Background
Terraform is the infrastructure as a Code (IaC) offering from HashiCorp. It is a tool for building, changing and managing infrastructure in a safe, repeatable way.
Operators and Infrastructure teams can use Terraform to manage environments with a configuration language called the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) for human-readable, automated deployments.
The Terraform Associate certification is for Cloud Engineers specializing in operations, IT, or developers who know the basic concepts and skills associated with open-source HashiCorp Terraform.
Any Prerequisites
There are no official prerequisites for this exam. Candidates will be best prepared for this exam if they have professional experience using Terraform in production, but performing the exam objectives in a personal demo environment may also be sufficient.
But, you need to be aware of at least one public cloud provider such as AWS, GCP, etc. It is recommended that you should have basic terminal skills and a basic understanding of premises and cloud architecture.
About the exam
The exam contains several types of questions such as Multiple Choice, Multiple answers, True or false questions, and Text-based questions like fill in the banks.
This exam has 57 questions and should be completed in 60 minutes. It is designed to validate the skill set of someone who has some professional experience. The exam costs you $70 and there is no free retake for this exam. You have to complete it successfully in a single take.
Once successfully completed, you will receive an email with the result with the Terraform Certified Associate logo.
Here are the topics that this exam covers and you can see the full guide here.
Understand infrastructure as code (IaC) concepts
Understand Terraform’s purpose (vs other IaC)
Understand Terraform basics
Use the Terraform CLI (outside of core workflow)
Interact with Terraform modules
Navigate Terraform workflow
Implement and maintain state
Read, generate, and modify the configuration
Understand Terraform Cloud and Enterprise capabilities
Study Resources
The main study resource I would recommend for this examination is Official Terraform Documentation.
I would suggest you go through these links in order and would highly recommend you practice while going through these materials.
Some courses I would recommend if you have zero experience with Terraform:
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Practice Exam 2022 by Bryan Krausen
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate 2022 by Zeal Vora
For the Practice exam: HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Practice Exam 2022 (it contains almost 300 unique questions)
I have been working with Terraform for the last 6–7 months, so I didn’t take any above courses but I have seen people having good reviews for the above courses for people starting to learn Terraform.
But I took the Practice exam by Bryan Krausen and would highly recommend it to you all to get a better idea of what kind of questions you can see in the examination.
Last-minute preparation:
Make sure you go through the link before your exam — 250 Practice Questions For Terraform Associate Certification
Rishab Kumar’s Terraform Notes — https://notes.rishab.cloud/terraform-associate
This Youtube playlist — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5VXZTK6spA2HF5Kf0rI9RDRHF9Hopffr — contains about 20 questions with nice explanations. (optional)
Useful Tips and Tricks
Before considering this certification, you should have a basic understanding of at least one public cloud provider such as AWS, GCP, Azure, etc. This is because terraform is all about provisioning infrastructure on the cloud.
If you don’t have hands-on experience with any cloud provider I would highly recommend you go and learn that. Start with AWS if you are new.
Practice. Practice. practice. This helps with your muscle memory.
Most of the questions are simple enough and you don’t get to see many scenario questions. But, without actual practical hands-on experience, you might get those wrong.
The documentation provided in the Exam Study Guide and Exam Review Guide is enough for this certification.
In summary, I would highly recommend this certification, it is practical and gives you a good overview of Terraform.