AssociateVendor-specificGoogle· issued from US

Google ACE

Google Associate Cloud Engineer

Official page at Google ↔ Compare with another cert

Exam fee

$125

Ongoing

—

Study time

—

Delivery

Hybrid

Validity

2 yrs (renewal cycle)

› Quality score

30.0 / 40

Four-axis SecProve rubric, each 0–10. SecProve editorial assessment — each axis carries a written justification so you can push back on any single call without dismissing the whole score.

Blueprint rigor

How well-defined and rigorous the exam blueprint is.

Associate-tier blueprint focused on day-to-day GCP operations. Well-scoped for the level.

7.5/10

Practical evidence

Hands-on labs / written reports vs pure MCQ.

Hands-on Qwiklabs assessments encouraged but the exam itself is MCQ.

5.0/10

Currency & upkeep

How aggressively content is kept current with the field.

Refreshed annually to track new GCP services.

9.0/10

Market recognition

How often this signal actually moves a hiring decision.

The default GCP entry-level credential — strong recognition for early-career GCP roles.

8.5/10

› Exam format

50 multiple-choice + multi-select questions, 2 hours, English (and select other languages). Kryterion Webassessor proctored online or test center.

Retake policy

Fee: $200 per attempt

Wait: 14d between attempts

14-day wait after first fail; 60-day wait after second; 365-day wait after third.

› Recertification

Recertify every 2 years by passing the latest version of the same exam (no shortcut path).

› NICE Framework work roles

The NIST NICE work-role IDs this cert maps to. NICCS lookup.

DD-WRL-001IO-WRL-005

Recognition

Global

Exam languages

› Core domains covered

The 1 domain this cert is centrally about. Passing the exam demonstrates working knowledge of each.

A5Cloud Security

AWS/Azure/GCP security controls, IAM policies, CSPM, container security, shared responsibility model.

› Prerequisites

Experience

Recommended: 6-12 months of hands-on experience with the vendor's platform.

› Progression

requiredrecommended

Where this cert fits in the typical learning path. Required edges are vendor-gated; recommended edges reflect de facto industry progression.

Required prereqs (0)

No vendor-gated prereqs.

Recommended priors (0)

No de facto priors typically expected.

Google ACE

Google

Required by (0)

No certs require this one.

Recommended next (1)

GCP Professional Cloud Security EngineerGoogle Cloud

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