Study guide - Terraform Associate certification

This guide lists resources you should study if you are preparing for the Terraform Associate Certification exam from scratch. The resources appear in order of difficulty to let you progress through the list in order. For resources related to a particular test objective, refer to the Exam Review Guide instead. You can also check out the Associate Certification Tutorials Collection to review all of the tutorials linked below.

Learn about Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Terraform is a tool that lets you define infrastructure in human and machine-readable code. Review the following resources to start learning about the advantages of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and the advantages of Terraform specifically.

• Infrastructure as Code introduction video
• Introduction to IaC documentation
• Introduction to Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
• Infrastructure as Code in a Private or Public Cloud blog post
• Terraform Use Cases documentation

These resources cover Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts and the purpose of Terraform (Objectives #1 and #2).

Review Terraform fundamentals

Complete the Get Started tutorials to create, modify, and destroy your first infrastructure using Terraform, and to learn about Terraform providers and the basics of Terraform state.

• Get Started with Terraform (complete all tutorials)

Review the following resources to learn more about Terraform, providers, and state.

• Purpose of Terraform State documentation
• Terraform Settings documentation
• Manage Terraform Versions tutorial
• Providers Summary documentation
• How Terraform Works with Plugins documentation
• Provider Configuration documentation
• Lock and Upgrade Provider Versions tutorial
• Dependency Lock File documentation

These resources cover Terraform basics (Objective #3).

Navigate the core workflow

The core Terraform workflow consists of writing configuration, initializing a working directory, planning infrastructure changes, and then applying them. The Terraform CLI also offers subcommands to validate and format your configuration as you develop it. Review the following resources to learn about the core Terraform workflow.

• The Core Terraform Workflow documentation
• Initialize a Terraform working directory with init documentation
• Initialize Terraform Configuration tutorial
• Validate a Terraform configuration with validate documentation
• Command: plan documentation
• Create a Terraform Plan tutorial
• Command: apply documentation
• Apply Terraform Configuration tutorial
• Command: destroy documentation
• Command: fmt documentation
• Troubleshoot Terraform tutorial

These resources cover the core Terraform workflow (Objective #6).

Learn more subcommands

The Terraform CLI includes subcommands for operations beyond the core workflow, including importing resources and manipulating and inspecting state. Review the following resources and tutorials to get more familiar with the Terraform CLI.

• Command: state documentation
• Manage Resources in Terraform State tutorial
• Command: import documentation
• Import usage tips documentation
• Debugging Terraform documentation
• Troubleshoot Terraform tutorial

These resources cover the Terraform CLI outside of the core workflow (Objective #4).

Use and create modules

Modules help you organize and re-use Terraform configuration. Complete the Modules tutorials to learn more about modules, including how to reference modules from the Terraform registry and create your own.

• Reuse Configuration with Modules (complete all tutorials)

Review these additional resources to learn about modules and associated concepts in more depth.

• Finding and Using Modules documentation
• Module versioning documentation
• Input Variables documentation
• Input Variables tutorial
• Output Values documentation
• Output Values tutorial
• Calling a Child Module documentation

These resources cover the fundamentals of Terraform modules (Objective #5).

Read and write configuration

Terraform configuration uses the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). Review the following resources to learn more about HCL syntax and functions.

• Resources documentation
• Resource Addressing documentation
• References Named Values documentation
• Data Sources documentation
• Query Data Sources tutorial
• Create Resource Dependencies tutorial
• Resource Graph documentation
• Target Resources tutorial
• Complex Types documentation
• Built-in Functions documentation
• Perform Dynamic Operations with Functions tutorial
• Create Dynamic Expressions tutorial

Terraform configuration may require access to sensitive data to provision infrastructure. Review the following resources to learn more about secure secrets injection using Vault.

• Inject Secrets into Terraform Using the Vault Provider tutorial
• Vault Provider for Terraform documentation

These resources cover the basics of reading, generating, and modifying Terraform configuration (Objective #8).

Manage state

Terraform uses state to keep track of the infrastructure it manages. To use Terraform effectively, you have to keep your state accurate and secure. Read the following resources to learn about managing Terraform's state and storage backends.

State management:

• State Locking documentation
• Protect Sensitive Input Variables tutorial
• Sensitive Data in State documentation
• Refresh-Only Mode documentation
• Use Refresh-Only Mode to Sync Terraform State tutorial
• Manage Resource Drift tutorial
• Manage Resources in Terraform State tutorial

Backend management:

• Command: login documentation
• Log in to HCP Terraform from the CLI tutorial
• Backends documentation
• Local backend documentation
• Backend configuration documentation
• HCP Terraform Configuration documentation
• Create a Workspace tutorial
• Store Remote State tutorial
• Migrate State to HCP Terraform tutorial

These resources cover Terraform state and backends. (Objective #7)

Understand HCP Terraform

HCP Terraform helps teams collaborate on Infrastructure as Code by providing a stable and reliable environment for operations, shared state and secret data, access controls to manage permissions for team members, and a policy framework for governance.

Review the following resources to better understand how HCP Terraform enables Terraform workflows at scale.

• What is HCP Terraform? documentation
• HCP Terraform Workflow documentation
• HCP Terraform Workspaces documentation
• HCP Terraform Get Started Collection tutorials
• Manage Versions in HCP Terraform tutorial
• Use Modules from the Registry tutorial
• Private Registry documentation
• HCP Terraform Teams documentation
• Manage Permissions in HCP Terraform tutorial
• Sentinel documentation
• Enforce a Policy tutorial

These resources cover HCP Terraform capabilities. (Objective #9)

Next steps

For specific study materials that cover a particular exam objective, refer to the review guide. Check out the sample questions to review the exam question format.

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