The HashiCorp Terraform Associate (003) certification validates foundational knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts and practical skills using HashiCorp Terraform. As organizations increasingly adopt multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies, Terraform has become the de facto standard for infrastructure provisioning, used by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies. This vendor-neutral IaC tool works across AWS, Azure, GCP, and hundreds of other providers, making the certification uniquely portable across cloud ecosystems.

Exam Details

Exam code: Terraform Associate 003
Format: 57 questions — multiple choice, multiple answer, fill-in-the-blank
Duration: 60 minutes
Delivery: PSI online proctored
Passing score: Not publicly disclosed (estimated ~70%)
Prerequisites: None, though basic understanding of cloud concepts and CLI usage recommended
Validity: 2 years
Languages: English

Exam Domains

IaC Concepts (14%): Understanding IaC benefits, Terraform vs. other IaC tools
Terraform Purpose & Basics (9%): Terraform workflow (init, plan, apply, destroy), state management
Terraform CLI (9%): Core commands, workspace management, debugging
Terraform Modules (13%): Module sources, inputs/outputs, versioning, Terraform Registry
Terraform State (14%): State purpose, backends (local, remote), state locking, import
HCP Terraform (HCP) (9%): Terraform Cloud features, remote execution, sentinel policies
Read/Generate/Modify Configuration (23%): HCL syntax, variables, outputs, data sources, provisioners, dynamic blocks
Navigate Terraform Workflow (9%): Core workflow, collaboration patterns, version constraints

Preparation Resources

HashiCorp Official Study Guide: Free documentation and tutorials at developer.hashicorp.com — comprehensive and well-maintained
Bryan Krausen (Udemy): Top-rated Terraform Associate prep course ($15–$20 on sale), includes practice exams. Krausen is a HashiCorp Ambassador and DevOps consultant with 200K+ students.
Andrew Brown / ExamPro: Free YouTube course + paid practice exams. Brown is a well-known cloud cert instructor.
KodeKloud: Hands-on Terraform labs with integrated practice environment ($15–$25/month)
Terraform Registry & Docs: The best free resource — learn by reading real module code and provider documentation
Study time: 40–80 hours (less if you already use Terraform professionally)

Cost

Exam fee: $70.50
Retake policy: Wait 24 hours for first retake, then 14 days, then 365 days for third
Prep materials: Free (docs + YouTube) to $50 (Udemy course + practice exams)
Total investment: $70.50–$120

Salary Impact

Terraform/IaC Engineer: $110,000–$150,000
DevOps Engineer (with Terraform): $120,000–$165,000
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer: $115,000–$155,000
Senior Platform Engineer: $145,000–$190,000
Contract/consulting rates: $80–$150+/hour
Salary premium: IaC skills add $10,000–$25,000 to cloud role compensation

Job Market

Adoption: Terraform is used by 80%+ of organizations practicing IaC, across all major cloud providers
Job listings: "Terraform" appears in 40%+ of DevOps/cloud engineer job postings
Multi-cloud advantage: Unlike provider-specific tools (CloudFormation, ARM), Terraform skills transfer across all cloud platforms
Complementary certs: AWS/Azure/GCP certifications, CKA, Docker certifications, Vault Associate
Career path: Terraform Associate → Terraform Authoring & Operations Professional (advanced cert)

Who It Is For

DevOps engineers, cloud engineers, infrastructure engineers, and platform engineers who use or want to use Terraform. Also valuable for developers writing infrastructure code, SREs managing infrastructure reliability, and IT professionals transitioning from manual to automated infrastructure management. At $70.50 for the exam, this is one of the highest-ROI certifications in tech.

Hashicorp terraform associate certification — infrastructure as code mastery

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