This September, the Skills Boost Arcade is bringing you three new games to help you strengthen your Google Cloud foundations, explore the latest in AI, and sharpen your developer skills!
At Level 1, you’ll work on the fundamentals of cloud infrastructure and data. The challenge focuses on optimizing storage with Cloud Storage, improving database performance, and understanding cloud networking essentials. You’ll also get practical experience with load balancing, VPC design, and hybrid connectivity—the building blocks of resilient and scalable systems. Completing this challenge earns you a credential that highlights your expertise in cloud infrastructure and data optimization.
Level 2 is all about AI and data innovation. This challenge takes you through BigQuery modeling, Dataplex governance, and building automated data pipelines with Dataflow. From there, you’ll dive into applied generative AI in real-world industries like healthcare, finance, and customer service. You’ll also learn how to use Vertex AI for ML pipeline orchestration, fine-tune custom GenAI models, and integrate the Gemini API to build smarter applications.
At Level 3, the focus shifts to developer essentials. You’ll strengthen your foundation with Linux scripting, Git version control, and container deployments using Docker. The challenge also includes app hosting with Firebase and Cloud Run, along with Firestore database operations across multiple programming languages. By the end, you’ll have a credential that reflects the core skills developers rely on every day.
This month’s challenges are designed to meet you wherever you are in your learning journey—whether you’re building infrastructure, exploring AI, or refining your developer toolkit, and help you win your next exclusive Google Cloud credentials!
Hey team, the games for this month end on September 30th, but the arcade facilitator will continue until October 6th. Can we include the October games in the facilitator milestones?
To join asking access code. I did not find it here . Where was it published ?
I did not get an email about it. For August I got an email some where in 8/15. This is not helping. If they allow access late (8/15), it is fair to extend the deadline/close time.
Is this too much to ask?
We are not able to submit support tkt via lab page, whenever errors happen . It looks like not functioning. We are able to submit via Fedback that captures screenshot as it happen.
If the feedback receiver, respond with case# of feedback to us, we can link this case# to follow up with lab support team. This will help support team to review logs/trace created by feedback process.
Today, feedback submission is acting like oneway and we do not have a clue, what is happening after our submission of feedback.
Facilitator program updates( registration, syllabus, point system , FAQ’s etc) - -Arcade Facilitator Program
***Always add Arcade games by using access code and perform labs by clicking on respective Arcade Game in Dashboard.. If you access labs under Arcade games, they do not require any credits. But same labs if you try to complete from “explore” section or Lab URL it automatically deducts credits from your account. ***,
Skill badges require credits.
Please note every Arcade game has different time period to complete
Arcade Base Camp, L1,L2,L3 (1 point games) are monthly games.
Trivia Weekly games (4)-(1 point games) -earlier uploaded on weekly basis , since July all four trivia games are uploaded with Arcade Base Camp, L1,L2,L3 games.
Special Arcade game- 2 points - (uploaded around 10th to 12th of every month ) - one week validity
Certification Zone Arcade game -1 point - (uploaded around 19th to 21st of every month) - valid till month end
Arcade game ( real-world challenges) -(uploaded around 19th to 21st of every month) - valid till month end
#Task#2- Create a new table named male_customers from the existing customers table that contains only the rows where the gender column is “Male” as well as the customer ID.
bq query --nouse_legacy_sql 'CREATE TABLE customer_details.male_customers AS SELECT CustomerID, gender FROM customer_details.customers WHERE gender = "Male"'
#Task#3-Export the newly created male_customers table to an existing Google Cloud Storage bucket in CSV format as exported_male_customers.csv file.
@Yugali Good day. I noticed that ultimate milestone of facilitators program requires 12 games. Facilitators syllabus says 10. Which one is right?
Also I am currently in discussion with support and they are saying that work meets play does not count towards 12 games if you are not in top 50 (not getting the arcade points). With 6 games per months (5 +1 work meets play), this means that for 99% of people ultimate milestone is impossible.
With a legend tier required points jump, this is not a fair change. Can you please verify if ultimate milestone of facilitators is 10 games or count work meets play towards the 12 games requirement even if you dont get the point.
Every month we release 6 new Arcade games that you can complete to earn “Arcade Points” - 3 levelled games, 1 Basecamp Game, 1 Cert Zone Game & 1 Special Game.
Ultimate Milestone: Complete ALL 12 Arcade Games, 8 Trivia Games & 52 Skill Badges + ALL 24 provided “lab-free” courses
On completion of Ultimate Milestone*, you will receive:
For 12 games = 12 Points
For 8 trivia games = 8 Points
For 52 skill badges = 26 Points
For milestone completion & completing ALL 24 provided “lab-free” courses = 25 Bonus Points
Total: 46 Arcade Points + 25 Bonus Points
Note: If out of the 10 games, if you complete 1 special game, you can earn 47 Arcade points + 25 bonus points. If you complete 2 special games, you can earn 48 Arcade points + 25 bonus points since completion of special games gives you 2 Arcade points
If this is indeed a 12 game requirement and you need to be in top 50 in both (I do not think getting into 1 top 50 is feasible for 99% of players) work meets play, this is very unfair.
@nunuvin@Yugali Every month we release 6 new Arcade games that you can complete to earn “Arcade Points” - 3 levelled games, 1 Basecamp Game, 1 Cert Zone Game & 1 Special Game.
6 Arcade games per month (3 levelled games, 1 Basecamp Game, 1 Cert Zone Game & 1 Special ) without Work Meets play . Work Meets play was never part of Facilitator program.
August (6 games ) and September (6 games) - Total “12” Games.
Its previous season "Note:" content for all milestones.
Note: If out of the 5 games, if you complete 1 special game, you can earn 19 Arcade points + 2 bonus points. If you complete 2 special games, you can earn 20 Arcade points + 2 bonus points since completion of special games gives you 2 Arcade points.
Note: If out of the 6 games, if you complete 1 special game, you can earn 29 Arcade points + 8 bonus points. If you complete 2 special games, you can earn 30 Arcade points + 8 bonus points since completion of special games gives you 2 Arcade points.
Note: If out of the 8 games, if you complete 1 special game, you can earn 37 Arcade points + 15 bonus points. If you complete 2 special games, you can earn 38 Arcade points + 15 bonus points since completion of special games gives you 2 Arcade points.
Note: If out of the 10 games, if you complete 1 special game, you can earn 47 Arcade points + 25 bonus points. If you complete 2 special games, you can earn 48 Arcade points + 25 bonus points since completion of special games gives you 2 Arcade points
I am looking in Game over section and there is a future ready game, I must have not seen it…
Thats really frustrating but thank you for pointing this out… Support didn’t even bother to do that… I guess no ultimate milestone for me, will have to recalculate if I can achieve legend at my current pace & if its even worth it with the new 10 point increase…
I find this lab is challenging. Even after completing tasks check my progress is not updating for step 2 & 3. I find the relevant table/files shows up. I am not sure, why there is no shell cmds listed part of lab notes.
How do we know, what are the cmds to use for step 1, 2 & 3?
I tried your cmds. It is helpful. I see some issues there
+++
student@dfbb072942c6:~$ gsutil ls gs://$BUCKET_NAME/
BucketNotFoundException: 404 gs://gcp-01-4d22c49ed8d7-bucket bucket does not exist.
student@dfbb072942c6:~$ echo $BUCKET_NAME
gcp-01-4d22c49ed8d7-bucket
student@dfbb072942c6:~$ gsutil ls gs://$BUCKET_NAME
BucketNotFoundException: 404 gs://gcp-01-4d22c49ed8d7-bucket bucket does not exist.
+++
I have tested the code I have uploaded above (which worked for me without errors), Tested code again now , No errors for me. I have kept comment and code separately .This series of labs introduced in Dec 2024, It has taken time to understand how it works, you can use “bq” and experiment with it.
Output of gsutil ls gs://$BUCKET_NAME/ shows no files intially and if you run after task #3 code again, it lists bucket content and it will contain file “exported_male_customers.csv”
( gs://qwiklabs-gcp-01-f0a1125f7b19-bucket/exported_male_customers.csv) . please note project id changes and it will show your project id. )
Welcome to BigQuery! This script will walk you through the
process of initializing your .bigqueryrc configuration file.
First, we need to set up your credentials if they do not
already exist.
Setting project_id qwiklabs-gcp-01-f0a1125f7b19 as the default.
BigQuery configuration complete! Type “bq” to get started.
Upload complete.
Waiting on bqjob_r11a1119fb674be3e_000001991b331b6a_1 … (0s) Current Waiting on bqjob_r11a1119fb674be3e_000001991b331b6a_1 … (1s) Current Waiting on bqjob_r11a1119fb674be3e_000001991b331b6a_1 … (1s) Current status: DONE
student@fc53b0057b03:~$
student@fc53b0057b03:~$
student@fc53b0057b03:~$ bq query --nouse_legacy_sql ‘CREATE TABLE customer_details.male_customers AS SELECT CustomerID, gender FROM customer_details.customers WHERE gender = “Male”’
Waiting on bqjob_r3bafd9e6b97d5a0e_000001991b339d8e_1 … (0s) Current Waiting on bqjob_r3bafd9e6b97d5a0e_000001991b339d8e_1 … (1s) Current Waiting on bqjob_r3bafd9e6b97d5a0e_000001991b339d8e_1 … (1s) Current status: DONE
Created qwiklabs-gcp-01-f0a1125f7b19.customer_details.male_customers
student@fc53b0057b03:~$ bq extract --destination_format CSV customer_details.male_customers gs://$BUCKET_NAME/exported_male_customers.csv
Waiting on bqjob_r54b8799df1a7e697_000001991b340958_1 … (0s) Current Waiting on bqjob_r54b8799df1a7e697_000001991b340958_1 … (0s) Current status: DONE
student@fc53b0057b03:~$ gsutil ls gs://$BUCKET_NAME/gs://qwiklabs-gcp-01-f0a1125f7b19-bucket/exported_male_customers.csvstudent@fc53b0057b03:~$
I tried many times , but same outcome. Refreshing the notebook is not helping.
I find in other labs also check my progress not recording the response as complete. I did raise with support, but resolutions. What is the cause for these issues?
I would like to report an issue I’m experiencing while trying to register on the SingleStore portal. During the email verification process, I checked the email that was supposed to be sent to student-03-80dc26658318@qwiklabs.net, but I didn’t receive any email in my Gmail inbox.
Furthermore, when I tried to send an email from my primary email address to that address, I received a “Message blocked” message from mailer-daemon@googlemail.com, detailing that my email was blocked.
Please help me resolve this issue so I can continue the registration and verification process on the SingleStore portal. Are there any settings I need to make, or other steps I need to follow?
@Arjun_Nurdin , {REQUIRED} option removed against this lab, Complete remaining labs in this game and check for respective badge by navigation "View badges’.
Without completing this lab, Game badge generated for me.
@RAOKS Thanks for your response. I am not sure, what is going on. I tried many times . I kept lab notes and active labs in incognito tab of chrome. I waited many minutes for 1st task and last task. It did not record the response. You can check on my account, how many times , I tried. It shows 60% completion for each attempt.
I am running from USA east (physical location). I tried with different region settings, same outcome.
It looks weird. I find the json response file creation for each cell execution. IF there a chance this step is not getting executed for these 2 subject cells for me alone. The code is same. it should work same for all produce same outcome.
What is the cmd to record the response?
What is the cmd to confirm 1st and last talk completed via cloud console or cloud shell?
Ultimate Milestone: Complete 
