How to pass the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate exam

Hi. Today I will describe to you how to prepare for the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate exam and pass it on your first attempt.

Quite recently, HashiCorp has made it possible to obtain certificates that confirm the knowledge of their tools. Among them is also a certificate related to the Terraform tool.

As part of the exam, knowledge of the tool and its functions available in free and open source versions is tested. In addition, knowledge of the functions available in the paid version (enterprise) is also required.

People who already have experience with Terraform should spend about 3-4 weeks on preparation. These people should pay particular attention to the functions from the enterprise version. People without much experience with this tool should spend about 6 weeks.

Required scope for the exam

Below I present the scope of the topics required for the exam. As you can see, we have here topics related to the infrastructure as code process, the terraform tool and functions in the Cloud and Enterprise versions.

1. Understand infrastructure as code (IaC) concepts
2. Understand Terraform’s purpose (vs other IaC)
3. Understand Terraform basics
4. Use the Terraform CLI (outside of core workflow)
5. Interact with Terraform modules
6. Navigate Terraform workflow
7. Implement and maintain state
8. Read, generate, and modify configuration
9. Understand Terraform Cloud and Enterprise capabilities

Preparations

1. Pluralsight course

For starters, I recommend the following two courses prepared by Ned Bellavance:

https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/getting-started-terraform/table-of-contents

https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/terraform-deep-dive/table-of-contents

2. Youtube course

A good alternative or supplement to the above courses is the course available on the YouTube platform. It is a material that lasts up to 13 hours and, importantly, it was made available for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4waklkBC38&ab_channel=freeCodeCamp.org

3. Official Documentation

Terraform has very good documentation. It is worth reviewing it at least once in its entirety. Then focus on commands and switches.

https://www.terraform.io/docs/index.html

4. List of features

Due to the fact that the exam has questions about individual versions of Terraform, it is worth taking a look at the list of features in a table:

https://www.datocms-assets.com/2885/1602500234-terraform-full-feature-pricing-tablev2-1.pdf

5. Sample questions

Hashicorp has provided some sample questions on his exam page. It is worth taking a look there to find out what the format of the exam questions are.

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

6. Sample questions 2

On the page below, you can find 250 questions related to the topics on the exam:

https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/250-practice-questions-for-terraform-associate-certification-7a3ccebe6a1a

7. The Udemy Practice Exam

Udemy also offers a set of 3 practice exams to test your knowledge prior to your final exam.

https://www.udemy.com/course/terraform-associate-practice-exam/

Exam

Basic information about the exam:

• test consisting of 57 questions
• exam time is 60 minutes
• to pass you need to have 70% correct answers
• questions can be single or multiple choice. In the second case, the question will show how many correct answers there are.
• There are also questions in which an answer should be entered during the exam. It can be, for example, the name of an object or a flag for a command
• the exam is conducted online on the PSI platform. As with other online exams, the candidate is supervised by a proctor. Therefore, before the exam, you should empty your desk and make sure that no one comes into the room during the exam.
• The cost of the exam is $ 70.50 USD

Tips

• Similar to the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam, each question can be flagged. This will bring you back to the question at the end of the exam.
• It is possible that the answer to a question will appear in another question. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to it.
• Among the questions, there may also be questions related to the integration of Terraform with other HashiCorp tools. You do not have to learn these tools separately, but it is worth knowing in general how this integration looks like.
• The questions often have a complicated syntax. Therefore, it is worth reading the questions several times to make sure you understand them well.

Summary

In my opinion, the exam is not difficult. It is worth taking it because, despite its form (test), it tests practical knowledge. And this knowledge can be most useful during the implementation of projects.