IBM Cloud Professional Architect v6 study plan

Map each of the five exam domains to its weighting and rank your personal weak spots on a 1-5 confidence scale

Draft a reference architecture for a multi-tier web application on IBM Cloud, naming each layer and the service category that satisfies it

Compare single-zone, multi-zone, and multi-region deployment topologies and state the failure each one tolerates

Explain how VPC, subnets, security groups, and public gateways compose into a network design

Select compute options (VPC virtual server instances, Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, IBM Cloud Code Engine) for three given workload profiles and justify each pick

Design a storage and data layer using IBM Cloud Object Storage classes, Block Storage, and a managed database, matching durability and cost needs

Produce a high-availability design that names the failure domain for every component

Document the tradeoffs between IaaS, CaaS, and serverless for a stated latency and scaling requirement

Build a working prototype that deploys a containerized app to OpenShift on IBM Cloud or Code Engine and binds it to a managed service

Configure a VPC with at least two subnets, a security group rule set, and a load balancer

Provision infrastructure with IBM Cloud Schematics or Terraform and store state correctly

Wire a CI/CD pipeline that builds and deploys the prototype on commit

Classify ten candidate workloads into rehost, replatform, refactor, repurchase, retain, or retire and state the evidence behind each call

Estimate migration effort and risk for two workloads using dependency mapping

Design a cutover plan with rollback steps for one workload moving to IBM Cloud

Identify data migration approaches for relational and object data and pick one per case

Refactor one prototype component into a managed service and document what was removed from the operational burden

Apply identity and access management design: define resource groups, access groups, and least-privilege policies for three personas

Design encryption at rest and in transit using IBM Key Protect or Hyper Protect Crypto Services and justify the key hierarchy

Map a workload to a compliance framework and list the controls the architecture must evidence

Configure activity logging and audit trails so that a privileged action can be traced end to end

Design network isolation with private endpoints, security groups, and network ACLs, and explain when each is the right control

Perform a threat model on the week 3 prototype covering at least six threats with mitigations

Define a secrets management approach and replace any hardcoded credential in the prototype

Define SLOs and error budgets for two services and derive the monitoring signals that detect breach

Design observability using IBM Cloud Monitoring and Log Analysis, naming the metrics and log fields that matter

Model monthly cost for the prototype and identify three concrete cost reductions

Design a backup, restore, and disaster recovery plan with stated RTO and RPO per tier

Re-score your confidence per domain and close the two largest gaps with targeted review

Complete two timed practice sets and analyze every miss by root cause rather than by topic

Rehearse explaining three architecture decisions aloud in under two minutes each

Review the deliverables from weeks 1 through 7 and reconcile any contradictions between them