My thoughts on the HashiCorp Infrastructure Automation Certification

#hashicorp #terraform #sre #certifications

As the landscape technologies that keep the internet running has changes over the past 60 years so have the tools that manage the technology. Now in 2021 Terraform is one of the leaders for managing cloud resources as code, commonly called Infrastructure as Code.

I started using Terraform (TF) around version 0.11 back in 2017. The first project published with TF code was in 2018 (https://github.com/davidjeddy/wordpress-terraform if you are curious). As my skills with Terraform have matured, so has the tool. But the core life cycle remains the same: write, plan, apply. Even as the tool passed the 1.x production ready release milestone; the core workflow remained unchanged.

Recently I found that Hashicorp has started providing certifications related to there tools; of course I jumped on the Terraform study track. The study plan was to go through the ACG resources, complete the Hashicorp resources, review my knowledge, and execute the test. Having taking a number of certifications the last step was going to be the easy one.

Here is the list of resources I used to to study.

The exam topics covers everything in the Terraform lifecycle from the subcommands, to state manipulation and a working knowledge of the Cloud / Enterprise offerings from Hashicorp.

Due to world events the exam was online proctored. Finding a place to take the exam was a non-issue for me due to current living arrangements. The monitoring personnel are _very_ strict about adhering to the guidelines. You have been warned.

With all that said, I passed with a score in the mid 80s. Not amazing, but not bad either. Two weeks after the exam I was watching the HashiConf Global 2021 and saw that only about 12,000 certs had been issued globally so far. That means I am one of the first 15,000 to have a certification from Hashicorp. Woot woot!

Would I recommend this certification? If you like to validate your knowledge and increase your salary; yes. 100% yes. Especially if you work in the cloud, IT infrastructure, or application development.