This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Shawn Gestupa
Initially, I overlooked Terraform for the past few years, something I never imagined I’ll be using.
Until for the past few months and now, after falling in love with it, I am proud to announce that I’ve passed the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (003) examination and am now officially certified.
As someone new to Terraform (just started this year), I aimed to get this certificate not because I want to, but because of necessity: I won’t be able to utilize it anymore due to difference in tools used in my current team, so I had to take an initiative by using what I’ve learned to the fullest and make it worth as much as I can. So for me, I truly believe the Terraform Associate exam is worth it.
I had a hard time learning Terraform’s opinionated structure — being much more opinionated than the web frameworks that I’ve used before. Like any other person that is starting with something (or except to those that are built different), I struggled but for the next few months, I’ve started to get a hang of it and even find beauty within it for the way it handles automation for you and simplifies how you provision large infrastructure, making you love your job more (hopefully hehe).
About the exam, it’s 1 hour long and must be scheduled 48 hours in advance. There are less situational questions and lean more on being “direct”, so if you want to pass the exam, you can start with the official Terraform documentation.
Personally, you don’t have to buy courses but it would be hypocritical for me to not say that I’ve used one. In addition to courses, here are some resources that helped me pass the exam:
- Pluralsight HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate
- Bryan Krausen’s HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Practice Exam 2025
- ExamTopics HashiCorp Terraform Associate Exam
If you don’t want to read the Terraform documentation, you can start with the practice exams (just like what I did hehe).
Besides these resources, don’t forget to keep on learning Terraform, especially getting a practical experience as this one of the key factors that built my confidence. I would also recommend to take notes if you want to, since for me, typing what I’m watching and hearing from the courses helped me remember.
All in all, keep on learning, believe in yourself, and be confident as much as you can.
Now on to the next challenge! I will aim to get a new AWS Associate certificate, either the SysOps Administrator (soon to be CloudOps Engineer) or Developer.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Shawn Gestupa