GCP Professional Cloud Architect Practice Question

Google Cloud positions its certification portfolio as a progression that starts with a Foundational-level credential aimed at business and technical stakeholders who require general cloud fluency. The Cloud Digital Leader certification, the only Foundational credential, is therefore the right fit for finance analysts and project managers in cohort 1. For practitioners who provision and operate solutions, Google recommends the Associate Cloud Engineer certification, its single Associate-level offering that validates the practical skills of deploying, monitoring, and maintaining projects. This aligns with cohort 2's site-reliability engineers. Professionals responsible for architecting end-to-end solutions are the target audience for the Professional Cloud Architect certification, part of the Professional tier that measures advanced design expertise. This makes it the correct choice for cohort 3. The other answer options either assign certifications to groups for which they are not intended, omit required validation for some cohorts, or apply an unnecessarily advanced certification to all roles, ignoring the tiered nature of Google Cloud's certification framework.