Google Cloud / Professional / PDE
Professional Data Engineer
Design trustworthy batch and streaming data systems, then operate them for cost, quality and recovery.
THE REVISION PATH
Your topics, in order.
Read. Recall. Explain the alternative.
Cloud Storage, Transfers and Retention
Object key is not a disk path; retention is not a backup.
Databases, Analytics and Data Pipelines
Choose by access pattern, not by the largest feature list.
IAM, Service Accounts and Data Security
Grant the action to the actual caller at the narrowest scope.
Batch, Streaming and Processing Semantics
Event time says when; watermark estimates completeness.
BigQuery Models, SQL and Capacity
Partition prunes; cluster narrows; slots execute.
Governance, Sharing and AI-Ready Data
Catalog describes; policy controls; lineage explains.
Orchestration, Deployment and Data Operations
DAG orders work; monitoring proves it completed correctly.
Migration, Consistency and Recovery
Copy a baseline, capture change, reconcile, then cut over.
How this guide is organised
Original revision notes arranged around practical decisions. The linked official objectives define the mapped scope; primary documentation supports the explanations. Read each topic, answer without looking, then explain why another option would fail.
- Official exam guide ↗ Scope authority
Revision material supports preparation; it does not guarantee every possible exam question. Check the exam version and official objectives before booking.