How to Pass the Professional Google Workspace Administrator Exam

Many organizations are turning to Google Workspace—which combines services, such as Gmail, Drive, and Docs—for their productivity and collaboration tool of choice. In fact, more than seven million organizations or individuals are paying for versions with additional tools and customer support, which is an increase from six million in 2020, according to the New York Times. 

For the admin and engineers responsible for keeping systems humming, Google Workspace can be surprising. At first, it seems like there’s not much to it: You set up your domain, create some users, assign licenses, and off you go. However, the solution has a good bit of depth and complexity to it, including compliance rules and holds, single-sign on, device management, resource sharing, and more. It’s a powerful suite once you scratch the surface.

To help educate and certify admins, Google created the Professional Google Workspace Administrator certification. In a previous post, we covered the cert in general and its value. In this article, we’ll explore the test in more detail and offer tips to prepare for it.

What is the Google Workspace Administrator Exam Format?

The test, per Google, is pretty straightforward. It includes 50-60 multiple-choice or multiple-select questions, with a two-hour testing limit. 

You can take the Professional Google Workspace Administrator exam at a testing center or from home. If you opt for an at-home test, the usual remote-proctoring rules apply. You must be alone in a quiet, well-lit room. You will be monitored via webcam and microphone. Before the test starts, a proctor will ask you to show all around the room with your webcam to check for any hidden notes or devices.

The Professional Google Workspace Administrator exam itself is practical, with questions covering real-world tasks and projects a Google Workspace admin will encounter in their day-to-day work. Being highly familiar with the services and console is a must, even to the point that Google recommends at least one year of Google Workspace admin experience before testing. Such experience will also give you a level of intuition with the questions. For example, you may not know the exact answer to some questions, but you will be able to eliminate wrong answers that don’t fit “the Google way.”

Study Resources for the Professional Google Workspace Administrator Exam

Once you have some experience under your belt, it’s study time. Google offers some handy courseware you can access for free, which covers the Professional Google Workspace Administrator exam material well and offers example walkthroughs to practice using the console.

Additionally, we recommend you review the published test guide, which covers everything you might be asked. Going point by point and studying the knowledge base on unfamiliar topics is a great start, but getting into the admin console for each point is also critical. Knowing what a term means for what a feature does is only halfway there. You also need to know roughly where in the console to go to configure it. That requires practice.

Setting Up a “Home Lab” with a Google Workspace Trial Account

If you follow the courseware, one of the first steps will be setting up your own Google Workspace trial account. Practicing with a trial account is much safer than using your employer’s account. It’s way better to learn on your own systems than break someone else’s. So, think of this as a form of a home lab. 

The trial lasts two weeks, and once it is up, you can either cancel it or pay for licenses to continue using it. If you cancel, you will still have access to your account’s admin panel. You just won’t be able to log in as a user and use any services. Do note that if you don’t cancel your trial before it’s up, you will automatically be billed for 10 licenses. 

The good news is most of your studying will be done in the console, and much of your time should be spent setting up features, such as user creation, mail routing, group membership, buildings and calendar resources, spam filtering, and security audits and reports. With every step, pay attention to where key functions are located in the console. Don’t just move as quickly as possible through the exercises.

Final Thoughts

There you have it. Following those steps will give you a solid foundation and help you pass the Professional Google Workspace Administrator Exam. If you are interested in exploring other Google certifications? Sign up for a one-week no-strings-attached trial to explore all our courses.