How I Passed the GCP's Digital Cloud Leader (CDL)
After two weeks of studying, I passed the Google Cloud - Digital Cloud Leader (CDL). I would say, it was one of the most straightforward exams that I have taken throughout so far in my cloud journey.
Overview
This was the first Google Cloud exam that I've taken, and compared to the AWS equivalent (CCP or Certified Cloud Practitioner), it was much easier. To start, AWS has way more services than GCP, and as a result, there is less ground that I need to cover for it. Here are the resources that I used for studying for the exam:
Andrew's course does a great job of explaining the concepts around key services within GCP as well as key areas that you will need to know for the exam. There are practice tests that you have in there and the exam questions are written exceptionally well.
Iman's blog post is incredibly detailed in explaining what GCP is and its purpose, and she gives some great resources to use before taking the exam. The YouTube course that she pointed out is the one that was released by Andrew Brown. I took that advice, but I paid for this course material instead since it came with the course and the practice exams. The course is on sale (limited time only) for about 24 bucks. The original price for it is 60. However, I'd still recommend it to anyone, otherwise, you can utilize the YouTube course since it's free. This link is in Iman's blog post. While you're at it, go ahead and link that post as well.
Exam Prep Experience
For those two weeks, I dedicated at least 3-4 hours a day to studying the material in Andrew's course. Since I have a few AWS certifications, it wasn't very difficult to grasp the concepts around GCP services. So in total, it took me about 5-6 days to finish the course. Following that, I immediately started taking the practice exams until the day before the exam.
Booking the exam was relatively straightforward, although I do not care for Kryterion and its interface. When I logged on to take the exam at the testing center, it froze and I had to start the process over (which only took like 10 minutes).
Exam Experience
During the exam, I found the questions similar to the practice exams that were created by Andrew Brown. They were slightly complex due to the wording choices, but it was mostly multiple choice with maybe 5-7 multiple select questions. To be honest, the way the questions were phrased was the main challenge of the exam. The total amount of questions that are on the exam is 50, and you only get an hour and 30 minutes to complete it. I only used about 45 minutes, and I cleared the exam! I received an email with a link to my certification in about 24 hours after passing the exam.
Advice before taking it
Before you take the exam, make sure you complete the entire course and take note of all of the services and concepts that Andrews mentions will be on the exam. Everything that he mentioned showed up for me. Also, for the practice exams, I'd say make sure you're averaging at least 85% or more. Once you're getting that, you should be good to book your exam and ace it!
I hope this helps, and good luck!
Cheers!