Terraform-003Associate LevelHashiCorp

HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (003)

The global standard credential for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) engineers. Tests deep operational knowledge of Terraform HCL syntax, state management, remote backends, module composition, workspaces, and CLI commands.

Recommended Prerequisites: Basic understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and Infrastructure as Code concepts.

Exam Duration

1 Hour (60 Mins)

Passing Score

70%

Registration Cost

$70.50 USD

Exam Format

Multiple Choice / Multiple Answer / Text Match (57 Questions)

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Complete Exam Blueprint & Tested Competencies

Total 100% Weight

1. Understand Terraform State

Weight: 20%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

State purpose: resource mapping, metadata caching, dependency tracking
Remote backends (S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Terraform Cloud) and locking mechanisms
Handling state drift with terraform plan -refresh-only
State CLI commands: terraform state list, show, mv, rm, and terraform import

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Explain why state files must never be checked into public version control
✓Refactor resource addresses using moved blocks instead of manual state mv

2. Terraform CLI Workflow & Commands

Weight: 20%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Core workflow loop: terraform init, validate, plan, apply, destroy
Saving and executing deterministic binary plan files with -out=tfplan
Formatting and linting code with terraform fmt -recursive and terraform validate
Debugging via TF_LOG=DEBUG and TF_LOG_PATH

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Understand when terraform init -upgrade or -reconfigure is mandatory
✓Use terraform plan -replace or -target safely in production

3. HCL Configuration & Module Composition

Weight: 18%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Variables, locals, outputs, data sources, and provider blocks
Variable precedence: CLI -var, *.auto.tfvars, terraform.tfvars, TF_VAR_*, default
Using published registry modules and authoring reusable child modules
Meta-arguments: count, for_each, depends_on, lifecycle (prevent_destroy, create_before_destroy)

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Prevent duplicate resource creation using for_each over maps and sets rather than count over lists
✓Protect critical stateful resources with lifecycle { prevent_destroy = true }

4. Understand IaC Fundamentals

Weight: 14%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Declarative vs imperative infrastructure management
Idempotency and drift detection concepts
Advantages of IaC: versioning, collaboration, repeatability, disaster recovery

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Articulate the difference between configuration management (Ansible) and provisioning (Terraform)

5. Built-in Functions & Dynamic Blocks

Weight: 14%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

String and collection functions: merge, concat, lookup, element, flatten, length
Dynamic blocks for repeating nested arguments within resource configurations
Type constraints and custom variable validation rules

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Write input validation blocks with condition and error_message clauses
✓Flatten nested collections using for expressions

6. Terraform Cloud & Workspaces

Weight: 14%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

CLI workspaces (terraform workspace new/select) vs Terraform Cloud workspaces
State isolation strategies: directory separation vs workspaces
Sentinel and OPA policy as code integrations

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Explain why directory-based separation is preferred over CLI workspaces for production environments

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HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (003)

Recommended Prerequisites: Basic understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and Infrastructure as Code concepts.