GArcade: Automated Skill Badge Tracking and Milestone Analytics

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, cloud computing has become an essential skill for students and professionals alike. Platforms such as Google Cloud Skills Boost (GCSB) have made learning more engaging by introducing gamified programs like “The Arcade,” where users earn badges by completing labs, quests, and challenges. While this approach encourages participation, it lacks a structured way for users to track their overall progress, analyze performance across seasons, or understand how close they are to achieving higher milestones. To address this gap, this paper introduces GArcade, a cloud-native analytics platform designed to simplify and enhance skill tracking within the GCSB ecosystem. GArcade automatically extracts and processes badge data from public profiles, converts it into meaningful insights, and presents users with a clear view of their progress through tier-based rankings and milestone tracking. By leveraging modern serverless technologies and an edge-based architecture, GArcade delivers fast, scalable, and real-time analytics without requiring manual effort from users. The platform not only improves accuracy in tracking achievements but also enhances motivation by providing clear goals and progress visibility. Overall, GArcade aims to bridge the gap between skill acquisition and progress visualization, making cloud learning more structured, measurable, and engaging.