3 Steps to Acing the Hashicorp Terraform Associate Exam
By: Zaid Fakhruddin
Tags: Iac, Certification, DevOps, Cloud, Terraform

About The Exam

The terraform associate is the foundational level certification that evaluates your understanding of terraform and the features of Terraform Cloud & Terraform Enterprise.

The exam is based on a Pass/Fail, meaning you have to get a certain number of questions right to pass (I’d guess around 70–75%)

The exam costs $70 which is a great price compared to other exams out there

You will receive your score via email as soon as you complete the exam

There are around 60 questions and you are given 1 hour to complete the exam

The certification is valid for 2 years

This is an online proctored exam so be sure to have your legal documents ready as the proctor will want to check them before the exam

If you fail you can retake the exam after 2 weeks

My experience with the exam: I have some previous exam experience as I have taken the AWS Solutions Architect Exam. For the terraform exam I studied for about 3 weeks. When it came time to taking the test there was a waitlist for the proctors, it took about 30 minutes to connect and get started with the exam. So don't expect to take the exam at your scheduled time. As for the exam itself I felt that the questions were straight to the point and I didn’t feel like they were trying to trick me. Shortly after completing the exam I was emailed my results(Pass!!)

Exam Prep Steps

The 3 steps below are what I used to pass the exam. As I mentioned earlier, my preparation took me 3 weeks. Everyone study's at their own pace so be sure to take your time to understand the concepts. There is not one set way to pass this exam, I have shared the process that I used in hopes that you may benefit as well.

You should also refer to the Terraform Documentation as it will be your best friend when it comes to writing terraform code and studying for the exam.

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

1. Complete this Udemy Course

The first step I would recommend is to complete the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate 2020 Practice Exam. This course is the main resource I used to study. Zeal does a great job explaining the concepts thoroughly in a way that anyone can understand. There is a section dedicated to exam preparation in which Zeal covers everything you’ll need to know at a high level. There is also a practice test at the end.

Price: $10–12

Course Length: 10 hours

To get the most out of his course I recommend that you follow along with his practical labs and replicate them in your own environments.

2. Practice your skills with a Project

The second step is to go through with a practice project, the best way to learn is with hands on experience. Below I have attached a sample project that I recommend you go through.

credit to user @aiya#9965 from the AWS discord server

This is a great project that will give you some practical experience with terraform and help you solidify what you learned from the course. This project took me a week and I learned a wealth of info and best practices. After going through this project you will be well prepared and ready to move on to the practice exams.

Finished Project: https://github.com/nicohouillon/aws_test_approach_1

3. Go through Practice Exams

Finally I highly recommend taking practice exams as they will prepare you well for the exam.

Link: https://www.udemy.com/course/hashicorp-certified-terraform-associate-2020-practice-exam/

Price: $10

The questions are similar to what will be given on the exam, I recommend taking both exams until you get a 90% or above. The score you get on the practice exams is indictive of what you’ll get on the real exams, so spend time taking practice tests.