Free Practice Questions for Google Professional-Machine-Learning-Engineer Exam

Vertex AI Feature Store is a service that allows you to store and manage your ML features on Google Cloud. You can use Vertex AI Feature Store to store features such as parcels delivered and truck locations over time, and retrieve them with low latency for online prediction. Online prediction is a type of prediction that provides low-latency responses to individual or small batches of input data. You can also use Vertex AI Feature Store to retrieve historical data at a specific point in time for model training. Model training is a process of learning the parameters of a ML model from data. By using Vertex AI Feature Store, you can store the features with minimal effort, and avoid the complexity of managing your own data storage and serving system. References:

Vertex AI Feature Store documentation

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer Professional Certificate

A Dataflow streaming pipeline is a cost-effective way to process large volumes of real-time data from sensors. The RunInference API is a Dataflow transform that allows you to run online predictions on your streaming data using your ML models. By using the RunInference API, you can avoid the latency and cost of using a separate prediction service. The automatic model refresh feature enables you to update your models in the pipeline without redeploying the pipeline. This way, you can ensure that your models are always up-to-date and accurate. By deploying a Dataflow streaming pipeline with the RunInference API and using automatic model refresh, you can achieve sub-millisecond predictions, 24/7 availability, and low operational overhead for your ML models. References:

Dataflow documentation

RunInference API documentation

Automatic model refresh documentation

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer Professional Certificate

The best option to serve the model while optimizing cost, user experience, and ease of management is to deploy the model to Vertex AI Prediction, which is a managed service that can scale up or down according to the demand and provide low latency and high availability. Vertex AI Prediction can also handle TensorFlow models natively, without requiring any additional steps or conversions. By using batch prediction, the model can process large volumes of data efficiently and periodically, without affecting the user experience. The data can be read from Cloud Bigtable, which is a scalable and performant NoSQL database that can store user data in a flexible schema. The predictions can then be pushed to Cloud SQL, which is a fully managed relational database that can store the predictions in a structured format and enable easy querying and analysis. This option also simplifies the management of the model and the data, as it leverages the existing Google Cloud services and does not require any additional infrastructure or code.

The other options are not optimal for the following reasons:

A. Importing the model into BigQuery ML is not a good option, as it requires converting the TensorFlow model into a format that BigQuery ML can understand, which can introduce errors and reduce the performance. Moreover, BigQuery ML is not designed for serving real-time predictions, but rather for training and evaluating models using SQL queries. Reading and writing data from BigQuery and Cloud SQL can also incur additional costs and latency, as they are both relational databases that require schema definition and data transformation.

C. Embedding the model in the mobile application is not a good option, as it increases the size and complexity of the application, and requires updating the application every time the model changes. Moreover, it exposes the model to the users, which can pose security and privacy risks, as well as potential misuse or abuse. Additionally, it does not leverage the benefits of the cloud, such as scalability, reliability, and performance.

D. Embedding the model in the streaming Dataflow pipeline is not a good option, as it requires building and maintaining a custom pipeline that can handle the model inference and data processing. This can increase the development and operational costs and complexity, as well as the potential for errors and failures. Moreover, it does not take advantage of the batch prediction feature of Vertex AI Prediction, which can optimize the resource utilization and cost efficiency.

References:

Professional ML Engineer Exam Guide

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer Professional Certificate

Google Cloud launches machine learning engineer certification

Vertex AI Prediction documentation

Cloud Bigtable documentation

Cloud SQL documentation

According to the official exam guide1, one of the skills assessed in the exam is to “design, build, and productionalize ML models to solve business challenges using Google Cloud technologies”. The Speech-to-Text API2 allows you to convert audio to text by applying powerful neural network models. The Natural Language API3 enables you to analyze text and extract information about the sentiment, entities, and syntax. The Cloud Functions4 service lets you write and deploy code that runs in response to events, such as a Pub/Sub message or an HTTP request. Therefore, option B is the most efficient approach to analyze the audio files for customer sentiment, as it leverages the existing Google Cloud services and avoids unnecessary data processing and model training. The other options are not relevant or optimal for this scenario. References:

Professional ML Engineer Exam Guide

Speech-to-Text API

Natural Language API

Cloud Functions

Google Professional Machine Learning Certification Exam 2023

Latest Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer Actual Free Exam Questions

The best option to ensure real-time ingestion of the user activity data into BigQuery is to run a Dataflow streaming job to ingest the data into BigQuery. Dataflow is a fully managed service that can handle both batch and stream processing of data, and can integrate seamlessly with BigQuery and other Google Cloud services. Dataflow can also use Apache Beam as the programming model, which provides a unified and portable API for developing data pipelines. By using Dataflow, you can avoid the complexity and overhead of managing your own infrastructure, and focus on the logic and transformation of your data. Dataflow can also handle various types of data, such as structured, unstructured, or binary data, and can apply windowing, aggregation, and other operations on the data streams.

The other options are not optimal for the following reasons:

A. Configuring Pub/Sub to stream the data into BigQuery is not a good option, as Pub/Sub is a messaging service that can publish and subscribe to data streams, but cannot perform any transformation or processing on the data. Pub/Sub can be used as a source or a sink for Dataflow, but not as a standalone solution for ingesting data into BigQuery.

B. Running an Apache Spark streaming job on Dataproc to ingest the data into BigQuery is not a good option, as it requires setting up and managing your own cluster of virtual machines, which can increase the cost and complexity of your solution. Moreover, Apache Spark is not natively integrated with BigQuery, and requires using connectors or intermediate storage to write data to BigQuery, which can introduce latency and inefficiency.

D. Configuring Pub/Sub and a Dataflow streaming job to ingest the data into BigQuery is not a bad option, but it is not necessary, as Dataflow can directly read data from the mobile applications without using Pub/Sub as an intermediary. Using Pub/Sub can add an extra layer of abstraction and reliability, but it can also increase the cost and complexity of your solution, and introduce some delay in the data ingestion.

References:

Professional ML Engineer Exam Guide

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer Professional Certificate

Google Cloud launches machine learning engineer certification

Dataflow documentation

BigQuery documentation

Option A is not the best answer because it requires modifying the pipeline to use the Vertex AI Feature Store, which may not be feasible or necessary for recovering the data that the model was trained on. The Vertex AI Feature Store is a service that helps you manage, store, and serve feature values for your machine learning models1, but it is not designed for storing the raw data or the TFRecord files.

Option B is the best answer because it leverages the lineage feature of Vertex AI Metadata, which is a service that helps you track and manage the metadata of your machine learning workflows, such as datasets, models, metrics, and parameters2. The lineage feature allows you to view the relationships and dependencies among the artifacts and executions in your pipeline, and trace back the origin and history of any artifact3. By using the lineage feature, you can find the model artifact, determine the version of the model, identify the step that creates the data copy, and search in the metadata for its location.

Option C is not the best answer because it relies on the logging features in the Vertex AI endpoint, which may not be accurate or reliable for finding the data copy. The logging features in the Vertex AI endpoint help you monitor and troubleshoot the online predictions made by your deployed models, but they do not provide information about the training data or the pipeline steps4. Moreover, the timestamp of the model deployment may not match the timestamp of the pipeline run, as there may be delays or errors in the deployment process.

Option D is not the best answer because it requires finding the job ID in Vertex AI Training, which may not be easy or straightforward. Vertex AI Training is a service that helps you train your custom models on Google Cloud, but it does not provide a direct way to link the training job to the model version or the pipeline run. Moreover, searching in the logs of the job may not reveal the location of the data copy, as the logs may only contain information about the training process and the metrics.

References:

1: Introduction to Vertex AI Feature Store | Vertex AI | Google Cloud

2: Introduction to Vertex AI Metadata | Vertex AI | Google Cloud

3: View lineage for ML workflows | Vertex AI | Google Cloud

4: Monitor online predictions | Vertex AI | Google Cloud

[5]: Train custom models | Vertex AI | Google Cloud

Option A is incorrect because distributing the dataset with tf.distribute.Strategy.experimental_distribute_dataset is not the most effective way to decrease the training time. This method allows you to distribute your dataset across multiple devices or machines, by creating a tf.data.Dataset instance that can be iterated over in parallel1. However, this option may not improve the training time significantly, as it does not change the amount of data or computation that each device or machine has to process. Moreover, this option may introduce additional overhead or complexity, as it requires you to handle the data sharding, replication, and synchronization across the devices or machines1.

Option B is incorrect because creating a custom training loop is not the easiest way to decrease the training time. A custom training loop is a way to implement your own logic for training your model, by using low-level TensorFlow APIs, such as tf.GradientTape, tf.Variable, or tf.function2. A custom training loop may give you more flexibility and control over the training process, but it also requires more effort and expertise, as you have to write and debug the code for each step of the training loop, such as computing the gradients, applying the optimizer, or updating the metrics2. Moreover, a custom training loop may not improve the training time significantly, as it does not change the amount of data or computation that each device or machine has to process.

Option C is incorrect because using a TPU with tf.distribute.TPUStrategy is not a valid way to decrease the training time. A TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) is a custom hardware accelerator designed for high-performance ML workloads3. A tf.distribute.TPUStrategy is a distribution strategy that allows you to distribute your training across multiple TPUs, by creating a tf.distribute.TPUStrategy instance that can be used with high-level TensorFlow APIs, such as Keras4. However, this option is not feasible, as Vertex AI Training does not support TPUs as accelerators for custom training jobs5. Moreover, this option may require significant code changes, as TPUs have different requirements and limitations than GPUs.

Option D is correct because increasing the batch size is the best way to decrease the training time. The batch size is a hyperparameter that determines how many samples of data are processed in each iteration of the training loop. Increasing the batch size may reduce the training time, as it reduces the number of iterations needed to train the model, and it allows each device or machine to process more data in parallel. Increasing the batch size is also easy to implement, as it only requires changing a single hyperparameter. However, increasing the batch size may also affect the convergence and the accuracy of the model, so it is important to find the optimal batch size that balances the trade-off between the training time and the model performance.

References:

tf.distribute.Strategy.experimental_distribute_dataset

Custom training loop

TPU overview

tf.distribute.TPUStrategy

Vertex AI Training accelerators

[TPU programming model]

[Batch size and learning rate]

[Keras overview]

[tf.distribute.MirroredStrategy]

[Vertex AI Training overview]

[TensorFlow overview]

 The main advantage of implementing machine learning for this business case is that new problematic phrases can be identified in spam posts. This is because machine learning can learn from the data and the feedback, and adapt to the changing patterns and trends of spam posts. Machine learning can also capture the semantic and contextual meaning of the posts, and not just rely on the presence or absence of keywords. By using machine learning, you can improve the accuracy and coverage of your anti-spam service, and detect new and emerging types of spam posts that may not be captured by the keyword list.

The other options are not advantages of implementing machine learning for this business case for the following reasons:

A. Posts can be compared to the keyword list much more quickly is not an advantage, as it does not improve the quality or effectiveness of the anti-spam service. It only improves the efficiency of the service, which is not the primary objective. Moreover, machine learning may not necessarily be faster than the keyword list, depending on the complexity and size of the model and the data.

C. A much longer keyword list can be used to flag spam posts is not an advantage, as it does not address the limitations or challenges of the keyword list approach. It only increases the size and complexity of the keyword list, which can make it harder to maintain and update. Moreover, a longer keyword list may not improve the accuracy or coverage of the anti-spam service, as it may introduce more false positives or false negatives, or miss new and emerging types of spam posts.

D. Spam posts can be flagged using far fewer keywords is not an advantage, as it does not reflect the capabilities or benefits of machine learning. It only reduces the size and complexity of the keyword list, which can make it easier to maintain and update. However, using fewer keywords may not improve the accuracy or coverage of the anti-spam service, as it may lose some information or meaning of the posts, or miss some types of spam posts.

References:

Professional ML Engineer Exam Guide

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer Professional Certificate

Google Cloud launches machine learning engineer certification

Machine Learning for Spam Detection

Spam Detection Using Machine Learning

The best option for building an ML model to predict customer purchase behavior in BigQuery ML is to use the transform clause with the ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function on the categorical features at model creation and select the categorical and non-categorical features. This option allows you to encode the categorical features as one-hot vectors, which are binary vectors that have only one non-zero element. One-hot encoding is a common technique for handling categorical features in ML models, as it can reduce the dimensionality and sparsity of the data, and avoid the ordinality problem that arises when using numerical labels for categorical values1. The transform clause is a feature of BigQuery ML that lets you apply SQL expressions to transform the input data at model creation time. The transform clause can perform feature engineering, such as one-hot encoding, on the fly, without requiring you to create and store a new table with the transformed data2. By using the transform clause with the ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function, you can create and train an ML model in BigQuery ML with a single SQL statement, and export it to Cloud Storage for online prediction.

The other options are not as good as option A, for the following reasons:

Option B: Using the ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function on the categorical features, and selecting the encoded categorical features and non-categorical features as inputs to create your model, would require more steps and storage than using the transform clause. The ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function is a BigQuery ML function that returns a one-hot encoded vector for a given categorical value. However, using this function alone would not apply the one-hot encoding to the input data at model creation time. You would need to create a new table with the encoded features, and use that table as the input to create your model. This would incur additional storage costs and reduce the performance of the queries.

Option C: Using the create model statement and selecting the categorical and non-categorical features, would not handle the categorical features properly and could result in a poor model performance. The create model statement is a BigQuery ML statement that creates and trains an ML model from a SQL query. However, if the input data contains categorical features, you need to encode them as one-hot vectors or use the category_count option to specify the number of categories for each feature. Otherwise, BigQuery ML would treat the categorical features as numerical values, which can introduce bias and noise into the model3.

Option D: Using the ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function on the categorical features, and selecting the encoded categorical features and non-categorical features as inputs to create your model, is the same as option B, and has the same drawbacks.

References:

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer, Course 2: Data Engineering for ML on Google Cloud, Week 2: Feature Engineering

Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer Exam Guide, Section 1: Architecting low-code ML solutions, 1.1 Developing ML models by using BigQuery ML

Official Google Cloud Certified Professional Machine Learning Engineer Study Guide, Chapter 3: Data Engineering for ML, Section 3.2: BigQuery for ML

One-hot encoding

Using the TRANSFORM clause for feature engineering

Creating a model

ML.ONE_HOT_ENCODER function

The best option for reducing pipeline execution time and cost, while also minimizing pipeline changes, is to enable caching for the pipeline job, and disable caching for the model training step. This option allows you to leverage the power and simplicity of Vertex AI Pipelines to reuse the output of the data preprocessing step, and avoid unnecessary recomputation. Vertex AI Pipelines is a service that can orchestrate machine learning workflows using Vertex AI. Vertex AI Pipelines can run preprocessing and training steps on custom Docker images, and evaluate, deploy, and monitor the machine learning model. Caching is a feature of Vertex AI Pipelines that can store and reuse the output of a pipeline step, and skip the execution of the step if the input parameters and the code have not changed. Caching can help you reduce the pipeline execution time and cost, as you do not need to re-run the same step with the same input and code. Caching can also help you minimize the pipeline changes, as you do not need to add or remove any pipeline steps or parameters. By enabling caching for the pipeline job, and disabling caching for the model training step, you can create a Vertex AI pipeline that includes two steps. The first step preprocesses 10 TB data, completes in about 1 hour, and saves the result in a Cloud Storage bucket. The second step uses the processed data to train a model. You can update the model’s code to allow you to test different algorithms, and run the pipeline job with caching enabled. The pipeline job will reuse the output of the data preprocessing step from the cache, and skip the execution of the step. The pipeline job will run the model training step with the updated code, and disable the caching for the step. This way, you can reduce the pipeline execution time and cost, while also minimizing pipeline changes1.

The other options are not as good as option D, for the following reasons:

Option A: Adding a pipeline parameter and an additional pipeline step, depending on the parameter value, the pipeline step conducts or skips data preprocessing and starts model training, would require more skills and steps than enabling caching for the pipeline job, and disabling caching for the model training step. A pipeline parameter is a variable that can be used to control the input or output of a pipeline step. A pipeline parameter can help you customize the pipeline logic and behavior, and experiment with different values. An additional pipeline step is a new instance of a pipeline component that can perform a part of the pipeline workflow, such as data preprocessing or model training. An additional pipeline step can help you extend the pipeline functionality and complexity, and handle different scenarios. However, adding a pipeline parameter and an additional pipeline step, depending on the parameter value, the pipeline step conducts or skips data preprocessing and starts model training, would require more skills and steps than enabling caching for the pipeline job, and disabling caching for the model training step. You would need to write code, define the pipeline parameter, create the additional pipeline step, implement the conditional logic, and compile and run the pipeline. Moreover, this option would not reuse the output of the data preprocessing step from the cache, but rather from the Cloud Storage bucket, which can increase the data transfer and access costs1.

Option B: Creating another pipeline without the preprocessing step, and hardcoding the preprocessed Cloud Storage file location for model training, would require more skills and steps than enabling caching for the pipeline job, and disabling caching for the model training step. A pipeline without the preprocessing step is a pipeline that only includes the model training step, and uses the preprocessed data from the Cloud Storage bucket as the input. A pipeline without the preprocessing step can help you avoid running the data preprocessing step every time, and reduce the pipeline execution time and cost. However, creating another pipeline without the preprocessing step, and hardcoding the preprocessed Cloud Storage file location for model training, would require more skills and steps than enabling caching for the pipeline job, and disabling caching for the model training step. You would need to write code, create a new pipeline, remove the preprocessing step, hardcode the Cloud Storage file location, and compile and run the pipeline. Moreover, this option would not reuse the output of the data preprocessing step from the cache, but rather from the Cloud Storage bucket, which can increase the data transfer and access costs. Furthermore, this option would create another pipeline, which can increase the maintenance and management costs1.

Option C: Configuring a machine with more CPU and RAM from the compute-optimized machine family for the data preprocessing step, would not reduce the pipeline execution time and cost, while also minimizing pipeline changes, but rather increase the pipeline execution cost and complexity. A machine with more CPU and RAM from the compute-optimized machine family is a virtual machine that has a high ratio of CPU cores to memory, and can provide high performance and scalability for compute-intensive workloads. A machine with more CPU and RAM from the compute-optimized machine family can help you optimize the data preprocessing step, and reduce the pipeline execution time. However, configuring a machine with more CPU and RAM from the compute-optimized machine family for the data preprocessing step, would not reduce the pipeline execution time and cost, while also minimizing pipeline changes, but rather increase the pipeline execution cost and complexity. You would need to write code, configure the machine type parameters for the data preprocessing step, and compile and run the pipeline. Moreover, this option would increase the pipeline execution cost, as machines with more CPU and RAM from the compute-optimized machine family are more expensive than machines with less CPU and RAM from other machine families. Furthermore, this option would not reuse the output of the data preprocessing step from the cache, but rather re-run the data preprocessing step every time, which can increase the pipeline execution time and cost1.

References:

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer, Course 3: Production ML Systems, Week 3: MLOps

Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer Exam Guide, Section 3: Scaling ML models in production, 3.2 Automating ML workflows

Official Google Cloud Certified Professional Machine Learning Engineer Study Guide, Chapter 6: Production ML Systems, Section 6.4: Automating ML Workflows

Vertex AI Pipelines

Caching

Pipeline parameters

Machine types