How I Passed the Terraform Associate Certification

1 min read ⚡️Last tended 2 years ago
Evergreen 🌳Planted 2 years ago
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Motivation

At the start of 2022, I enrolled myself on KodeKloud's Terraform beginner course on Udemy to gain confidence and a good understanding of working with Terraform files written by the DevOps engineering team in my current company.

The concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) isn't new to me; however, I lacked the hands-on experience to understand Terraform HCL syntax and create my own Terraform files. While working through the labs exercises from the course, I found myself deeply fascinated by this tool. Henceforth, I decided to push myself to solidify my fundamentals on Terraform and test my understanding via the Terraform Associate Certification. I am a strong believer in the fail fast, learn fast methodology.

I am glad to announce that I am a Terraform Certified Associate after about 4 months of preparation!

Strategy

Here is my strategy for acing this exam.

Learn from the Best

  1. Enroll in a course that provided both theory and lab exercises eg. Terraform for the Absolute Beginners with Labs.

  2. Get more hands-on experience by building your own Resume Foundations Project (optional)

Internalize Your Learnings

  1. Make your own notes!
    • Taking a certification is not a sprint. Help your future self by taking smart notes that is easy to reference and recap in the future.

Be Exam-Smart

  1. Go through the official Terraform documentation to deep dive into the concepts (Important!)

  2. Understand the exam by going through official articles about the certification:

  3. Take practice exams

  • The questions from Bryan Krausen's practice exams are good and every question comes with a detailed explaination.
  1. Build confidence by seeing how others have succeeded before you:

It makes my day when I see it.
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