Google Workspace / Workspace administration / GW-AWA

Administer Google Workspace securely and effectively

Build practical administration skills across identities, collaboration services, governance, security, endpoints, and support. Google lists no prerequisite certification and recommends six months of Google Workspace Super Admin experience in a real or test environment, with Business Plus hands-on experience and knowledge of Enterprise features.

Active Associate certificationNo formal prerequisite2-hour exam50–60 multiple-choice and multiple-select questions6 months of Super Admin experience recommended

Stage 1 · Identity and collaboration services

Build the Workspace operating foundation

Start with lifecycle, policy targeting, domains, licenses, and the core services users depend on every day.

  1. 1.Manage users, groups, organizational units, domains, licenses, buildings, resources, and lifecycle automation.
  2. 2.Configure Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Gemini, and lightweight Workspace development safely.

Stage 2 · Governance, access, and operations

Protect data and keep services healthy

Continue with compliance, least-privilege administration, endpoints, monitoring, and evidence-led troubleshooting.

  1. 3.Apply Vault, retention, holds, DLP, trust rules, classification, data regions, and export controls.
  2. 4.Protect access with strong authentication, scoped admin roles, contextual policy, investigation, alerts, and application controls.
  3. 5.Manage mobile devices and Chrome browsers; diagnose mail, Drive, Calendar, Meet, account, storage, and service issues from evidence.

Hands-on consolidation

Put it into practice

Use a test Workspace domain or documented design exercise. Create two organizational units and a configuration group, map a joiner and leaver workflow, design Gmail authentication records, define internal and partner Drive-sharing boundaries, and draft one Vault retention rule and one DLP response. Add a scoped help-desk role, an administrator two-step-verification policy, a managed-browser extension rule, and an evidence checklist for a failed email delivery. Use synthetic accounts and content only.

Ready to move on when…

You can explain policy inheritance, trace a user's lifecycle, distinguish retention from holds, diagnose mail authentication from headers, select the correct sharing and endpoint controls, and delegate administration without unnecessary Super Admin access.

Use a test tenant and synthetic users and data. Never experiment with production retention, routing, access, or deletion settings.

Practice and review

Find gaps with our GW-AWA test

The test contains 75 independent practice questions, including interactive matching exercises. The first 7 questions are available in the free preview.

Try our GW-AWA practice test →

Practice results are learning feedback, not an official Google result or a pass guarantee. Confirm current booking details with Google before scheduling.