I learned about this certification last year in 2020 when I was learning Android Development. I was just browsing Youtube and watching the Google I/O Keynote 2019 when I came across a Google’s Associate Android Developer’s success story. That’s when I realized Google’s certificate! provides certification too! Then, I was on cloud nine after thinking that my name could also be on Google’s certificate. However, I had just started learning Android Development back then so I hit all the books I could have and then registered for the examination. 

The exam starts off with this scenario -

A developer had been working on a project (developing an application) and he had left the project & now I had to complete the project.

I was provided with a link from where I had to download my exam project and the page itself had a list of features, functional requirements, debugging tasks, testing tasks, and the UI requirements that had to be fulfilled. The first thing I did, was to plan the sequence in which I would complete the tasks. They provide you with all the resources (data, images, icons, sounds .etc).

If I said I was not at all tense during the exam I would be lying. But, it wasn’t because I hadn’t prepared or I had doubts about my skills but because this was something I had been thinking of for almost 2 months then and this was 50% nervousness and 50% excitement! I was able to complete all the requirements other than the testing requirements within 10 - 15 hours.

Then came the testing part. I didn’t have much experience with UI development and testing beforehand but I studied it on the AAD track course material provided on Coursera. 

Since I had been sitting on my chair for about 8 hours I needed a break. So, I got up, went for a walk for about 30 minutes, had dinner, and came back with a fresh mind. The last thing left was to just cross-check that I had completed all the requirements and the application was working fine or not. Being done with that I clicked on the submit button and uploaded my exam.

The next part was the exit interview. It was a ten-minute long interview that had 5 questions related to the application I developed in my exam and also basic Android development. The interview wasn’t conducted by a person and wasn’t a video call either. It was a video recording. Five questions are displayed on the screen sequentially and you have ten minutes to answer them all. Failure in answering all the questions or an incomplete interview will result in a failed attempt. So I divided my ten - minutes into a 1-minute section for 5 questions each and the rest 5 minutes for revising.

I got my approval email the next day of me taking the interview (that was really quick!). 

Yay! I became a Google Certified Associate Android Developer!