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Foundational · 004Prep available

HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (004) practice exam and study path

A free, timed 57-question 004 practice exam in 60 minutes, scored by domain, with every option explained after you submit. Also 230 practice questions you can check one at a time, a page for every task in the exam guide, and a study path. No sign-up.

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Terraform Associate exam pack:

$4.99for 12 months

For engineers who write and run Terraform: providers and state, the init, plan and apply workflow, configuration and modules, backends and drift, import and the state CLI, and HCP Terraform workspaces and governance.

The exam

Exam code
004
Questions
Not yet published
Time
60 minutes
Passing score
Not published
Exam fee
$70.5 (USD)
Question types
multiple choice, multiple response

A one-hour, online-proctored exam in English that tests Terraform 1.12; the credential is valid for 2 years and the fee is $70.50 plus local taxes and fees, with no free retake. HashiCorp's associate exams use true or false, multiple choice and multiple answer questions; our forms write the true or false kind as four-option questions. HashiCorp publishes neither the number of questions nor a passing score. Our forms hold 57 questions, the count candidates commonly report (community reports, not a HashiCorp figure), and the eight objectives carry equal weight because HashiCorp publishes none.

From HashiCorp's certification page and exam guide, checked Oct 18, 2026.

Domains and weights

  • Domain 1: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform

    12%

  • Domain 2: Terraform fundamentals

    13%

  • Domain 3: Core Terraform workflow

    13%

  • Domain 4: Terraform configuration

    13%

  • Domain 5: Terraform modules

    12%

  • Domain 6: Terraform state management

    13%

  • Domain 7: Maintain infrastructure with Terraform

    12%

  • Domain 8: HCP Terraform

    12%

On our roadmap this comes after Cloud Practitioner. See every certification.

Practice

230 original practice questions, every option explained with the HashiCorp documentation page that proves it. Free, no sign-up; progress stays on this device.

Your results on this device →

More practice exams

The lessons, the sample questions on every task page and the first full practice exam are free and stay free. A pack adds the further timed 004 practice exams.

Terraform Associate exam pack

$4.99for 12 months

  • Every paid 004 practice exam, timed, with every option explained
  • The next version of this exam included when it changes within your 12 months
  • 12 months of access. One payment, nothing renews by itself.
  • 14-day refund, no conditions
  • 14-day refund, no conditions: ask within 14 days of buying and you get the whole payment back.
  • No pass guarantee. These are practice exams written by us from the exam guide and the HashiCorp documentation; a score here does not predict your result on the real exam.

Study path

One module per exam domain. Lessons that already exist on BytePatterns are linked; the rest are being written.

  1. Module 1: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform

    1. 1What IaC is: declarative configuration that a tool converges toTask 1.1

      Partly covered by: Pods, ReplicaSets & Deployments

    2. 2Order from references: the dependency graph and parallel creationTask 1.1

      Partly covered by: Topological Sort

    3. 3Why IaC: version history, review, plans, repeatable and disposable environmentsTask 1.2

      Lesson coming

    4. 4One workflow for many platforms: multi-cloud, hybrid and SaaS providersTask 1.3

      Lesson coming

  2. Module 2: Terraform fundamentals

    1. 5Installing providers: required_providers, version constraints and the lock fileTask 2.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 6How providers work: plugins, RPC, schemas, configuration and credentialsTask 2.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 7Several providers and aliases in one configuration and across modulesTask 2.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 8What state is for: bindings, metadata, caching, and why it is sensitiveTask 2.4

      Lesson coming

  3. Module 3: Core Terraform workflow

    1. 9Write, plan, apply for individuals, teams and HCP TerraformTask 3.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 10terraform init: backends, modules, providers and the .terraform directoryTask 3.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 11terraform validate and what it cannot catchTask 3.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 12Reading a plan: actions, saved plans, exit codes and targetingTask 3.4

      Partly covered by: Topological Sort

    5. 13terraform apply: approval, saved plans, -replace and failures part wayTask 3.5

      Lesson coming

    6. 14Destroying infrastructure and the reverse dependency orderTask 3.6

      Partly covered by: Topological Sort

    7. 15terraform fmt and the style conventionsTask 3.7

      Lesson coming

  4. Module 4: Terraform configuration

    1. 16Resources, data sources and ephemeral resourcesTask 4.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 17References, count and for_each instances, splatsTask 4.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 18Input variables, precedence, locals and outputsTask 4.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 19Complex types: lists, sets, tuples, maps, objects and optional attributesTask 4.4

      Lesson coming

    5. 20Expressions and functions: conditionals, for, dynamic blocks, templatesTask 4.5

      Lesson coming

    6. 21Dependencies: references, depends_on and cyclesTask 4.6

      Partly covered by: Topological Sort, Cycles in a Directed Graph

    7. 22Replacing without downtime: create_before_destroy and replace_triggered_byTask 4.6

      Partly covered by: Scheduling & Rolling Updates

    8. 23Custom conditions: validation, preconditions, postconditions and checksTask 4.7

      Lesson coming

    9. 24Sensitive values, ephemeral values, write-only arguments and VaultTask 4.8

      Partly covered by: ConfigMaps, Secrets & Env

  5. Module 5: Terraform modules

    1. 25Module sources: local paths, registries, Git, archives and object storageTask 5.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 26Scope: inputs down, outputs up, nothing shared implicitlyTask 5.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 27Using modules: calls, for_each, composition and refactoringTask 5.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 28Module versions: constraints, Git refs and upgradesTask 5.4

      Lesson coming

  6. Module 6: Terraform state management

    1. 29The local backend: files, backups and workspacesTask 6.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 30State locking: why concurrent writers corrupt stateTask 6.2

      Partly covered by: Race Conditions, Locks and Mutexes

    3. 31Remote backends: the backend block, partial configuration and migrationTask 6.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 32Encrypting state at rest in a cloud backendTask 6.3

      Partly covered by: KMS, Envelope Encryption & Private CA

    5. 33Drift and refactoring: refresh-only, moved and removed blocksTask 6.4

      Lesson coming

  7. Module 7: Maintain infrastructure with Terraform

    1. 34Importing existing infrastructure: import blocks, generated configuration, the import commandTask 7.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 35Inspecting and editing state with the CLITask 7.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 36Verbose logging with TF_LOG and its companionsTask 7.3

      Partly covered by: Observability Basics

  8. Module 8: HCP Terraform

    1. 37Runs in HCP Terraform: VCS, CLI and API workflows, variables and run stagesTask 8.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 38Governance: teams, policy as code, private registry, health assessmentsTask 8.2

      Partly covered by: Organizations, SCPs & Control Tower

    3. 39Short-lived credentials for runs: dynamic provider credentialsTask 8.2

      Partly covered by: Shared Responsibility & IAM

    4. 40Workspaces and projects: variable sets, run triggers and accessTask 8.3

      Lesson coming

    5. 41Connecting the CLI: terraform login, the cloud block and state migrationTask 8.4

      Lesson coming

Every task in the exam guide

The exam guide splits each domain into task statements. Each one has a page with a short summary, the lessons that teach it and open sample questions.

Domain 1: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform

Domain 2: Terraform fundamentals

Domain 3: Core Terraform workflow

Domain 4: Terraform configuration

Domain 5: Terraform modules

Domain 6: Terraform state management

Domain 7: Maintain infrastructure with Terraform

Domain 8: HCP Terraform

How these questions are made

  • Written by us from the exam guide's task statements and the HashiCorp documentation — never from real exam content.
  • Every option carries its own explanation and a link to the HashiCorp page that proves it.
  • A question enters a timed exam only after an independent check; until then it is a practice question.
  • Results are a plain percentage, per domain too — not an imitation of HashiCorp's scaled score.

Questions about the 004 practice exam

Is the 004 practice exam free?
Yes. The full practice exam (57 questions, 60 minutes) is free with no sign-up, and so are the 230 practice questions, the task pages and the study path. Your attempts are saved in this browser, on this device.
How many questions does it have, and is it timed?
57 questions in 60 minutes: the real 004 pace, scaled to this form. When the time runs out, the exam is submitted as it stands.
Are the answers explained?
After you submit, not during: like the real exam, the timed exam gives no feedback until the end. Then you get your score overall and per exam domain, and every question with each option explained and a link to the HashiCorp documentation page behind it. In practice mode an answer is explained as soon as you check it.
What does the Terraform Associate exam pack add?
3 more timed practice exams (Practice exam 1: 57 questions, 60 minutes; Practice exam 2: 57 questions, 60 minutes; Practice exam 3: 57 questions, 60 minutes), each scored and explained the same way, and the next version of this exam if it changes within your 12 months. 12 months of access. One payment, nothing renews by itself. Everything above stays free. See the pack.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, with no conditions: ask within 14 days of buying and you get the whole payment back. The details are in the terms.
Is this an official HashiCorp practice exam?
No. BytePatterns is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by HashiCorp. Every question is written by us from the public exam guide and the HashiCorp documentation, never from real exam content, and a score here does not predict your result on the real exam. HashiCorp lists its own preparation resources on its certification page.