Terraformer
Master Terraform from first principles to advanced patterns. Write, plan, and apply infrastructure as code across AWS, Azure, and GCP: with security and team workflows built in.
Who this path is for
This path is for system administrators, cloud engineers and developers who deploy infrastructure by hand or with scripts and want to move to repeatable infrastructure as code. You should know the basics of at least one cloud provider. The target role is a cloud or platform engineer who writes secure, reusable Terraform and runs it through a team workflow.
What you'll be able to do
- Write Terraform configurations in HCL using variables, outputs, loops and conditionals.
- Manage state safely with a remote backend and locking, and recover from state drift.
- Build reusable modules and version them so several teams can share the same building blocks.
- Deploy resources to AWS, Azure and GCP with the right provider setup and authentication.
- Scan Terraform code for misconfigurations and enforce rules with policy as code before apply.
- Run plan and apply through a CI/CD pipeline with review steps, instead of from a laptop.
What you'll cover
Terraform Fundamentals
Understand what Terraform is, how it differs from other IaC tools, and how the core workflow (init → plan → apply → destroy) works.
HCL Language Deep Dive
Learn HashiCorp Configuration Language: resources, variables, locals, outputs, data sources, expressions, and built-in functions.
State Management
Understand the Terraform state file, remote backends (S3, Azure Blob, GCS), state locking, workspace isolation, and how to safely manipulate state.
Modules & Reusability
Build reusable, composable Terraform modules. Understand module structure, input/output contracts, versioning, and the public Terraform Registry.
Providers: AWS, Azure & GCP
Configure and use the major cloud providers. Understand provider versioning, multi-region deployments, and provider aliases.
Security & Compliance in IaC
Scan Terraform code for misconfigurations before apply. Use tfsec, Checkov, and Sentinel policy-as-code to enforce guardrails in your pipeline.
CI/CD with Terraform
Automate plan and apply in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps. Implement PR-based workflow, cost estimation with Infracost, and drift detection.
Advanced Patterns
Dynamic blocks, for_each and count meta-arguments, moved blocks for refactoring, import of existing resources, and managing large codebases with Terragrunt.
Knowledge Check
Related certifications
HashiCorp Terraform Associate
The official Terraform certification. It lines up closely with the fundamentals, state and module topics in this path.
Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert
A good companion if you will run Terraform through Azure DevOps or GitHub pipelines.
Free AZ-400 course →Cloud fundamentals
If you are new to the providers you will deploy to, a fundamentals course makes the resource types much easier to follow.
Free AZ-900 course →Frequently asked questions
How long does the Terraformer path take?
Plan for about 14 hours across the eight topic areas and the quiz. Building a small project of your own, such as a network plus a web app, is the best practice.
Do I need to know a programming language first?
No. HCL is a configuration language, not a general programming language. Comfort with the command line and basic cloud concepts is enough to start.
What roles does this path lead to?
It supports roles such as cloud engineer, platform engineer, DevOps engineer and infrastructure engineer.
Path Summary
- Level
- Intermediate
- Estimated time
- 14 hours
- Topics
- 8
- Resources
- 24
- Quiz questions
- 10
- Passing score
- 70% (7/10)