# Cloud Architecture Skills Test and Verified Score > A cloud architecture skills test on resilience and cost, plus live design reviews with practitioners and infrastructure code on GitHub. Prove the skill. Source: https://getlemma.io/skills/cloud-architecture Architecture diagrams are easy to draw and hard to defend. Lemma records how you defend them: the trade-offs you make on resilience, security and cost when a practitioner pushes back. How cloud architecture is assessed ## What cloud architecture competence looks like A good cloud architect designs for failure first. They know which component will break, what happens to users when it does, and how the system recovers. They choose regions, replication and backups based on what the business can tolerate, not on what sounds impressive in a diagram. They also balance competing pressures. Managed services save effort but limit control. More redundancy costs more money. They write decisions down, so the next team understands why a queue sits between two services. They are comfortable saying 'it depends' and then explaining exactly what it depends on. ### Resilience and failover Designing for component, zone and region failures with clear recovery targets and tested failover paths. ### Scalability patterns Horizontal scaling, caching, queues and partitioning applied where load actually demands them. ### Security architecture Network segmentation, identity boundaries and encryption designed into the system rather than bolted on. ### Cost optimisation Right-sizing, reserved capacity and architecture choices that keep the bill proportional to real usage. ### Multi-cloud and hybrid Knowing when portability is worth its complexity, and when committing to one provider is the better call. ### Architecture decisions Writing decision records that capture context, options and trade-offs for the people who come next. ## What counts as evidence of cloud architecture skills? Certificates in cloud architecture show an exam was passed. Lemma records how you work: sessions where you talked through a design or an incident, an adaptive test, and configuration in repositories you link. Every entry says where it came from. See the [evidence methodology](https://getlemma.io/methodology#evidence-types) for how each source is weighed. [Live session](https://getlemma.io/product/sessions) ### A live design review In a session, you present or design a system while a practitioner challenges it: what fails, what it costs, how it scales. How well you defend and adapt the design is what they rate. [GitHub connector](https://getlemma.io/product/passport) ### Infrastructure code and decision records Attach a GitHub repository or commit with infrastructure code and architecture decision records. Lemma confirms the repo is linked to your account and re-checks access over time. [Adaptive assessment](https://getlemma.io/product/assessments) ### Scenario questions on trade-offs The adaptive assessment presents realistic design situations, such as a region outage or a cost spike, and asks which change best fits. Harder levels follow strong answers. [Live session](https://getlemma.io/product/sessions) ### Teaching resilience patterns Teaching a session on failover, queues or caching strategies counts more than learning one. It shows you can explain architecture to people who must build and run it. ## How is a cloud architecture skills test run on Lemma? The cloud architecture test is adaptive, 15 to 25 questions on failure modes, permissions and cost rather than service names, and it stops once your level holds steady. With sessions and linked work it sets your cloud architecture SCI, where recent evidence carries more weight. [How the SCI score is calculated](https://getlemma.io/product/sci)[How adaptive skills assessments work](https://getlemma.io/product/assessments)[Practise cloud architecture in live skill swap sessions](https://getlemma.io/product/sessions)[Which evidence types count](https://getlemma.io/methodology#evidence-types)[What your Skills Passport shows](https://getlemma.io/product/passport) 1. ### Defend a design live Book a session with a cloud architecture practitioner and walk through a system you designed or one they set. They question resilience, security and cost, then rate the clarity of your trade-offs. 2. ### Connect your infrastructure work Attach GitHub repositories with infrastructure code or decision records. Reviewers see that your designs were built and documented, not only sketched on a whiteboard. 3. ### Take the adaptive assessment Scenario questions cover resilience, scaling, security and cost. Difficulty adjusts after each answer, and timed questions with no going back keep the result honest. ## Cloud architecture skills: common questions ### How do I prove cloud architecture experience for a senior role? Senior roles want evidence of judgement: designs you shaped, trade-offs you defended and failures you planned for. On Lemma, a rated design review with a practitioner shows that directly. Infrastructure code and decision records attached through GitHub add proof that your designs were built. ### What happens in a cloud architecture design review session? You meet a practitioner one to one in a browser video session. Either you present a system you know, or they give you a brief to design. They ask what fails, how it scales and what it costs. Afterwards both of you rate the session, and it becomes evidence on your record. ### Is cloud architecture different from system design on Lemma? They overlap but are tracked separately. Cloud architecture focuses on infrastructure choices: regions, managed services, networking, failover and cost. System design covers application-level structure like data models, APIs and consistency. Many engineers build both records, and sessions often produce evidence relevant to each. ### Do I need a cloud architect certification to be credible? Certifications help show broad knowledge of a provider's services. Credibility in architecture usually comes from how you reason about real systems under pressure. Live design reviews and scenario assessments capture that reasoning, and you can share them alongside any certification you hold. ## Skills related to cloud architecture [Browse the skills directory](https://getlemma.io/skills) [### AWS Evidence that you can design, secure and run workloads on AWS, not just name services. Evidence for AWS](https://getlemma.io/skills/aws)[### System design Show how you reason about scale, failure and trade-offs, in live design sessions reviewed by practitioners. Evidence for system design](https://getlemma.io/skills/system-design)[### DevOps Evidence of how you build pipelines, ship safely and keep systems observable. Evidence for DevOps](https://getlemma.io/skills/devops)[### Cybersecurity Evidence of how you find, prioritise and fix real security risks in systems and code. Evidence for cybersecurity](https://getlemma.io/skills/cybersecurity) ![Painting of an olive grove in soft sunlight with hills beyond](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/islu4peo/production/613eb3f93566423c9adf45246f2cf1a61437c04c-1680x1120.jpg?w=1080&fm=webp&q=68&fit=max) ## Start your cloud architecture evidence record. Lemma is in early access. Request an invite and we will email you when your place is ready.