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The rise in the use of Cloud Technologies has opened a lot of opportunities in the world of DevOps.
What is Terraform?
Terraformis one of the most popular IAC tools used by every cloud engineer.
you’ve got the option to use Terraform to run your applications on multiple cloud platforms simultaneously.
We have compiled a list of top terraform interview questions that should help you enhance your knowledge of Terraform.
General Terraform Interview Questions and Answers
#1.What do you understand by Terraform?
Terraform is an open-source IAC tool created byHashiCorp.
It is used to create, update, delete and version your infrastructure on multiple cloud platforms.
#2.What are the reasons to choose Terraform for DevOps?
Terraform uses the HCL language, which is fairly similar to JSON and easy to learn and use.
This avoids the need to learn multiple IAC tools and improves the scope of collaboration.
#3.How does Terraform work?
Terraform uses plugins called the Terraform providers to interact with APIs on Cloud Platforms and provision our resources.
As an end-user, terraform workflow has three steps.
Plan: Preview changes Terraform will make before applying.
Apply: Provision the infrastructure and apply the changes.
#4.What do you mean by Terraform cloud?
Terraform Cloud is a remote environment that is optimized for the Terraform workflow.
It provides features like workspaces and state locking, which allows people in big teams to collaborate.
#5.What do you understand by State in Terraform?
As an IAC tool, terraform should know the current state of configurations and infrastructure under its management.
Terraform stores this information in a file called the state file.
#6.What is the benefit of Terraform State?
It is a critical component of Terraform.
#7.What do you understand by Terraform Backend?
Terraform backend is the platform where the Terraform State Snapshots are stored.
By default, Terraform uses a backend called local to store state as a local file on your disk.
All other supported backends are some kind of remote storage service.
#8.What is a provider in Terraform?
#9.Who maintains Terraform Providers?
Providers are distributed separately from Terraform itself.
As a Terraform user, anyone can develop their own providers.
There are some standard providers that are maintained explicitly by Hashicorp.
#10.What is Sentinel?
Sentinelis a policy as a code tool used to enforce standard configurations for resources being deployed by Terraform.
It can be used by organizations for compliance and governance purposes.
#11.What do you understand by modules in Terraform?
A Terraform module is a standard container for multiple resources used together to provision and configure resources.
Modules can be shared publically via the Public module registry and privately via the Private Module registry.
#12.What is the benefit of using modules in terraform?
Terraform modules allow us to create logical abstraction on the top of a resource set.
Using modules allows us to maintain and reuse a standard configuration for resources.
They can be versioned and shared with members of your teams to provision resources in a standard way.
#13.What is the Private Module Registry?
A Private Module Registry Terraform Cloud feature allows us to share Terraform modules across our organization.
We can export data from a module by defining output blocks in the module configuration files.
This data can then be transferred as a parameter to the destination module.
#13.How can you define dependencies in Terraform?
Terraform has built-in dependency management.
Terraform has two kinds of dependencies between resources- implicit and explicit dependencies.
Implicit dependencies, as the name suggests, are detected by Terraform automatically.
This can be done by using the depends_on parameter in the configuration block.
#14.What are Provisioners in Terraform?
Provisioners are Terraform resources used to execute scripts as a part of the resource creation or destruction.
#15.What is the external data block in Terraform?
Just like the local-exec provisioner, external data bock can be used to run scripts on machines running Terraform.
By using different workspaces.
These users can start Terraform runs in two separate workspaces.
#17.What happens when multiple engineers start deploying infrastructure using the same state file?
Terraform has a very important feature calledstate locking.
It is important to note that not all Terraform Backends support the state locking feature.
You should choose the right backend if this feature is a requirement.
#18.What is a null resource in Terraform?
#19.How can you use the same provider in Terraform with different configurations?
By using alias argument in the provider block.
#20.You have a Terraform configuration file with no resources.
What happens when you run theterraform applycommand?
Terraform will destroy all the resources.
Starting an empty run withterraform applycommand is exactly the same as starting the terraform destroy run.
#21.What happens if a resource was created successfully in terraform but failed during provisioning?
#22.Which value of theTF_LOGvariable provides the MOST verbose logging?
TRACE is the most verbose and the default value of theTF_LOGvariable.
#23.How can you import existing resources under Terraform Management?
By using theterraform importcommand.
#24.Which command can be used to preview the terraform execution plan?
Theterraform plancommand generates the execution plan of the changes Terraform will do to the infrastructure.
#25.Which command can be used to reconcile the Terraform state with the actual real-world infrastructure?
Theterraform apply -refresh-onlycommand is used to reconcile Terraform state with the actual real-world infrastructure.
It is the new alternative to theterraform refreshcommand, which is now deprecated.
#26.Which command can be used to switch between workspaces when using Terraform Cloud?
Theterraform workspace select command is used to choose a different workspace.
#27.Which command is used to perform syntax validation on terraform configuration files?
Theterraform validatecommand is used to verify whether a configuration is syntactically valid and internally consistent.
#28.Which command is used to create new workspaces in the Terraform cloud?
Theterraform workspace new command is used to create a new workspace.
Some other important terraform commands for technical interviews.
I hope the above information helps you to get a Terraform job.
