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terraform Practice Questions

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Your team uses a remote S3 backend with DynamoDB locking. A colleague ran `terraform apply` but it failed mid-way. The lock was NOT automatically released. What is the safest first step?
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You need to remove a specific resource from Terraform state management without destroying the actual cloud resource. Which command accomplishes this?
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You have a `variable "env"` with no default value. When running `terraform plan` in a CI/CD pipeline (non-interactive), how should you supply the value without prompting?
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You want to create 3 identical EC2 instances with different names using a single `resource` block. Which Terraform meta-argument is most appropriate?
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A production RDS instance must never be accidentally deleted via `terraform destroy`. Which lifecycle setting enforces this?
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You are updating an ECS task definition that requires destroying the old task first. The service must have zero downtime. Which lifecycle setting achieves this?
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Terraform continuously detects drift on an S3 bucket's `tags` attribute set by an external process, causing noisy plans. How do you suppress this without removing the attribute?
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Two engineers on your team each run `terraform apply` simultaneously against the same remote state. What protects state from corruption?
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Your CI pipeline runs `terraform plan` on every pull request and posts the output as a comment. A `terraform plan` exits with code 2. What does this mean?
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A new team member ran `terraform apply` in the dev environment and accidentally modified the shared VPC used by all environments. Which practice would have prevented this?
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You want to enforce that all Terraform changes go through a code review and plan approval before `apply`. Which tool natively supports this workflow?
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You are designing Terraform code for a large organization with 50+ microservices sharing common networking, IAM, and security resources. What architectural pattern minimizes blast radius and maximizes reuse?
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A security audit reveals that database passwords managed by Terraform are stored in plaintext in the state file. What is the recommended remediation?
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Your Terraform code needs to read a secret from AWS Secrets Manager at runtime. Which approach is correct?
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What does the `sensitive = true` attribute on a Terraform variable or output actually do?
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Which Terraform feature allows you to enforce organizational security policies (e.g., "all S3 buckets must have encryption enabled") across all runs automatically?
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You need to dynamically generate a list of security group ingress rules from a variable. Which HCL construct is correct?
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In HCL, what is the result of this expression: `[for s in ["a", "b", "c"] : upper(s)]`?
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What does the `templatefile()` function in Terraform do?
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You want to output the private IPs of all EC2 instances created with `for_each`. Which HCL expression produces a map of `instance_name => private_ip`?
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Page 1 of 1

terraform Practice Questions

Your team uses a remote S3 backend with DynamoDB locking. A colleague ran `terraform apply` but it failed mid-way. The lock was NOT automatically released. What is the safest first step?

You need to remove a specific resource from Terraform state management without destroying the actual cloud resource. Which command accomplishes this?

You have a `variable "env"` with no default value. When running `terraform plan` in a CI/CD pipeline (non-interactive), how should you supply the value without prompting?

You want to create 3 identical EC2 instances with different names using a single `resource` block. Which Terraform meta-argument is most appropriate?

A production RDS instance must never be accidentally deleted via `terraform destroy`. Which lifecycle setting enforces this?

You are updating an ECS task definition that requires destroying the old task first. The service must have zero downtime. Which lifecycle setting achieves this?

Terraform continuously detects drift on an S3 bucket's `tags` attribute set by an external process, causing noisy plans. How do you suppress this without removing the attribute?

Two engineers on your team each run `terraform apply` simultaneously against the same remote state. What protects state from corruption?

Your CI pipeline runs `terraform plan` on every pull request and posts the output as a comment. A `terraform plan` exits with code 2. What does this mean?

A new team member ran `terraform apply` in the dev environment and accidentally modified the shared VPC used by all environments. Which practice would have prevented this?

You want to enforce that all Terraform changes go through a code review and plan approval before `apply`. Which tool natively supports this workflow?

You are designing Terraform code for a large organization with 50+ microservices sharing common networking, IAM, and security resources. What architectural pattern minimizes blast radius and maximizes reuse?

A security audit reveals that database passwords managed by Terraform are stored in plaintext in the state file. What is the recommended remediation?

Your Terraform code needs to read a secret from AWS Secrets Manager at runtime. Which approach is correct?

What does the `sensitive = true` attribute on a Terraform variable or output actually do?

Which Terraform feature allows you to enforce organizational security policies (e.g., "all S3 buckets must have encryption enabled") across all runs automatically?

You need to dynamically generate a list of security group ingress rules from a variable. Which HCL construct is correct?

In HCL, what is the result of this expression: `[for s in ["a", "b", "c"] : upper(s)]`?

What does the `templatefile()` function in Terraform do?

You want to output the private IPs of all EC2 instances created with `for_each`. Which HCL expression produces a map of `instance_name => private_ip`?