Overview
Google ACE is the Associate Cloud Engineer certification from Google Cloud. It tests whether you can deploy and secure applications, services and infrastructure on Google Cloud, run operations across several projects, and keep enterprise solutions meeting performance targets.
Who can apply
There are no prerequisites. Google recommends at least 6 months of hands-on experience with Google Cloud, plus some experience with public clouds or on-premises systems and with common platform tasks.
Exam pattern
| Item | Standard exam | Renewal exam |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 2 hours | 1 hour |
| Questions | 50 to 60 | 20 |
| Format | Multiple choice and multiple select | Multiple choice and multiple select |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese | English, Japanese |
The exam can be taken online with a remote proctor or in person at a Pearson VUE test centre.
Syllabus
The exam guide divides the content into five sections, each with an approximate weight.
| Section | Approximate weight |
|---|---|
| Setting up a cloud solution environment | 20% |
| Planning and configuring a cloud solution | 17.5% |
| Deploying and implementing a cloud solution | 25% |
| Ensuring successful operation of a cloud solution | 20% |
| Configuring access and security | 17.5% |
Setup: resource hierarchies, organisation policies, IAM roles, Cloud Identity users and groups, enabling APIs, quotas, billing accounts, budgets and alerts.
Planning: choosing compute (Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions), choosing data stores, storage classes, load balancing and network tiers.
Deploying: Compute Engine instances and managed instance groups, GKE clusters and workloads, Cloud Run and Cloud Functions, event-driven setups, VPCs, firewall rules, Cloud VPN, VPC peering and infrastructure-as-code tools.
Operations: managing instances, snapshots, GKE resources and autoscaling, Cloud Run revisions and traffic splitting, storage lifecycle rules, database queries and backups, networking changes, monitoring alerts, metrics and logging.
Access and security: IAM policies, basic, predefined and custom roles, service accounts, least privilege, impersonation and short-lived credentials.
Fees
As listed on the official site in 2026, the standard exam registration fee is USD 125 plus tax. The renewal exam is USD 75 plus tax.
How to apply
Register for the exam through Google Cloud's WebAssessor registration page, linked from the official exam guide, and choose online or test-centre delivery.
After the exam
The certification is valid for 3 years. To renew, you can retake the full standard exam, take the shorter renewal exam while your certification is in its renewal period, or complete designated Google Skills courses or skill badges in the last year of validity.
Preparation tips
Work through Google's Cloud Engineer learning path and use the free tier to practise in a real project.
Read the official exam guide and check that you can do each task listed in it, not just describe it.
Pay extra attention to deployment, which carries the largest weight.
Are there any prerequisites for Google ACE?
No. Google recommends about 6 months of hands-on Google Cloud experience, but it is not required.
How long is the certification valid?
Three years, after which it can be renewed.