Pass the HashiCorp Terraform Associate Terraform-Associate-003 Questions and answers with CertsForce

Terraform follows adeclarativeapproach, meaning it ensures the infrastructure matches the configuration.

If you run terraform apply againwithout any changes, Terraform willdetect that the infrastructure is already up to dateand willdo nothing.

The command will complete successfully with the message"No changes. Your infrastructure matches the configuration."

Official Terraform Documentation Reference:

Terraform Apply - HashiCorp Documentation

Terraform configuration can import modules from various sources, not only from the public registry. Modules can be sourced from local file paths, Git repositories, HTTP URLs, Mercurial repositories, S3 buckets, and GCS buckets. Terraform supports a number of common conventions and syntaxes for specifying module sources, as documented in the [Module Sources] page. References = [Module Sources]

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer (B):Provider version constraints in Terraform are specified using the version argument in the required_providers block, e.g.:

terraform {

required_providers {

aws = {

source = "hashicorp/aws"

version = "3.1"

}

}

}

This ensures Terraform always uses a specific provider version (or constraint expression).

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A. version: Incomplete, no value specified.

C. version: 3.1: Incorrect syntax, Terraform uses = not :.

D. version - 3.1: Incorrect syntax, - is invalid here.

Key Concept:Defining provider version constraints ensures consistent provider behavior across environments and avoids breaking changes.

You can configure Terraform to log to a file using the TF_LOG environment variable. This variable can be set to one of the log levels: TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN or ERROR. You can also use the TF_LOG_PATH environment variable to specify a custom log file location. References = : Debugging Terraform

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer (B):Terraform interacts with external systems through providers. Since this is a new proprietary service with its own API, Terraform does not support it by default. You would need to develop a custom provider that implements Terraform’s provider interface and interacts with the proprietary APIs to manage resources like users.

Analysis of Incorrect Option:

A. Any service hosted on a public cloud provider: Not true. Terraform can only manage services that have providers (official or custom). Just being "hosted on a public cloud" doesn’t guarantee Terraform support.

Key Concept:Terraform providers act as the bridge between Terraform and external APIs. For unsupported services, a custom provider must be developed.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer (B):IaC best practice is to manage infrastructure through version-controlled code. Changes should be reviewed and approved (via PRs), ensuring collaboration, traceability, and automation.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

A, D, E: Making direct/manual changes bypasses IaC practices and causes drift.

C: Running code without PR review skips collaboration and approval.

Key Concept:Infrastructure as Code emphasizes version control + peer review + automation.

The required_providers block is used to specify the provider versions that the configuration can work with. The version argument accepts a version constraint string, which must be enclosed in double quotes. The version constraint string can use operators such as >=, ~>, =, etc. to specify the minimum, maximum, or exact version of the provider. For example, version = ">= 3.1" means that theconfiguration can work with any provider version that is 3.1 or higher. References = [Provider Requirements] and [Version Constraints]

You cannot reference a resource created with for_each using a splat (*) expression, as it will not work with resources that have non-numeric keys. You need to use a for expression instead to iterate over the resource instances.

Inrefresh-only mode(terraform apply -refresh-only), Terraformupdates the state fileto match the actual infrastructurewithout modifying resources.

A (Terraform configuration)–Not modifiedin refresh-only mode.

B (Terraform plan)–Plan is generated but not modified.

D (Cloud infrastructure)–Not modifiedin refresh-only mode.

Official Terraform Documentation Reference:

Refresh-Only Mode

The provider for theaws_vpcresource isaws, as the resource type begins withaws_, which denotes that it is managed by the AWS provider.