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Terraform Certification Preparation

Certification overview​

The HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate validates your Infrastructure as Code skills with Terraform.

Key information​

CriterionDetail
Price~$70.50 USD
Duration60 minutes
Questions~57 questions
FormatMCQ, multi-select, true/false
Minimum score70%
Validity2 years
ModeOnline (proctored)

Exam objectives​

1. Understand Infrastructure as Code (IaC)​

  • Explain the benefits of IaC
  • Understand the Terraform workflow

Sample questions:

  • What are the benefits of IaC compared to manual management?
  • What is the order of the standard Terraform workflow?

2. Understand the purpose of Terraform​

  • Multi-cloud and provider-agnostic
  • Benefits of Terraform vs other tools

Sample questions:

  • Why use Terraform rather than Bash scripts?
  • How does Terraform manage multiple cloud providers?

3. Understand Terraform basics​

# Bloc de configuration de base
terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
  
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "eu-west-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-12345678"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
  
  tags = {
    Name = "example"
  }
}

To master:

  • Blocks: terraform, provider, resource, data, variable, output, module
  • Data types: string, number, bool, list, map, object, tuple
  • Interpolation and expressions

4. Use the Terraform CLI​

# Commandes essentielles
terraform init      # Initialiser le répertoire
terraform validate  # Valider la configuration
terraform plan      # Prévisualiser les changements
terraform apply     # Appliquer les changements
terraform destroy   # Détruire l'infrastructure

# Commandes avancées
terraform fmt           # Formater le code
terraform state list    # Lister les ressources
terraform import        # Importer une ressource existante
terraform taint         # Marquer pour recréation
terraform workspace     # Gérer les workspaces

5. Interact with modules​

# Utiliser un module
module "vpc" {
  source  = "terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws"
  version = "5.0.0"
  
  name = "my-vpc"
  cidr = "10.0.0.0/16"
}

# Accéder aux outputs du module
output "vpc_id" {
  value = module.vpc.vpc_id
}

Key points:

  • Sources: local, registry, GitHub, S3
  • Module versioning
  • Variables and outputs

6. Navigate the Terraform workflow​

  • Core workflow: Write → Plan → Apply
  • Remote backends
  • State management

7. Implement and maintain state​

# Backend S3
terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "my-terraform-state"
    key            = "prod/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "eu-west-1"
    encrypt        = true
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-locks"
  }
}

To know:

  • Purpose of state
  • Backends: local vs remote
  • State locking
  • Sensitive data in state

8. Read, generate, and modify configuration​

# Variables
variable "instance_type" {
  description = "EC2 instance type"
  type        = string
  default     = "t3.micro"
  
  validation {
    condition     = contains(["t3.micro", "t3.small"], var.instance_type)
    error_message = "Must be t3.micro or t3.small."
  }
}

# Data sources
data "aws_ami" "amazon_linux" {
  most_recent = true
  owners      = ["amazon"]
  
  filter {
    name   = "name"
    values = ["amzn2-ami-hvm-*-x86_64-gp2"]
  }
}

# Locals
locals {
  common_tags = {
    Environment = var.environment
    ManagedBy   = "Terraform"
  }
}

# Outputs
output "instance_ip" {
  description = "Public IP of the instance"
  value       = aws_instance.example.public_ip
  sensitive   = false
}

9. Understand Terraform Cloud/Enterprise​

  • Remote execution
  • Private module registry
  • Sentinel policies
  • Teams and governance

Practice questions​

Section 1: IaC Concepts​

Q1. What are the benefits of Infrastructure as Code?

  • A) Infrastructure versioning
  • B) Repeatable deployment
  • C) Automatic documentation
  • D) All of the above

Answer: D

Q2. In what order does the standard Terraform workflow run?

  • A) Apply → Plan → Init
  • B) Init → Apply → Plan
  • C) Init → Plan → Apply
  • D) Plan → Init → Apply

Answer: C

Section 2: Terraform CLI​

Q3. Which command formats Terraform code?

  • A) terraform format
  • B) terraform fmt
  • C) terraform lint
  • D) terraform style

Answer: B

Q4. What does terraform init -upgrade do?

  • A) Updates Terraform
  • B) Updates providers to the latest versions
  • C) Updates the state
  • D) Updates the modules

Answer: B (and D as well - it updates providers AND modules)

Q5. How do you apply changes without interactive confirmation?

  • A) terraform apply --yes
  • B) terraform apply -auto-approve
  • C) terraform apply -force
  • D) terraform apply --no-confirm

Answer: B

Section 3: State​

Q6. Where is the Terraform state stored by default?

  • A) In the cloud provider
  • B) In a local file terraform.tfstate
  • C) In Terraform Cloud
  • D) In an S3 bucket

Answer: B

Q7. Which command lists the resources in the state?

  • A) terraform list
  • B) terraform state show
  • C) terraform state list
  • D) terraform resources

Answer: C

Q8. How do you remove a resource from the state without destroying it?

  • A) terraform destroy -target=resource
  • B) terraform state rm resource
  • C) terraform delete resource
  • D) terraform remove resource

Answer: B

Section 4: Configuration​

Q9. Which block type retrieves existing data?

  • A) resource
  • B) data
  • C) query
  • D) fetch

Answer: B

Q10. How do you reference a variable in Terraform?

  • A) ${variable.name}
  • B) $variable.name
  • C) var.name
  • D) variable["name"]

Answer: C

Q11. What is the difference between count and for_each?

# count - basé sur un nombre
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  count = 3
  ami   = "ami-12345678"
}

# for_each - basé sur une collection
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  for_each = toset(["web", "app", "db"])
  ami      = "ami-12345678"
  tags = {
    Name = each.key
  }
}
  • A) No difference
  • B) count uses indices, for_each uses keys
  • C) for_each is slower
  • D) count only supports numbers

Answer: B

Section 5: Modules​

Q12. What are the valid sources for a module?

  • A) Local path
  • B) Terraform Registry
  • C) GitHub
  • D) All of the above

Answer: D

Q13. How do you access an output of a child module?

  • A) module.child.output_name
  • B) child.output_name
  • C) output.child.output_name
  • D) modules.child.outputs.output_name

Answer: A

Section 6: Providers​

Q14. What happens if you do not specify a provider version?

  • A) Error
  • B) Uses the latest version
  • C) Uses version 1.0.0
  • D) Prompts interactively

Answer: B

Q15. How do you use multiple configurations of the same provider?

provider "aws" {
  region = "eu-west-1"
}

provider "aws" {
  alias  = "us"
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "eu" {
  # Utilise le provider par défaut
}

resource "aws_instance" "us" {
  provider = aws.us  # Utilise l'alias
}

Answer: Use the alias attribute

Section 7: Workspaces​

Q16. Which command lists the workspaces?

  • A) terraform workspace show
  • B) terraform workspace list
  • C) terraform workspaces
  • D) terraform list workspace

Answer: B

Q17. Which workspace is created by default?

  • A) main
  • B) default
  • C) master
  • D) production

Answer: B

Exam tips​

Before the exam​

  1. Practice: Complete the projects in this course
  2. Read the documentation: terraform.io/docs
  3. Do labs: HashiCorp Learn
  4. Test yourself: Practice questions

During the exam​

  1. Manage your time: ~1 min per question
  2. Read carefully: Watch out for "NOT", "EXCEPT"
  3. Eliminate: Narrow down the options
  4. Flag and return: Don't get stuck on a question

Topics you absolutely must master​

TopicImportance
Workflow (init, plan, apply)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
State management⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Variables and outputs⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Modules⭐⭐⭐⭐
Providers⭐⭐⭐⭐
Data sources⭐⭐⭐⭐
Terraform Cloud⭐⭐⭐
Workspaces⭐⭐⭐

Resources​

Official documentation​

Hands-on labs​

  • "Terraform: Up and Running" - Yevgeniy Brikman
  • "Infrastructure as Code" - Kief Morris

Course recap​

Congratulations! You have completed the Terraform Advanced Practices course.

What you have learned​

  1. ✅ Production-ready Multi-AZ VPC
  2. ✅ Highly available Web Application
  3. ✅ Kubernetes Cluster (EKS)
  4. ✅ Serverless Architecture
  5. ✅ Multi-environment management
  6. ✅ Complete CI/CD pipeline
  7. ✅ Monitoring stack
  8. ✅ Multi-cloud deployment
  9. ✅ Advanced troubleshooting
  10. ✅ Certification preparation

Next steps​

  1. Practice: Redo the projects in your own AWS account
  2. Get certified: Take the Terraform Associate certification
  3. Grow: Explore Terraform Enterprise and Sentinel

Good luck with the certification! 🎯

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