Show you can work with data on Google Cloud, from ingesting and analyzing it with BigQuery and Looker to managing access, and track your readiness for the Associate Data Practitioner exam.

Fundamental

Prepare and test your skills

Fundamental

Prepare and test your skills

Google Cloud feature

Nearline

Topic in 3 exam domains

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Also called: Nearline storage class

Nearline is a low-cost, highly durable Cloud Storage class designed for infrequently accessed data stored for at least 30 days. On Associate Data Practitioner it comes up as an intermediate storage class you choose when evaluating data access frequency, retention obligations, and lifecycle transitions to optimize storage costs.

What you can expect on the exam

Trade-offs against Standard storage. Know the difference between Standard storage and Nearline, where accepting slightly lower availability, data access charges, and a 30-day minimum storage duration offers lower at-rest storage costs.
Mitigating excess operation costs. Be ready to recognize when data experiencing frequent read operations in Coldline belongs in Nearline or warmer storage to avoid high operation expenses.
Suitability for archival and backup workloads. You may need to assess Nearline for archival scenarios such as data backups and long-tail multimedia content intended to be stored for at least 60 days.

Where this appears on the exam

2 subdomains in 1 of 4 domains

Section 4
Data Management
1. 4.2Configure lifecycle management
  - Determine the appropriate Cloud Storage classes based on the frequency of data access and retention requirements
  - Evaluate Google Cloud services for archiving data given business requirements

How learners score on this topic

Last updated November 2, 2026

Associate Data Practitioner

Show you can work with data on Google Cloud, from ingesting and analyzing it with BigQuery and Looker to managing access, and track your readiness for the Associate Data Practitioner exam.

Fundamental

Prepare and test your skills

Fundamental

Prepare and test your skills

Google Cloud feature

Nearline

Topic in 3 exam domains

X LinkedIn Facebook Reddit

Also called: Nearline storage class

What you can expect on the exam

Trade-offs against Standard storage. Know the difference between Standard storage and Nearline, where accepting slightly lower availability, data access charges, and a 30-day minimum storage duration offers lower at-rest storage costs.
Mitigating excess operation costs. Be ready to recognize when data experiencing frequent read operations in Coldline belongs in Nearline or warmer storage to avoid high operation expenses.
Suitability for archival and backup workloads. You may need to assess Nearline for archival scenarios such as data backups and long-tail multimedia content intended to be stored for at least 60 days.

Where this appears on the exam

2 subdomains in 1 of 4 domains

Section 4
Data Management
1. 4.2Configure lifecycle management
  - Determine the appropriate Cloud Storage classes based on the frequency of data access and retention requirements
  - Evaluate Google Cloud services for archiving data given business requirements

How learners score on this topic

Last updated November 2, 2026

What you can expect on the exam

Where this appears on the exam

Related topics

How learners score on this topic

What you can expect on the exam

Where this appears on the exam

Related topics

How learners score on this topic