If you are preparing for the Display & Video 360 certification exam, you have probably already found a dozen pages that dump 50 answers on you with no explanation. Those pages help you pass once. They do not help you when a client asks why a Programmatic Guaranteed deal under-delivered on a Tuesday morning.

This guide is different. It contains 45 unique Display & Video 360 certification exam questions and answers, grouped by exam topic, and every one comes with a short explanation of why that answer is right and why the other three options are traps. Read it as a study sheet, not a cheat sheet. You will finish it knowing DV360, not just knowing option C.

Before you start: Google refreshes Skillshop question pools regularly, and the exam pulls a randomized set from a larger bank. Treat every answer below as a study prompt to verify inside the platform, not as gospel. Skillshop also expects you to complete assessments on your own — the point of this page is to make the concepts stick so you actually earn the badge.

Display & Video 360 certification exam format at a glance

Before the questions, get the logistics straight. Most people who fail do so because they ran out of time on the scenario questions, not because they did not know the platform.

Exam nameDisplay & Video 360 Certification Exam (Google Skillshop)
Number of questions50 multiple choice
Time limit75 minutes, roughly 90 seconds per question
Passing score80% — you can miss 10 questions and still pass
CostFree
Certificate validity12 months, then you retake to renew
RetakesAllowed after a short cool-down period if you do not pass
Who it is forProgrammatic traders, media buyers, agency account managers, ad ops
Where to take itGoogle Skillshop → Display & Video 360 Certification Exam

The question format is consistent: a short client scenario, then four options that all sound plausible. The exam is testing whether you know which DV360 object or module solves the problem, so when you read a question, immediately ask yourself: is this a campaign, insertion order, line item, creative, inventory or reporting problem? That one habit eliminates two wrong answers on most questions.

What is on this page

What the Display & Video 360 certification exam actually tests

Google does not publish a formal weighting, but the pattern across live question pools is stable. Roughly speaking:

  • Inventory and deal types — the single largest cluster. Open Auction, Private Auction, Preferred and Programmatic Guaranteed appear again and again, usually disguised as a client scenario about flexibility, fixed pricing or guaranteed impressions.
  • Campaign hierarchy and structure — which setting lives at partner, advertiser, campaign, insertion order or line item level. Frequency capping and brand controls are the favourites.
  • Bidding and optimization — Maximise conversions vs Custom bidding vs Maximise clicks, and when each is appropriate.
  • Creative formats — Swirl, Parallax, Native, data-driven creatives, audio specs, and how creatives get into the platform.
  • Measurement — Floodlight tag types, attribution modelling, cross-environment conversions, Brand Lift, and which report answers which question.
  • Brand safety — blocklists, sensitive categories, digital content labels, invalid traffic.

If you are weak on the platform side rather than the theory, working through a real optimization workflow helps more than re-reading notes. Our walkthroughs on optimizing DV360 campaigns for CPM and optimizing a DV360 campaign for CPA cover the same levers the exam asks about, but in the order you would actually use them on a live account.

How to use this answer sheet without failing the exam

A practical warning: the exam draws from a larger pool than any answer list covers, and Google rewrites scenarios every few months. People who memorize a list and nothing else routinely score in the sixties, because they hit six questions they have never seen and have no framework to reason through them.

Use this page in three passes:

  1. Pass one — read the explanations, not the bold text. Cover the answers, attempt each question, then read the “Why this is the answer” box.
  2. Pass two — open DV360 alongside it. For every question about a module or setting, actually click to that screen in the platform. Where does frequency capping live? Where is the Deal Troubleshooter? Muscle memory beats recall.
  3. Pass three — the day before. Skim only the 12 concepts worth memorizing and the deal-type table. That is where most of the marks are.

Section 1 — Platform basics, hierarchy and structured data files

Six questions here, and they are the easiest marks on the paper. DV360’s hierarchy runs Partner → Advertiser → Campaign → Insertion Order → Line Item, and almost every “at what level should you set this up” question is solved by asking how many things the setting needs to control at once.

1. What is the definition of Display & Video 360 as a product?

  • A product that allows advertisers to buy digital inventory and manage campaigns.
  • A product that allows website owners to track, manage, and report data on their website traffic.
  • A product that allows publishers and media owners to manage the inventory they offer.
  • A product that allows advertisers to store and deliver their ads to a publisher’s webpage.
Why this is the answerDV360 is a demand-side platform (DSP) — it sits on the buy side. The other three options describe different products: analytics (Google Analytics), a supply-side platform or ad manager (Google Ad Manager), and an ad server (Campaign Manager 360). If you are fuzzy on where the ad server ends and the DSP begins, read our breakdown of the Campaign Manager 360 hierarchy and setup.

2. Your colleague needs to update details of a large campaign and wants to use structured data files (SDFs) to make changes. Before uploading everything to Display & Video 360, they ask you to double-check the files. You find an error. What setting could be causing it?

  • There’s an SDF with rows for both editing and removing line items.
  • There’s an SDF for modifying inventory sources.
  • There’s a single SDF with both line item and insertion order rows.
  • There’s an SDF with 100 line items in a single file.
Why this is the answerAn SDF can only carry one entity type per file. Insertion orders and line items use completely different column headers and required fields, so mixing them in one file breaks the parser. Editing and removing line items in the same file is fine (that is what the status column is for), inventory sources have their own dedicated SDF, and 100 rows is nothing — DV360 handles thousands. Full walkthrough: why DV360 rejects a combined SDF upload.

3. Your colleague created a line item in Display & Video 360 for their client’s mobile web campaign and targeted mobile in-app by mistake. They removed the mobile in-app targeting at the insertion order level, but the campaign is still targeting mobile in-app. Why could this be happening?

  • You can’t modify targeting for mobile in-app inventory at the line item level.
  • You can’t modify existing line item targeting at the insertion order level.
  • You can’t modify targeting once the campaign has line items assigned.
  • You can’t modify insertion order targeting at the line item level.
Why this is the answerTargeting inherits downward when a line item is created, but it does not sync retroactively. Once a line item exists with its own targeting, changing the parent insertion order does not rewrite it. You have to fix it on the line item itself. This is the single most common real-world DV360 gotcha, which is why it is on the exam.

4. Your company wants to set up universal brand controls across all products to be consistent with your brand guidelines. What’s the highest level within the Display & Video 360 account settings hierarchy that you should choose?

  • Partner & Advertiser
  • Line item & Campaign
  • Campaign & Partner
  • Insertion order & Campaign
Why this is the answerThe word “universal” is the clue. Partner is the top of the DV360 hierarchy and Advertiser sits directly beneath it, so brand safety controls applied there cascade to everything underneath. Any answer containing campaign, insertion order or line item is by definition not the highest level.

5. You want to manage frequency within your Programmatic Guaranteed deals across multiple publishers. At what level in your Display & Video 360 account settings should you set this up?

  • Advertiser level
  • Line item level
  • Insertion order level
  • Campaign level
Why this is the answer“Across multiple publishers” means multiple deals, which means multiple line items. Campaign-level frequency management is the only setting that caps a user across all of them at once. Set it at line item level and each publisher gets its own separate cap, which is exactly the over-exposure problem the question describes. More detail here: managing frequency across Programmatic Guaranteed deals.

6. A flower shop is running a campaign geared toward party planners, a specific audience they created within Display & Video 360. They don’t want this audience seeing the ad more than twice a month. Where should they set up frequency management?

  • Within their line item settings
  • Within their specific audience settings
  • Within their campaign settings
  • Within their insertion order settings
Why this is the answerCompare this with question 5 and you have the exam’s whole logic in one pair. There, the cap applied across deals, so it went at campaign level. Here the cap applies to one named audience, so it belongs in that audience’s own settings. Match the scope of the cap to the scope of the object.

Section 2 — Inventory, deals and auctions

This is the biggest section of the exam and the one most people lose marks on. Learn the four deal types cold and you have effectively bought yourself a 10-mark head start.

Deal typePriceInventory guaranteed?Use it when the client wants…
Open AuctionBid, variableNoMaximum scale and lowest commitment
Private AuctionBid, above a floorNoInvite-only premium inventory, still flexible
Preferred DealFixed CPMNo — first look, can declineA fixed price on premium placement, with the right to walk away
Programmatic GuaranteedFixed CPMYes — committed volumeA guaranteed number of impressions on agreed inventory

7. Within Display & Video 360, what statement about mobile in-app and mobile web inventory is correct?

  • Marketplace has premium inventory for both mobile web and mobile in-app inventory.
  • App-ads.txt protects publishers and advertisers from fabricated mobile in-app and mobile web inventory.
  • Creative dimensions work for mobile web and mobile in-app inventory together.
  • App collections are available for both mobile web and mobile in-app inventory.
Why this is the answerMarketplace genuinely serves both environments. The distractors each fail on a technicality: app-ads.txt covers apps only (ads.txt is the web equivalent), creative dimensions differ between the two environments, and app collections are an in-app concept only. Deeper explanation: mobile in-app vs mobile web inventory in DV360.

8. In what Display & Video 360 scenario does it make sense to use inventory packages?

  • A shoe company is launching a new basketball shoe and wants to execute non-guaranteed ad opportunities with a mix of sports publishers.
  • A beverage company is launching a new tea they hope will be their best-selling product. They created a custom ad unit they want to put on the homepage of a few top wellness websites.
  • For a new movie release, a movie production company wants to reach as many potential viewers as possible while maintaining a fixed CPM.
  • A computer company is aware of possible shipment delays next quarter. They want to negotiate an ad deal with one publisher but be able to walk away if the new laptop model doesn’t ship on time.
Why this is the answerInventory packages are pre-bundled, curated, non-guaranteed inventory grouped around a theme — exactly “a mix of sports publishers”. Option two describes a custom ad unit on named sites (a direct deal), option three describes a fixed-CPM guaranteed buy, and option four is textbook Preferred Deal. See when to use DV360 inventory packages.

9. You’re launching a campaign for a national bakery chain that’s opening next weekend. They’re willing to pay extra to advertise on the homepage of various local news stations, but they want the flexibility to back out if it rains on opening day. What Display & Video 360 deal type should they enter into with the publisher?

  • Programmatic Guaranteed deal or Preferred deal
  • Open Auction deal or Private Auction deal
  • Private Auction deal or Preferred deal
  • Open Auction deal or Programmatic Guaranteed deal
Why this is the answerTwo requirements have to both be true: premium inventory (rules out Open Auction) and the ability to back out (rules out Programmatic Guaranteed, which commits you to a volume). Private Auction and Preferred Deal are the only two that are premium and non-guaranteed. Whenever a question says “flexibility”, “walk away” or “in case”, delete Programmatic Guaranteed immediately.

10. Your company is launching a new meditation app. They want to work directly with a specific media outlet and get a fixed number of impressions within the wellness section of the publisher’s site. Within Display & Video 360, what deal type should you use?

  • Programmatic Guaranteed deal
  • Preferred deal
  • Private auction deal
  • Open auction deal
Why this is the answerThis is the mirror image of question 9. “A fixed number of impressions” is a volume guarantee, and only Programmatic Guaranteed guarantees volume. A Preferred Deal gives you a fixed price and first look, but no committed impression count.

11. An advertiser participates in a private auction. What happens if their bid isn’t the highest?

  • The advertiser will automatically win the auction.
  • The deal is automatically canceled for the advertiser.
  • All impressions go to the advertiser with the highest bid.
  • The advertiser still receives half the deal impressions.
Why this is the answerA private auction is still an auction — being invited only means you are allowed to bid, not that you are owed inventory. Losing a bid does not cancel the deal; you simply do not win that impression and remain eligible for the next one.

12. You want to enter a fixed first-price auction for inventory across exchanges within Display & Video 360. You’re the highest bidder at $10. What will you pay for the impressions?

  • $5.00
  • $10.00
  • $9.99
  • $10.01
Why this is the answerIn a first-price auction you pay exactly what you bid. No cent added, no cent subtracted. Almost the entire open web moved to first-price pricing, so this is the default behavior you should assume unless the question explicitly says second-price.

13. You’re entering a second-price auction for sports inventory. You’re the highest bidder and bid $5.00. The second-highest bidder bids $4.00. As the auction winner, what will you pay for these impressions?

  • $5.01
  • $5.00
  • $4.00
  • $4.01
Why this is the answerIn a second-price auction the winner pays one cent more than the runner-up, not their own bid. Second highest is $4.00, so you pay $4.01. Pair this with question 12 and remember the rule as: first price = your bid, second price = runner-up plus $0.01.

14. Your customer, a global over-the-counter body-care brand, wants to launch Display & Video 360 deal negotiations for exchanges integrated with deal sync. How should they do that?

  • Via representatives from Display & Video 360
  • Via advertisers
  • Via publishers
  • Via both advertisers and publishers
Why this is the answerDeal sync pulls deal details from the exchange into DV360 automatically, but the deal itself still originates on the supply side. The publisher creates and pushes the deal; the buyer accepts it in DV360.

15. Your company is running an activewear marketing strategy that includes several Programmatic Guaranteed deals that are frequency managed at the campaign level. You notice in Display & Video 360 that one of your deals passed on 10,000 bid requests. What does this mean for your campaign?

  • It allows you to decrease impressions in certain regions.
  • It allows you to increase ad exposure to the same users.
  • It allows you to reinvest your budget to reach new users.
  • It allows you to decrease your unique reach.
Why this is the answerPassing on bid requests is the frequency cap doing its job: those users had already hit their limit. The budget that would have been spent showing them a fifth ad is now free to buy impressions against people who have not seen the campaign yet. That increases unique reach, which kills option four.

16. You work with a clothing brand launching a new parka collection. You want to see which winter sports publishers have space on their websites available for purchase. What Display & Video 360 module should you use?

  • Creative module
  • Campaign module
  • Inventory module
  • Report module
Why this is the answerAnything to do with discovering, negotiating or checking availability of ad space lives in the Inventory module. The Report module tells you what already happened; Inventory tells you what you can buy next.

Section 3 — Bidding and optimization

The bidding questions all hinge on one distinction: Maximise conversions optimizes toward a single conversion type, while Custom bidding lets you write your own value formula across multiple signals such as revenue or return on ad spend. If the scenario mentions money, value or several actions weighted differently, it is Custom bidding.

17. You work for a clothing retailer and want to optimize their Display & Video 360 campaign for customers who spend the most money and have the top transaction return on ad spend. What bidding strategy should you use?

  • Maximize clicks
  • Active View
  • Maximize conversions
  • Custom bidding
Why this is the answer“Spend the most money” and “top transaction return on ad spend” are two different value signals weighted against each other — that is a custom bidding script, not a single conversion goal. Maximise conversions would treat a $5 order and a $500 order identically. Walkthrough: custom bidding for high-value customers in DV360, and see how to optimize a DV360 campaign for CPA for the live-account version.

18. You’re working on a new Display & Video 360 campaign and want to optimize your plan based on a single conversion type. What strategy should you use?

  • Active View
  • Custom bidding
  • Maximize conversions
  • Maximize clicks
Why this is the answerThe phrase “a single conversion type” is the giveaway. One goal, no weighting, no revenue formula — that is exactly what Maximise conversions is built for. Custom bidding is the answer only when you need to combine or weight multiple signals.

19. Your client has a documentary film coming out next month. They have three separate 30-second promo videos and want to identify which one viewers watch to the end most often. To prioritize showing that ad, what type of video creative optimization would you use in Display & Video 360?

  • Optimize for clicks
  • Optimize for completions
  • Optimize for conversions
  • Optimize for time spent on-screen
Why this is the answer“Watch to the end” is the definition of a video completion. Time spent on-screen is a viewability metric, not a completion metric, and neither clicks nor conversions measure whether someone finished the video. If awareness campaigns are your focus, our guide to DV360 YouTube brand awareness and reach campaigns covers these metrics in context.

20. What would you use the Intelligence Panel for in Display & Video 360?

  • You’re running a campaign and want to upload a single creative to multiple line items.
  • You’re looking to forecast impression levels for a new campaign coming next month.
  • You’re running a campaign and want to see which insertion order is under-pacing.
  • You’re negotiating a deal and want to choose the most relevant inventory for your campaign.
Why this is the answerThe Intelligence Panel surfaces insights and alerts on campaigns already running — pacing issues, delivery problems, anomalies. Forecasting belongs to the Inventory Availability tools, and inventory selection belongs to the Inventory module. Pacing troubleshooting in practice: DV360 pacing and optimization strategy.

21. Your colleague is working on their first non-YouTube connected TV (CTV) campaign targeting top premium publishers, and they want to set it up the right way. What Display & Video 360 campaign setting should they modify to help the campaign run properly?

  • Set the campaign to run ads that are 15-, 30-, and 60-seconds long.
  • Set up the campaign to add brand safety targeting to all line items.
  • Set the campaign to limit the inventory to a particular device.
  • Set the campaign to purchase CTV app inventory through both deals and open auction.
Why this is the answerCTV publishers sell ad pods built around standard broadcast lengths. Supplying only one duration means your line item is ineligible for most available breaks. Limiting to a single device is the opposite of what CTV needs, and brand safety, while good practice, is not what makes the campaign deliver.

Section 4 — Audiences and targeting

Two of the three questions here are about optimized targeting, which tells you how much Google wants you to know it. Learn the one-line definition and you have both.

22. Your customer wants to use optimized targeting during their specialty tea launch campaign next quarter. What option describes what optimized targeting does?

  • Optimized targeting helps marketers reach, engage, and convert their target audiences across Google’s vast advertising network.
  • Optimized targeting uses your own customer lists, website visitor data, and app user data to target existing customers and reach potential customers.
  • Optimized targeting is an audience expansion solution that uses Google AI to look beyond manually selected audiences.
  • Optimized targeting combines different data sets to create granular audiences with specific needs, preferences, and purchase potential.
Why this is the answerThe key words are “expansion” and “beyond manually selected audiences”. Option two describes first-party audiences, option four describes combined or custom audiences, and option one is a generic description of Google advertising as a whole. Full explanation: what optimized targeting actually does and our deep dive on optimized targeting on DV360.

23. You work for a sports apparel company launching a new sneaker collection. You want to advertise to users leveraging Google Audiences but don’t want your targeting to restrict your performance. What should you implement within Display & Video 360 to make sure you reach the correct audience?

  • Viewability targeting
  • Optimized targeting
  • Demographic targeting
  • Device targeting
Why this is the answer“Don’t want targeting to restrict performance” is the exam’s standard phrasing for audience expansion. Viewability, demographic and device targeting all narrow delivery; optimized targeting is the only option that widens it while still using your selected audiences as a seed.

24. Your client recently launched a new line of bicycles and created a specific ad for the step-through model. What type of audience should you use to make sure the ad is shown to people looking to purchase this type of bike?

  • Custom affinity audience
  • Target audience
  • Lifestyle audiences
  • Custom intent audiences
Why this is the answer“Looking to purchase” is purchase intent, which is a short-term, in-market signal. Affinity and lifestyle audiences describe long-term interests — someone who loves cycling in general, not someone shopping for a step-through frame this week. Whenever a question says in the market for, ready to buy or looking to purchase, pick intent.

Section 5 — Creatives and ad formats

The format questions reward flashcard memory. Swirl is 3D, Parallax is scroll-driven depth, Native adapts to the publisher’s design, and data-driven creatives use dynamic rules for personalization.

25. How can you perform a bulk creatives upload in Display & Video 360?

  • By using a spreadsheet template, the Display & Video 360 API, or by uploading the creatives directly into Display & Video 360.
  • By using a structured data file or a spreadsheet template in Display & Video 360.
  • By using Display & Video 360 to upload the creatives directly.
  • By using the Display & Video 360 API or a spreadsheet, as there’s no option to upload creatives directly into Display & Video 360.
Why this is the answerAll three routes are valid, so the most complete option wins. Option four is wrong specifically because it claims direct upload is impossible, and option three is incomplete. More detail: bulk creative upload methods in DV360.

26. Your client created several native video ads to promote their new musical. Which Display & Video 360 line item type should you use for this campaign?

  • YouTube & partners line item
  • Video line item
  • Display line item
  • Mobile app install line item
Why this is the answerNative creatives — including native video — are served through display line items in DV360, because native is a display placement format that happens to contain video. A Video line item is for in-stream video, and YouTube & partners is reserved for YouTube inventory.

27. You’re working with a national coffee shop chain that wants to use engaging creative formats for their new campaign. Which Google tools have templates that allow direct upload of creatives to Display & Video 360?

  • Ad Canvas and Campaign Manager 360
  • Google Web Designer and Campaign Manager 360
  • Ad Canvas and Google Web Designer
  • Google Web Designer and Search Ads 360
Why this is the answerAd Canvas and Google Web Designer are both creative authoring tools with DV360 templates and a direct publish path. Campaign Manager 360 is an ad server and Search Ads 360 is a search management platform — neither is a creative build tool, so any option containing them is out.

28. In what Display & Video 360 situation would you use data-driven creatives with dynamic rules?

  • You want to measure your creatives’ performance against your goals.
  • You want to build creatives and directly upload to Display & Video 360.
  • You want to customize your creatives for mobile apps.
  • You want to customize each of your creatives within your campaign.
Why this is the answerDynamic rules swap creative elements — product, price, image, message — per impression based on signals. The purpose is personalization at scale, not measurement, not uploading, and not a mobile-specific feature.

29. Your company is launching a campaign for a new car model. They want an immersive 3D format that uses their existing 3D car models. What Display & Video 360 ad format should you use?

  • Flipbook
  • Native
  • Swirl
  • Parallax
Why this is the answerSwirl is Google’s 3D display format — users rotate and zoom a 3D model directly in the ad, which is why “existing 3D models” is in the question. Parallax creates a depth illusion from flat layers as the user scrolls, and Flipbook animates a sequence of stills. Neither takes a true 3D asset.

30. Your colleague is having an issue with an audio ad campaign and asks you to help troubleshoot. Within Display & Video 360, which of the following could cause the issue?

  • One of the ads was created in Ad Canvas.
  • One of the source files is in MP3 format.
  • One of the source files is in WAV format.
  • One of the ads is missing a companion creative.
Why this is the answerDV360 audio creatives accept compressed formats such as MP3, but WAV is an uncompressed format that is not supported for audio ad delivery. Companion creatives are optional, not required, so a missing one will not stop the campaign.

31. What Display & Video 360 ad format requires a publisher to configure the ad creative to reflect the look and feel of their site?

  • In-stream video ads
  • Responsive ads
  • Data-driven ads
  • Native ads
Why this is the answerNative is the only format where the publisher controls the styling. You supply the components — headline, image, description, call to action — and the publisher’s template renders them in their own fonts and layout. Responsive ads resize automatically but the advertiser still owns the design.

32. What creative dimensions are frequently available for mobile in-app inventory in Display & Video 360?

  • 320 x 50, 320 x 480, 300 x 250, 728 x 90, 768 x 1024
  • 160 x 600, 320 x 50, 320 x 480, 336 x 280, 728 x 90
  • 320 x 50, 320 x 480, 336 x 280, 728 x 90, 768 x 1024
  • 120 x 600, 320 x 50, 320 x 480, 300 x 250, 728 x 90
Why this is the answerThe correct set is mobile banner (320×50), mobile interstitial (320×480), medium rectangle (300×250), leaderboard (728×90) and tablet interstitial (768×1024). The wrong options each smuggle in a desktop-only skyscraper size (120×600 or 160×600) or swap the medium rectangle for 336×280, which is a desktop large rectangle.

Section 6 — Measurement, attribution and reporting

Reporting questions are won by matching the question being asked to the report that answers it. Instant reports for a fast look, Reach Overlap for unique users across channels, Floodlight for post-click and post-view conversions.

33. Your national pet-care retail customer wants to attach their consumers’ behavior to their annual business goal of a 20% revenue increase. What should they set up within Display & Video 360 to get that information?

  • They should set up custom bidding.
  • They should set up instant reporting.
  • They should set up attribution modelling.
  • They should set up conversion tracking.
Why this is the answerConversion tracking tells you that a conversion happened. Attribution modelling tells you which touchpoints deserve credit for it, which is what you need to connect consumer behavior to a revenue goal. The question asks about linking behavior to an outcome, not just counting outcomes. See attribution modelling vs conversion tracking in DV360.

34. Your client is a sports retailer launching a new basketball sneaker. They want to track how many people visit their site after seeing the sneaker ad. Which Floodlight tag would provide this information?

  • Global site tag
  • Counter tag
  • Any floodlight tag
  • Sales tag
Why this is the answerFloodlight has two activity types: Counter tags count actions such as page views, sign-ups and downloads; Sales tags capture transactions with revenue and order data. “How many people visit their site” is a count, not a sale. The global site tag is infrastructure that fires the Floodlight, not the activity itself. Setup detail: Floodlight setup in Campaign Manager 360 and choosing the right Floodlight tag.

35. If you want to quickly check impression levels for a campaign in Display & Video 360, what type of report should you create?

  • You should create an instant report.
  • You should create a basic report.
  • You should create a keyword report.
  • You should create an offline report.
Why this is the answerThe word “quickly” is doing all the work. Instant reports render on screen inside the campaign view without scheduling or exporting anything. Keyword reports are a Search Ads concept, and offline reports are the scheduled, emailed variety. More: instant reports in DV360.

36. While analyzing your connected TV (CTV) campaign within Display & Video 360, you want to find the total number of engaged users. What report should you use?

  • Audience Composition report
  • Reach Overlap report
  • Floodlight report
  • Inventory Availability report
Why this is the answer“Total number of engaged users” means deduplicated unique people, and the Reach Overlap report is the one that deduplicates users across devices, channels and line items. Audience Composition tells you who they are, not how many. See measuring CTV reach in DV360.

37. Last week you launched a new campaign and want to see how many mobile views your ad has received so far. What Display & Video 360 module would you use?

  • Audience module
  • Creative module
  • Report module
  • Inventory module
Why this is the answerPerformance data on a campaign that has already run lives in the Report module. Compare with question 16: Inventory is for what you can buy, Report is for what already delivered. If your DV360 and CM360 numbers disagree, our guide to CM360 vs DV360 discrepancies explains why.

38. Your colleague wants to check the Brand Lift Study (BLS) on his client’s new audio ad Programmatic Guaranteed deal. When he runs a BLS in Display & Video 360 he finds no significant results for the deal. What could be the reason?

  • The Brand Lift report can’t show up instantly in Display & Video 360.
  • Brand Lift can’t be measured for audio ads.
  • Display & Video 360 can’t support Brand Lift measurement.
  • Brand Lift can’t be measured for Programmatic Guaranteed deals.
Why this is the answerBrand Lift needs a randomized control group, and Programmatic Guaranteed commits every eligible impression to the deal — there is no unexposed holdout to compare against. DV360 clearly does support Brand Lift, so option three is out. Full setup guide: setting up a Brand Lift study in DV360.

39. What statement accurately summarizes the options you have for customizing your attribution models in Display & Video 360?

  • Conversion modeling and viewable view-through conversions (VTCs) can’t be enabled on the same attribution model.
  • Viewable view-through conversions (VTCs) can only be enabled on a last interaction attribution model.
  • Conversion modeling helps fill the gap when some conversions can’t be observed and attributed directly.
  • Viewable view-through conversions (VTCs) give twice as much attribution credit to impressions that are viewable.
Why this is the answerConversion modelling estimates the conversions you cannot observe because of cookie loss, consent choices and cross-device gaps. The three distractors all invent restrictions or multipliers that do not exist — VTC does not double credit, and it is not locked to last interaction.

40. You’re working for a car manufacturer and want to see how many users who first saw your ad on mobile devices ended up purchasing from their desktop computers. What type of Display & Video 360 measurement should you review?

  • Same-device measurement
  • Cross-environment conversions
  • Conversion tracking
  • Open measurement software development kit (SDK)
Why this is the answerMobile impression to desktop purchase is by definition a journey that spans environments, so same-device measurement cannot capture it. The Open Measurement SDK is a viewability and verification standard, not a conversion path report.

Section 7 — Brand safety and troubleshooting

The last cluster. Two rules cover most of it: you control your own blocklists but not Google’s sensitive categories, and the Deal Troubleshooter is always the first stop when a deal is not delivering.

41. What statement describes the difference between blocklists and sensitive categories in Display & Video 360?

  • Applying a blocklist limits the number of available impressions, but applying sensitive categories doesn’t cause any limitations.
  • Applying sensitive categories limits the number of available impressions, but applying a blocklist doesn’t cause any limitations.
  • You can modify a blocklist, but you can’t modify sensitive categories.
  • You can modify sensitive categories, but you can’t modify a blocklist.
Why this is the answerA blocklist is yours — you add and remove domains, apps and URLs freely. Sensitive categories are Google-defined content classifications; you can choose to exclude them, but you cannot edit what falls inside them. Options one and two are both wrong because any exclusion reduces available impressions. More: blocklists vs sensitive categories and our wider guide to brand safety in programmatic.

42. Your customer, an organic wellness brand, is launching an allergen-free detergent. They want to make sure they appear within very specific parameters and content in their connected TV (CTV) campaign. What Display & Video 360 tools are available to help them protect their brand?

  • Digital content labels, sensitive categories, and invalid traffic
  • Digital content labels, sensitive categories, and general categories
  • Digital content labels, sensitive categories, and advertising review
  • Digital content labels, advertising verification, and invalid traffic
Why this is the answerAll four options start with digital content labels, so the differentiator is the third item. Invalid traffic filtering is a genuine DV360 brand protection control. “General categories”, “advertising review” and “advertising verification” are not named DV360 brand safety settings — they sound plausible, which is exactly the trap.

43. You just launched a Programmatic Guaranteed deal with a top sports brand. The campaign was supposed to go live today, but in Display & Video 360 you realize no impressions ran and no spend was reported. What’s the first thing you should do within the Deal Troubleshooter?

  • Check for incoming bid requests.
  • Check for potential reach issues.
  • Check the line item for potential targeting issues.
  • Check that your deal complies with publishers.
Why this is the answerDiagnose from the outside in. If no bid requests are arriving, nothing downstream matters — the publisher is not sending the inventory and no amount of targeting fixes will help. Only once you confirm requests are coming in does it make sense to look at targeting and reach.

44. You’re reviewing impressions for a Programmatic Guaranteed deal in Display & Video 360 that you launched last week, and you notice it under-delivered. What should you do first to determine why?

  • See if the line item has multiple targeting assigned.
  • Review the campaign-level targeting.
  • Use the Deal Troubleshooter.
  • Contact the publisher.
Why this is the answerThe Deal Troubleshooter exists precisely to diagnose delivery problems, and it checks targeting, bid requests and deal status in one place. Contacting the publisher is a valid step, but only after you know what the platform is telling you. On the exam, “what should you do first” for a deal problem is almost always the Deal Troubleshooter.

45. Your video game customer is running a YouTube connected TV (CTV) campaign and wants to know what audience types to use in Display & Video 360 to reach specific audiences. What should you tell them?

  • Open Auction
  • Private deals
  • Private Auction deals
  • Programmatic Guaranteed
Why this is the answerNote that the answer options here are deal types, so read the question as asking which buying route reliably reaches a defined audience on premium CTV. Programmatic Guaranteed reserves the inventory in advance, which is what guarantees your audience actually gets served. Auction-based routes leave delivery to chance, which is unacceptable on high-demand CTV placements.

The 12 concepts worth memorizing the night before

If you only have twenty minutes left, learn these. Between them they cover the reasoning behind more than half the question pool.

  1. Hierarchy: Partner → Advertiser → Campaign → Insertion Order → Line Item. “Universal” or “across everything” means Partner & Advertiser.
  2. Deal types: guaranteed volume = Programmatic Guaranteed; fixed price with the right to decline = Preferred; invite-only bidding = Private Auction; open market = Open Auction.
  3. Auction maths: first price = you pay your bid; second price = you pay the runner-up plus one cent.
  4. Frequency: match the cap’s level to its scope. Across several deals → campaign level. For one named audience → audience settings.
  5. Bidding: one conversion goal → Maximise conversions. Revenue, ROAS or weighted signals → Custom bidding.
  6. Optimized targeting: audience expansion using Google AI that looks beyond your manually selected audiences.
  7. Intent vs affinity: “looking to purchase” or “in market” → custom intent. “Interested in” or “passionate about” → affinity.
  8. Floodlight: Counter tag counts actions; Sales tag records transactions and revenue.
  9. Modules: Inventory = what you can buy. Report = what already delivered. Creative = assets. Audience = who you target.
  10. Formats: Swirl = 3D, Parallax = scroll depth, Native = publisher-styled, data-driven = dynamic rules.
  11. Brand safety: you can edit blocklists; you cannot edit Google’s sensitive categories.
  12. Troubleshooting: any Programmatic Guaranteed delivery problem starts with the Deal Troubleshooter, and inside it, with incoming bid requests.

Why people fail the DV360 certification exam

Having watched a lot of people take this one, the failures cluster into four patterns:

1. Memorizing answers instead of the logic

The pool is larger than any answer list. When an unfamiliar scenario appears, memorizers guess. If you understand why Preferred beats Programmatic Guaranteed when a client wants flexibility, you can answer a version of that question you have never seen.

2. Confusing Display & Video 360 with Google Ads

Several distractors are deliberately lifted from Google Ads vocabulary — keyword reports, ad groups, search terms. DV360 is a DSP for programmatic display, video, audio, CTV and digital out-of-home. If an option smells like a search product, it is almost certainly wrong.

3. Confusing Display & Video 360 with Campaign Manager 360

DV360 buys media; CM360 serves and measures it. Floodlight lives in CM360 but is used by DV360, which is why tag questions feel slippery. Our guides on CM360 reporting and audience targeting in CM360 make the boundary obvious.

4. Running out of time

75 minutes for 50 scenario questions is about 90 seconds each. Flag anything that takes more than two minutes and come back to it. Most people who fail leave four or five questions unanswered.

Display & Video 360 certification: frequently asked questions

Is the Display & Video 360 certification free?

Yes. The exam and all the supporting Skillshop coursework are free. You only need a Google account to register.

How many questions are in the DV360 certification exam?

50 multiple choice questions, with 75 minutes to complete them.

What is the passing score for the DV360 exam?

80%, which means 40 correct out of 50. You have room to miss 10 questions.

How hard is the Display & Video 360 certification?

Moderate. It is harder than the Google Ads Search certification because it assumes familiarity with programmatic buying concepts, but it is not a deeply technical exam. If you have hands-on time in the platform, expect to pass on the first attempt. If you have never opened DV360, budget six to eight hours of study.

Can I retake the exam if I fail?

Yes. Skillshop applies a short cool-down period, typically 24 hours, after which you can attempt it again. There is no limit on lifetime attempts and no cost.

How long is the DV360 certification valid?

12 months. After that you retake the exam to renew, and the question pool will usually have changed, which is another argument for learning the concepts rather than a list.

Are these DV360 exam answers still accurate in 2026?

The questions on this page reflect the pool as it currently circulates, and the explanations reflect how DV360 works today. Google does rotate scenarios and occasionally rewrites options, so verify anything that looks unfamiliar inside the platform before you rely on it. This page is reviewed and updated as changes appear.

Do I need access to a DV360 account to pass?

No, the exam is entirely theoretical and you can pass without ever logging in. That said, people with platform access pass more comfortably, because the module and hierarchy questions become obvious once you have clicked through the interface.

What is the difference between DV360 and Google Ads?

Google Ads buys inventory across Google’s own properties and the Google Display Network through a simplified interface. DV360 is a full demand-side platform that buys across multiple exchanges and publishers, supports private deals and guaranteed buys, and gives far deeper control over inventory, brand safety and bidding. Different tools, different buyers.

What is the difference between DV360 and Campaign Manager 360?

DV360 is the buying platform. Campaign Manager 360 is the ad server and measurement layer that hosts creatives, fires Floodlight tags and reports conversions across all your media, including media bought outside DV360.

Is it allowed to study from answer keys?

Skillshop expects you to complete assessments independently, and a certification you cannot back up in an interview is worth very little. Use pages like this one to understand the concepts and check your reasoning — not to copy answers into a live exam window.

Is the DV360 certification worth it?

For anyone working in programmatic, media buying or ad ops, yes. It is free, takes a few hours, and it is a common filter on agency job descriptions. It will not by itself make you a good trader, but it demonstrates you understand the vocabulary, and the study process genuinely closes gaps.

More certification and DV360 guides

If you are stacking programmatic certifications, these are the ones people usually take alongside DV360:

And if you want to turn the theory into working knowledge, start here:

Last reviewed: August 2026. Written by the programmatic team at Datametrik, who run live Display & Video 360 campaigns for clients across retail, finance and B2B. Spotted an answer that has changed in the current exam? Tell us and we will verify and update it.