How to pass HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate

Recently I have taken HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate Exam and I wanted to share some tips and hopefully, it will help others.

The exam will be conducted online with psi exams. proctored monitoring you during the exam.

Exam duration is 1 hour and you can get anywhere between 57 to 60 questions. The pass percentage is 70%. So you should at least get 40 questions correct.

HashiCorp Website has a good study guide and you can follow along with labs as well.

https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/associate-study?in=terraform/certification

Exam Topics :

1. Understand infrastructure as code (IaC) concepts:

Basic understanding of IaC concepts, Its importance, and How organizations can benefit from IaC. This is a foundation before you start the journey with Terraform or any IaC tools

2. Terraform vs Other IaC tools:

This topic is about what terraform brings cloud-agnostic vs Other IaC tools like (cloud formation, Azure ARM templates) and their benefits.

3. Understand Terraform basics

Questions on terraform block and its provider configurations, plugin configurations, and how to use specific versions.

you can expect at least a couple of questions on provisioners like local-exec and remote-exec.

4. Use the Terraform CLI :

practice provisioning using terraform commands. Especially below commands

terraform import
terraform taint 
terraform fmt

How to enable Logging. you can expect a question on More Verbose log enabling.

export TF_LOG=TRACE

5. Interact with Terraform modules:

How to pass input variables to terraform modules. How to call specific versions of terraform modules. how to use outputs from child modules. How to use modules from a private registry. using public and private registries.

6. Navigate terraform workflow:

A clear understanding of the infrastructure lifecycle(write->plann->apply) when using terraform will really help answer questions from this section.

master below commands

terraform init
terraform validate
terraform plan
terraform apply

7. Implement and maintain state:

terraform state CLI commands and how to use different backends. Difference between local backend and remote backend. a Couple of True or Fase can also be asked from this section.

8. Read, generate, and modify configuration:

A definite question on a dynamic block, Terraform functions, Managing terraform secrets. How Terraform Vault can help in managing secrets and Its integration with Terraform.

9. Understand Terraform Cloud and Enterprise capabilities:

Terraform workspaces, switching between multiple workspaces and workspace management. Terraform cloud and Terraform enterprise features.

Terraform CLI to interact with terraform cloud. Questions on Sentinal for enforcing policies.

Also, if you have time, refer to13-hour course from this link. I definitely recommend this course for beginners in terraform for gaining practical knowledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4waklkBC38&t=4964s

It’s a free course and there are mock exams in https://exampro.com as well it will help a lot.

All the best !!!