Google Cloud Core: CDL + ACE current guide

This CloudCert track combines the current Cloud Digital Leader (CDL) and Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE) curricula into one learning path and question bank.

Google still awards two separate certifications. This combined guide is a CloudCert study resource; it is not an official Google exam or a replacement for either credential.

Official facts were verified on 20 August 2026. The live Google certification pages and the PDFs they link remain authoritative.

Why combine the learning path?

Both exams use the same Google Cloud foundation: organizations, projects, billing, IAM, compute, storage, data, networking, security, reliability, and operations. Studying them together removes repeated product introductions and creates a useful progression:

CDL depth: explain business value, recognize concepts, and select an offering for a business use case.
ACE depth: configure, implement, operate, secure, and troubleshoot Google Cloud resources.

Questions retain a CDL, ACE, or shared scope internally. A foundational product-selection question is not treated as equivalent to an associate-level configuration scenario.

Official exam formats

Cloud Digital Leader

Time: 90 minutes
Questions: 50-60
Formats: Multiple choice and multiple select
Prerequisites: None
Recommended experience: Experience collaborating with technical professionals
Certification validity: 3 years

Associate Cloud Engineer

Time: 2 hours
Questions: 50-60
Formats: Multiple choice and multiple select
Prerequisites: None
Recommended experience: 6+ months of hands-on Google Cloud experience
Certification validity: 3 years

Sources: Cloud Digital Leader certification and Associate Cloud Engineer certification.

Current Cloud Digital Leader blueprint

The current CDL guide says it was launched on 12 August 2026. It replaces the older 17/16/16/17/17/17 distribution.

Digital Transformation with Google Cloud - about 18%
- Cloud and digital-transformation concepts
- Business value, flexibility, openness, interoperability, and service models
- Google Cloud infrastructure and global reach
Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud - about 18%
- Data value, governance, quality, analytics, streaming, and business intelligence
- Storage, database, data-processing, and analytics offerings
Innovating with Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence - about 18%
- AI, machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI
- Responsible AI, data quality, models, APIs, and Google AI offerings
Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud - about 18%
- Migration approaches, compute, containers, serverless, APIs, hybrid cloud, and multicloud
Trust and Security with Google Cloud - about 18%
- Threats, shared responsibility, defense in depth, identity, encryption, compliance, and AI security
Scaling with Google Cloud Operations - about 10%
- Financial governance, resource hierarchy, observability, reliability, DevOps, and SRE

Read the current official CDL exam guide.

Current Associate Cloud Engineer blueprint

The current standard ACE guide uses four domains. Do not use the older five-domain 20/17.5/25/20/17.5 blueprint.

Setting up a cloud solution environment - about 20%
- Resource hierarchy, projects, accounts, APIs, quotas, billing, IAM, observability, networking, asset inventory, and federation
Planning and implementing a cloud solution - about 30%
- Compute Engine, GKE, serverless, agents, accelerators, storage, databases, networking, connectivity, load balancing, and infrastructure as code
Ensuring the successful operation of a cloud solution - about 30%
- Day-two operations, scaling, updates, backup and restore, networking, logs, metrics, alerts, diagnostics, health, and optimization
Configuring access and security - about 20%
- IAM policies and inheritance, roles, service accounts, impersonation, short-lived credentials, Workforce Identity Federation, and Workload Identity Federation

Read the current official ACE standard exam guide.

CloudCert combined blueprint

These are CloudCert-authored weights for the union of both curricula; they are not official Google exam weights.

10% - Cloud value, transformation, and architecture models: 7 questions
10% - Resource hierarchy, projects, billing, and governance: 6 questions
20% - Compute, containers, serverless, agents, and modernization: 13 questions
15% - Data, storage, analytics, and AI: 10 questions
15% - Networking and connectivity: 10 questions
15% - Security, IAM, trust, and compliance: 10 questions
10% - Operations, reliability, observability, and cost control: 6 questions
5% - Automation and implementation tooling: 3 questions

The CloudCert combined simulation uses 65 questions in 120 minutes. It deliberately includes both CDL business reasoning and ACE implementation depth. It must not be interpreted as Google's official format for either exam.

Current-content warnings

Review older material carefully when it:

Uses the former CDL domain weights or the older five-domain ACE outline.
Treats CDL product recognition as sufficient ACE preparation.
Omits agentic AI, AI-ready data, AI security, or newer Google security offerings from CDL.
Omits current ACE topics such as Workforce Identity Federation, Workload Identity Federation, Cloud Asset Inventory, Cloud NGFW, Gemini Cloud Assist, Hyperdisk, or current operations tooling.
Uses renamed products or obsolete operational advice without a current Google source.

Official preparation resources

Cloud Digital Leader

Associate Cloud Engineer

Google describes its sample questions as format and content examples, not a complete representation of scope or difficulty and not a predictor of exam results.