — Choosing the wrong database for the workload — Firestore vs Cloud SQL vs Spanner vs Bigtable
- 03Event-Driven Architecture — Misunderstanding Pub/Sub, Eventarc, and Cloud Tasks for asynchronous processing
- 04Container Best Practices — Overlooking container security, image scanning, and Artifact Registry patterns
Details
Exam logistics
Delivered via Pearson VUE online or at testing centers. Available in English and Japanese. A new version launched April 24, 2026 with restructured content.
SourceGoogle Cloud exam page
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