After working with Terraform for about two years at my company, I felt I had built up a solid foundation of practical skills. I decided to take the Terraform Associate certification for a few key reasons:
- To validate my existing knowledge and ensure I was following industry best practices.
- Take it as an opportunity to identify and fill any gaps in my understanding, especially in areas I might not have encountered in my day-to-day work.
In this blog post, I will share my preparation & exam experience
Understanding the Certification
The exam consists of 57 multiple-choice questions, with a time limit of 1 hour. To pass, you need to score at least 70%. This means you need to answer at least 43 out of the 60 questions correctly. In other words, you can afford to miss no more than 17 questions and still succeed. Key topics covered in the exam include:
- Terraform fundamentals and workflow
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts
- Terraform state management
- Terraform modules and workspaces
- Terraform Cloud and Enterprise features
My Background and Preparation Timeline
Before taking the exam, I had around two years of hands-on experience with Terraform at my company. One key project I contributed to was creating a platform that allows users to onboard new services via a developer portal. Upon submission, it generates Terraform resources for their infrastructures and pushes them to our centralized IaC repository. This streamlined our application onboarding process, making it much more efficient and faster.
When preparing for the certification, I realized I had a knowledge gap in Terraform Cloud and Enterprise features. Since we don't use the enterprise version at work, this was an area I needed to study more thoroughly.
To prepare for the certification, I set aside about two weeks for focused study to review materials and practice exercises.
Study Resources and Materials
My study plan included a mix of official documentation and mock practice exam:
- Official HashiCorp Documentation: This was my primary source of information. I focused on areas I rarely encountered in my daily work, using the documentation to fill knowledge gaps and deepen my understanding of less familiar concepts.
- Mock Practice Exam: I found the Terraform Associate practice exam on Udemy particularly helpful. These practice exams served two crucial purposes: building my confidence and pinpointed specific topics where I needed to focus my studies further. It's also familiarized me with the exam format and the types of questions I could expect.
My Exam Day Experience
On the day of the exam, I made sure to get a good night's sleep and have a breakfast. I scheduled the exam for 10.30 AM in the morning, where my mind is still fresh.
The exam is conducted under remote supervision. Here's what to expect:
- You'll be asked to show your personal ID, so don't forget to bring it.
- You'll need to turn on your camera, microphone, and share your screen during the exam.
- You'll need to close all applications except the exam browser.
- You'll be asked to provide a 360-degree view of your room using your camera, including the area under your desk
- Your desk must be clear of all items except your laptop.
During the test, I encountered a mix of straightforward and challenging questions. The most difficult ones were specifically about Terraform Cloud and Enterprise features, as I lack practical experience in that area. I answered all the questions with 15 minutes to spare, which I used to review my answers. Upon submission, the results are immediate, but you only find out if you passed or failed, not how many questions you got right or wrong.
Practical Exam Tips
Based on my experience, here are some tips to help you succeed:
- Consider scheduling your exam for the morning hours when you're likely to be most focused.
- Choose a quiet, private space to take your exam, free from distractions.
- Time management is crucial. I practiced with timed mock exams to improve my pacing
- Read the questions carefully. Some questions are designed to trip you up if you don't pay attention to details.
- The exam allows you to flag and revisit questions. My advice is to flag the hard ones, complete the rest, then revisit those flagged questions before submitting the exam.
- Don't rush to submit if you have some time left. A quick review of all your answers can be beneficial. I managed to corrected a few of my answers during this final check.
Final Thoughts
The Terraform certification offer a clear path for skill development, providing a structured approach to learning Terraform. The exam covers many aspects you'll encounter in daily work with Terraform. However, it's important to remember that earning the certification is just the beginning. To truly master Terraform, you need to apply your knowledge in real-world projects. The certification gives you a solid foundation, but hands-on experience is where you'll refine your skills and deepen your understanding.
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