Revenge Achieved: Finally Conquering All Google Cloud Certifications! Breaking Through the Tough PSOE Hurdle and the Reality of Retakes

I have been writing articles about AWS certifications on the Mamezou developer site, and on March 26, 2026, I published the article “Conquering All Google Cloud Certifications! ... The Real Story of Being Knocked Back at the Last Step”.

In that previous article, I detailed how I aimed for a full sweep during an intense two-month exam rush but fell short on the final one, the Professional Security Operations Engineer (PSOE), which ended my undefeated streak.

However, this time, on April 11, 2026, I took a revenge attempt at the PSOE exam and successfully passed! With this, I have finally achieved my goal of completing all Google Cloud certifications.

In this article, I will summarize the triumph over the formidable PSOE, discuss the “Retake Policy” I didn’t cover last time, cover the changes accompanying the transition to PearsonVUE, and look at my goals going forward.

When I took the exam on January 31, PSOE was only available in English. Handling security-specific specialized tools and deciphering complex troubleshooting scenarios in English was the main reason I failed.

Therefore, I utilized the official learning platform, Google Cloud Skills Boost, and shifted my strategy to “first understand the concepts and solutions in Japanese” through hands-on exercises.

Then, great news arrived: the Japanese version of the PSOE was released on March 31, 2026. In my previous article, I had lamented that localization didn’t seem likely at the time of the PearsonVUE transition, but it came at exactly the perfect moment. In addition to the practical hands-on learning on Skills Boost, being able to grasp the subtle nuances of the questions in Japanese greatly bolstered my success this time.

As a side note, the Professional Cloud Database Engineer (PCDBE), which I struggled through in English and passed in February, also had its Japanese version released recently on April 7. This means that for those aiming for Google Cloud certifications from now on, all currently available certifications can be taken in Japanese, creating a fantastic environment!

I didn’t cover this in the previous article, but Google Cloud certifications have a strict Retake Policy. When aiming to pass in a short period, these waiting periods can become a significant bottleneck, so caution is required.

• On the first failure: you must wait 14 days before the next attempt.
• On the second failure: you must wait 60 days before the next attempt.
• On the third failure: you must wait 365 days before the next attempt.

In my case, since I failed on January 31, I could have retaken the exam as early as February 14. However, due to a shift in study strategy caused by the removal of some Udemy course material I was using for practice, and my faint hope for a Japanese version release around the time of the PearsonVUE transition, I ultimately decided to set aside a solid preparation period and took the exam on April 11. Especially, if you fail twice in a row, you get stuck for “60 days (about two months)”, so it’s important to go in with thorough preparation.

One of the reasons I was so focused on achieving all Google Cloud certifications this time is the existence of the recognition program Google Cloud Partner All Certification Holders. This program publicly acknowledges individuals who hold all Google Cloud certifications and officially conveys gratitude from Google Cloud Japan to partner companies. Recently, many recipients were announced in November 2025.

In the future, if there is an opportunity for my company to become a registered Google Cloud partner, I secretly envision formally joining the ranks as “All Certification Holders”.

With this, I’ve been able to cover all currently offered Google Cloud certifications. Having gone to the same test center so many times, I was delighted to report my full sweep to the staff there.

Starting with this exam, the test delivery provider transitioned from Kryterion to PearsonVUE. Having actually taken the exam, I noticed several major changes and observations, so I’ll share them here.

1. More Test Center Options and Increased Flexibility for Date Changes
In my region, during the Kryterion era, there was only one test center option, but with PearsonVUE, multiple test centers became available. Also, under Kryterion, you were locked out of date changes 72 hours before the exam (although changes could be made for a fee), but under PearsonVUE, you can change the date up to 24 hours in advance, which is great news for test-takers.

2. The Exam System Has Become More User-Friendly (Strikethrough Function)
In the PearsonVUE exam system, when you right-click on an answer choice, you can apply a strikethrough to that option. This makes it much easier to eliminate clearly incorrect choices visually, enhancing the process of solving by elimination. It’s a subtle but very powerful and convenient feature.

3. Significantly Faster Notifications After Passing
What I was personally most pleased with was the speed of the official notifications after passing. Previously, the Credly badge issuance notification would arrive around 6 AM the next day, and the Google Cloud pass confirmation notification around 5 AM the day after next, but these have been greatly accelerated.

• Credly badge issuance notification: around 6 AM the next day ➔ about one hour after the exam
• Google Cloud pass confirmation notification: around 5 AM the day after next ➔ around 4 AM the next day
  Being able to immediately feel the official pass status is a very welcome improvement, as it reduces the anxious waiting period after the exam.

4. Attention: The Entry Point to PearsonVUE Disappears After Achieving the Full Sweep
This is a pitfall due to the special situation of achieving a full sweep (passing all exams): once there are no more unpassed exams available, the access point from the Google Cloud certification portal to the PearsonVUE dashboard disappears. The problem with this is that you can no longer log in to your PearsonVUE My Page, so you cannot go through the process of “reissuing a receipt (resending the email)”. In particular, if you change your exam date after registering, the receipt you initially received at registration will not match the actual exam date. Even if you want to obtain a new receipt with the correct date later, you won’t be able to access the portal, which could cause issues with company expense reimbursements, among other things.
Note that receipts containing the “Qualified Invoice Issuer Registration Number” required for Japan’s invoice system can still be issued separately by PearsonVUE.

By the way, in the AWS certification portal, which is also delivered via PearsonVUE, you can still navigate to the PearsonVUE dashboard even from exams you’ve already completed, so this issue doesn’t occur. It may simply be that I overlooked another access procedure in the Google Cloud portal, but if the current behavior is indeed by design, it’s certainly a point where I hope Google Cloud will implement the same improvement as AWS.

5. Fun Fact: Certification and Expiration Dates Temporarily Show US Time (Previous Day)
Perhaps due to the transition to PearsonVUE, the issue date and expiration date on the certificate issued immediately after the exam may temporarily be registered in US time (one day earlier) in the system. In my case, I took and passed the exam on April 11 in Japan time, but the certificate issued on the exam day was dated April 10, one day off. However, when I checked the system again the next day, it had been automatically corrected to the correct Japan time date (April 11). So if any of you find the date is off right after taking the exam, don’t panic—just wait until the next day.

Following the AWS certifications, I was also able to achieve a full sweep of Google Cloud certifications.

Actually, the only AWS certification I haven’t obtained yet, “Generative AI Developer – Professional (AIP-C01)”, will be officially released on April 14, and I plan to take that exam on April 16. Since I previously took the beta version and regretfully failed, this will be a ‘revenge match’ on the AWS side for me. If I pass, I’ll officially achieve a “double full sweep of AWS and Google Cloud”, and I’ll report back in another article then.

By deeply and systematically studying both major clouds this time, I feel my design and proposal skills in multi-cloud environments have improved significantly. Going forward, I plan to leverage this experience to actively write articles such as “Comparing the Architectural and Philosophical Differences Between AWS and Google Cloud”.

On the other hand, having earned so many certifications in a short period, I’m already trembling with the ‘fear of a massive wave of renewals hitting all at once in two years’. In fact, last year I experienced a similar renewal rush with AWS certifications, but AWS has a wonderful system where renewing a higher-level certification automatically renews related lower-level certifications. Unfortunately, Google Cloud lacks that system, so I will have to retake each certification, including the lower-level ones, to renew them. There is a relief measure in place in the form of a “simple exam for recertification”, but just imagining the path to maintaining a full sweep makes me tremble (laughs).

And after AWS and Google Cloud, one question that fleetingly crosses my mind is... “So, what about Azure?” Actually, with Azure, I already obtained the entry-level “AZ-900” four years ago while challenging the AWS certifications, so I feel I can faintly see the path to conquering the three major clouds. However, considering the aforementioned fear of the renewal rush, I’m a bit hesitant.

For now, this concludes my journey to achieving a full sweep of Google Cloud certifications. I hope this will be helpful to those planning to take the certifications!