Terraform Associate (003)

Here are some notes for the Terraform Associate Certification I am planning to take this test by August 2024.

Exam Content Overview

1	Understand Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts
1a	Explain what IaC is IaC is provisioning infrastructure through code, instead of using clickops, we can reliably scale out resources across various providers through code in a standardized way.
1b	Describe advantages of IaC patterns IaC patterns give us the consistency of software development practices into infrastructure deployment.
2	Understand the purpose of Terraform (vs other IaC)
2a	Explain multi-cloud and provider-agnostic benefits Multi cloud and provider-agnostic benefits in Terraform means that we can provision infrastructure using the same format for multi cloud environments compared to a single provider such as AWS’s CloudFormation.
2b	Explain the benefits of state The benefits of state
3	Understand Terraform basics
3a	Install and version Terraform providers
3b	Describe plugin-based architecture
3c	Write Terraform configuration using multiple providers
3d	Describe how Terraform finds and fetches providers
4	Use Terraform outside the core workflow
4a	Describe when to use terraform import to import existing infrastructure into your Terraform state
4b	Use terraform state to view Terraform state
4c	Describe when to enable verbose logging and what the outcome/value is
5	Interact with Terraform modules
5a	Contrast and use different module source options including the public Terraform Registry
5b	Interact with module inputs and outputs
5c	Describe variable scope within modules/child modules
5d	Set module version
6	Use the core Terraform workflow
6a	Describe Terraform workflow ( Write → Plan → Create )
6b	Initialize a Terraform working directory (terraform init)
6c	Validate a Terraform configuration (terraform validate)
6d	Generate and review an execution plan for Terraform (terraform plan)
6e	Execute changes to infrastructure with Terraform (terraform apply)
6f	Destroy Terraform managed infrastructure (terraform destroy)
6g	Apply formatting and style adjustments to a configuration (terraform fmt)
7	Implement and maintain state
7a	Describe default local backend
7b	Describe state locking
7c	Handle backend and cloud integration authentication methods
7d	Differentiate remote state back end options
7e	Manage resource drift and Terraform state
7f	Describe backend block and cloud integration in configuration
7g	Understand secret management in state files
8	Read, generate, and modify configuration
8a	Demonstrate use of variables and outputs
8b	Describe secure secret injection best practice
8c	Understand the use of collection and structural types
8d	Create and differentiate resource and data configuration
8e	Use resource addressing and resource parameters to connect resources together
8f	Use HCL and Terraform functions to write configuration
8g	Describe built-in dependency management (order of execution based)
9	Understand HCP Terraform capabilities
9a	Explain how HCP Terraform helps to manage infrastructure
9b	Describe how HCP Terraform enables collaboration and governance