Associate ACE
Core GCP engineer cert for deploying, monitoring, and managing Google Cloud applications. Covers Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Storage, IAM, and networking.
The Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer is the fundamental hands-on certification for Google Cloud practitioners. It validates the ability to deploy applications, monitor operations, and manage enterprise solutions on Google Cloud. It is the GCP equivalent of AWS SAA-C03 in terms of seniority and market demand.
The exam covers five domains: Set Up a Cloud Solution Environment (15–20%), Plan and Configure a Cloud Solution (15–20%), Deploy and Implement a Cloud Solution (25–30%), Ensure Successful Operation of a Cloud Solution (20–25%), and Configure Access and Security (15–20%). Core services include Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, Firestore, BigQuery, VPC networking, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud IAM, and Cloud Monitoring.
The ACE exam has approximately 50 questions in 120 minutes. Google does not disclose the passing score. The certification is valid for 3 years. It is widely recommended as the starting point for GCP technical practitioners before pursuing Professional-level certifications. Strong gcloud CLI knowledge and hands-on practice on GCP projects are essential for passing.
Cloud engineers, sysadmins, and developers deploying and managing workloads on Google Cloud.
Prerequisites: 6+ months of hands-on experience with Google Cloud. Familiarity with the gcloud CLI is strongly recommended.