A Guide to HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate

Finally, Terraform has announced its certification exams open to the world. Compared to other certifications in the same line, this certification is mostly theoretical than solving real-life scenarios. The exam is taken online with a live proctor. Its a mix of multiple-choices and “fill in the blanks” test with 57 questions for 1 hour.

It's not as deep as a hands-on exam. Hashicorp could have concentrated more on the technical quality of the questions rather than theoretical definitions.

How can I prepare for the exam?

1. The Exam is on Terraform 0.12.0 and higher. You should know the syntax and features of Terraform 0.12.0.
2. Complete the Terraform Study Guide.
3. Go thoroughly through the definitions in Exam Review. Lots of theoretical questions from this area.
4. Review the Sample Questions.

If you are already using terraform extensively, you can skim through the Study Guide and then start with Exam Review.

In the study guide, Hashicorp has used examples with cloud providers like AWS, GCP, Azure, etc. to demonstrate the usages. In the exams, I haven’t seen any vendor-specific questions.

Few other things you will be tested on.

1. Learn about the importance of Infrastructure as Code.
2. Rewriting Terraform 0.11 code to 0.12 compatible code. Refer to Terraform 0.12.0 preview.
3. Features available on Terraform Cloud and Terraform Enterprise version. Refer to the feature comparison here.
4. Be familiar with the basics of Terraform Cloud. Learn Terraform Cloud interactively with Katacoda
5. Learn about Terraform vs other “Infrastructure as Code” tools here.

External Resources.

I couldn’t find much preparation resources on the net. Try the following resources.

1. Preview and Enroll the Udemy course HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate 2020 by Zeal Vora.
2. Purchase the practice exam HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Practice Exam by Bryan Krausen, once you are ready to test your knowledge.
3. Also, found this video tutorial about sample questions on youtube.

Registration and Scheduling

Purchasing and scheduling are done separately. Your purchase will sit in your account indefinitely waiting to be used to schedule an exam appointment. Exam appointment slots are limited and you will have the best chance of getting your preferred date and time if you schedule early.

Exam registration: https://www.hashicorp.com/certification/terraform-associate/

Personally, I couldn’t find much APAC friendly time to schedule the exam.

IMPORTANT: The times listed when scheduling your exam appointment are in the time zone you have configured in your profile.Refer how to check/update your time zone here.

What do I need to attend the exam?

The exam is taken online with a live proctor on Zoom.

1. You need a browser with the latest updates to ensure that web pages load properly. I have been asked not to use IE.
2. Zoom client [https://zoom.us/support/download] with the latest updates.
3. A Valid Govt. ID proof with the same name as in your exam registration.
4. You will be expected to comply with the Exam rules. Which will be sent to your mail.

If you find any issue in scheduling or not receiving confirmation mail etc. You can write to ‘certifications@hashicorp.com’.

All the best and Get Certified!