Terraform Associate Exam 003
At the beginning of June I took the Hashicorp Terraform Associate Exam. This exam was fairly straightforward and generally easy if you have some experience with Terraform. To be honest, prior to this exam, I did not have that much Terraform experience. I had dabbled around with a few Terraform scripts, built a couple basic projects ( the 'ole 2 tier web site ), and had worked with remote state. But I had not done anything too in depth, and I was not managing any business infrastructure with it at that point. So with that in mind, if I can pass this exam, you can too. You just need the right study materials and a little time.
Speaking of time, how long did it take me to prepare for this exam, you ask? Well, I had been dabbling with Terraform a little bit, familiarizing myself with it for about a month or so ( just a little bit here and there ). But once I got to actually studying for the exam, I was able to cover the materials in about 3 weeks at about 1-2 hours a night, 4-5 nights a week. Then I gave myself about a week and half to do some practice tests and studying. So, all in all, pretty much a month to prepare if you take it just from the study materials.
As for study materials, I only really used one course. Andrew Brown's Hashicorp Terraform Associate Certification Course (003) on Youtube. This is a 7 hour course that takes you through every detail you'll need to prepare for the exam. On his website, exampro.co, he has even more to show you with full follow alongs of the features he discusses in the course. There is an additional 5 hours of follow alongs on his website, making the grand total there about 12 hours. If you pay for the course on his website, which is only like $30 by the way (with a discount), you get the full course with follow alongs, downloadable cheat sheets, the slides from the course, and 5 practice exams. The practice exams alone were worth the price of admission.
So, how did I study?
Well basically, I watched all of the videos and did the follow alongs. I spent a little time creating a few small test projects with Terraform, and practicing the commands and working with Terraform Cloud a little bit. I did some exercises, studied, and I did the pratice exams nightly to test my knowledge. Once I was scoring consistently over 90% on the practice exams, I scheduled my exam. And a few days later I passed. 🎉
IAC and Terraform are really in demand skills and can help your career. Its also an enjoyable experience to design your infrastructure in code, hit terraform apply, and within minutes you have a fully deployed infrastructure ready to go. I highly recommend giving this cert a go and definitely following along with Andrew Brown's Terraform course.
Enjoy!
