ACE study plan

ACE · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 7 hours per week

Week 1

Set up a cloud solution environment & Plan and implement a cloud solution

Create a personal Google Cloud project, enable billing, and set a budget alert with an email notification threshold
Configure the gcloud CLI, install and initialize the Cloud SDK, and switch between two named configurations
Provision a VPC network with two subnets and a firewall rule using gcloud commands, then verify the result in the console
Write down the IAM roles attached to your own account and explain in one paragraph why each is needed

A one-page setup log listing every resource created, the exact commands used, and the resulting resource names, saved to your notes

Week 2

Deploy a Compute Engine instance from a custom machine type and attach a persistent disk
Create a Cloud Storage bucket with lifecycle rules and object versioning, then upload and restore a deleted object
Set up a managed instance group with an autoscaler and observe it scale under a synthetic load
Compare the cost implications of the instance and disk choices you made in a short written summary

A working two-instance managed instance group with autoscaling, plus a screenshot-free written description of the final configuration

Week 3

Deploy a containerized workload to Cloud Run and configure traffic splitting between two revisions
Migrate a small relational dataset into Cloud SQL and connect to it from a Compute Engine instance using the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy
Configure Cloud Monitoring uptime checks and alerting policies for the Cloud Run service
Draft a rollback procedure for each of the three workloads you deployed

A runbook of at most 600 words covering deployment, monitoring, and rollback for the Cloud Run and Cloud SQL services

Week 4

Design and apply a least-privilege IAM policy for a service account that can read one bucket and write to one topic
Enable and interpret audit logs by filtering for a specific principal and resource over a 24-hour window
Implement a custom role and verify that it grants exactly the permissions you intended and nothing more
Create a log-based metric and a corresponding alert that fires on a simulated permission-denied event

A written access-control matrix mapping three principals to their roles, resources, and verified permissions

Week 5

Configure VPC Service Controls or, if unavailable on your tier, document the perimeter design and test equivalent firewall and IAM controls
Set up a service account with short-lived credentials and rotate a key to demonstrate the rotation process
Enable Cloud Armor or firewall rules that block traffic from a specific range and prove the block with a test request
Review your project against a written checklist of ten security controls and record pass or fail for each

A completed ten-item security checklist with evidence notes for each pass or fail

Week 6

Build a Cloud Monitoring dashboard that shows CPU, latency, and error rate for your workloads
Create a snapshot schedule and perform a test restore of a persistent disk
Write an infrastructure-as-code template that recreates your week 1 network from scratch
Tear down and rebuild the environment from the template to prove it is reproducible

A reproducible infrastructure template plus a written record of the teardown and rebuild, including any errors encountered and how you fixed them

Week 7

Complete a timed 50-question mixed practice set and log every wrong answer by domain
Re-study the two domains with the lowest practice scores using targeted hands-on labs
Re-deploy one workload end to end without consulting notes to test retention
Write a one-paragraph explanation of the tradeoffs between two compute options and two storage options

An error log with at least 20 entries, each tagged by domain and marked resolved or still open

Week 8

Complete two timed full-length practice exams and compare domain scores between attempts
Close every remaining open item in the error log
Verify that you can explain billing, quota, and support-plan concepts without notes
Restate the four domains' weightings and your weakest area in a short written summary

A final readiness summary of at most 400 words stating your scores, remaining gaps, and a go or delay recommendation

Week 2: You can provision a network, an instance, and a bucket from the command line without referring to documentation

Week 4: You can explain and demonstrate least-privilege access for a service account and show the audit log evidence

Week 6: You can rebuild your entire lab environment from a template and restore a disk from a snapshot

Week 8: Your two full-length practice scores are within a stable range and no error-log item remains open