About this free PCA mock exam

Two free GCP PCA exams, 30 questions each. Covers solution design, security, migration, and reliability. Every question is written in the scenario style of the real Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect exam, and the two 30-question sets are graded instantly with a detailed explanation for each answer.

Preparing for the real certification? Our live GCP Training — ACE & PCA course covers every domain below with hands-on labs, or browse all 12 free mock exams in the Certification Vault.

PCA exam domains covered

  • Designing and Planning a Cloud Solution Architecture24%
  • Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure15%
  • Designing for Security and Compliance18%
  • Analyzing and Optimizing Technical and Business Processes18%
  • Managing Implementation11%
  • Ensuring Solution and Operations Reliability14%

PCA — Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions are on the real GCP PCA exam?

The Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect exam has approximately 50–60 questions with a 2-hour time limit. All questions are multiple choice or multiple select. Google does not publish the exact number of scored versus unscored questions. The passing score is determined by Google and not disclosed as a fixed percentage.

What are the PCA case studies and do I need to study them?

Yes — the PCA exam includes questions tied to four published case studies: TerramEarth (heavy equipment IoT), Helicopter Racing League (live streaming and ML), Mountkirk Games (real-time multiplayer), and EHR Healthcare (regulated SaaS). Google publishes the case studies publicly. You will need to reference the case study details to answer several exam questions, so studying them before the exam is essential.

What GCP services are most important for the PCA exam?

Focus on: Cloud Spanner and Bigtable (database selection trade-offs), Anthos (hybrid/multi-cloud), VPC Service Controls and Workload Identity (security), Cloud Armor and Cloud Interconnect (networking), Cloud Dataflow and Pub/Sub (data pipelines), Vertex AI (ML serving), GKE with Agones (gaming architecture), Datastream (CDC), BigQuery ML (analytics), and DR strategies using Cloud SQL HA + cross-region replicas. Understanding when to choose each service is more important than memorising feature details.

How is this mock exam different from the real GCP PCA?

Our mock has 30 scenario-based questions per attempt (60 total across 2 exams) with a 60-minute timer. The real PCA has approximately 50–60 questions and 120 minutes. Our questions align with the six PCA exam domains and include case-study-style scenarios matching TerramEarth, EHR Healthcare, Mountkirk Games, and Helicopter Racing League to replicate the real exam experience.

Is the GCP PCA harder than the AWS Solutions Architect Professional?

Both are considered challenging professional-level certifications. The GCP PCA is known for its emphasis on architectural trade-offs and the four published case studies, which require you to understand business context and translate it into specific GCP service choices. The AWS SAP covers a broader service catalogue. Most candidates who have passed both rate them as comparable in difficulty, with the PCA being more scenario and case-study driven.