Terraform Course

Lesson 1 • Installing and Configuring Terraform

Guides students through installing Terraform on major operating systems and verifying the setup. A working local environment is required for all subsequent hands-on exercises.

Lesson 2 • Terraform's Place in the Ecosystem

Positions Terraform among configuration management, orchestration, and provisioning tools. Students understand when to choose Terraform over alternatives.

Lesson 3 • Terraform CLI Fundamentals

Introduces the core CLI commands and their execution order. Students gain confidence navigating the Terraform workflow before writing complex configurations.

Lesson 1 • Local Values and Built-in Functions

Introduces locals for intermediate computations and the Terraform function library. Students simplify complex expressions and reduce repetition in configurations.

Lesson 2 • HCL Syntax and Structure

Covers blocks, arguments, identifiers, and comments in HCL. Understanding syntax is prerequisite to writing any valid Terraform resource definition.

Lesson 3 • Data Types and Expressions

Explains primitive types, collection types, and expression evaluation in HCL. Students write dynamic configurations using type-aware expressions.

Lesson 4 • Variables and Outputs

Teaches input variable declaration, default values, validation rules, and output values. Students parameterize configurations to avoid hard-coded values.

Lesson 1 • Data Sources

Introduces data source blocks for querying existing infrastructure without managing it. Students integrate external data into configurations to avoid duplication.

Lesson 2 • Resource Meta-Arguments

Covers count, for_each, lifecycle, and provider meta-arguments for advanced resource control. Students create multiple resource instances and control update behavior.

Lesson 3 • Understanding Terraform Providers

Explains the provider plugin model, the Terraform Registry, and provider versioning. Students configure providers correctly before declaring any resources.

Lesson 4 • Writing Resource Blocks

Covers resource block syntax, meta-arguments, and reading provider documentation. Students translate provider docs into working resource definitions.

Lesson 1 • State Commands and Operations

Teaches terraform state subcommands for inspecting, moving, and removing state entries. Students perform safe state surgery to fix drift and refactoring issues.

Lesson 2 • State Security and Access Control

Addresses encryption, access policies, and secret management for state files. Students apply least-privilege access to prevent unauthorized infrastructure changes.

Lesson 3 • How Terraform State Works

Explains the state file structure, what it stores, and why it is critical to Terraform operations. Students understand the risks of state corruption and how to prevent it.

Lesson 4 • State Locking and Consistency

Covers state locking mechanisms that prevent concurrent modifications and data corruption. Students enable locking on their backend and handle lock errors gracefully.

Lesson 1 • Calling and Configuring Modules

Covers the module block syntax, source argument options, and passing variable values. Students integrate public and private modules into existing configurations.

Lesson 2 • Module Composition Patterns

Covers layered architecture, wrapper modules, and module-to-module output chaining. Students build multi-tier infrastructure from composable module building blocks.

Lesson 3 • Module Versioning and the Registry

Explains semantic versioning for modules and publishing to the Terraform Registry. Students pin module versions to ensure reproducible infrastructure deployments.

Lesson 4 • Designing Reusable Modules

Teaches principles for building flexible, composable modules with minimal coupling. Students refactor monolithic configurations into well-scoped, reusable components.

Lesson 1 • Version Control for Terraform Code

Covers Git branching strategies, .gitignore rules for Terraform, and commit conventions. Students apply source control best practices to infrastructure code repositories.

Lesson 2 • Secrets and Credential Management

Addresses safe injection of credentials into Terraform without storing them in code. Students configure environment variables, vaults, and dynamic credentials for providers.

Lesson 3 • Code Review and Pull Request Workflows

Teaches plan output review, automated checks in pull requests, and approval gates. Students integrate terraform plan into peer review to catch issues before apply.

Lesson 4 • Environment Strategies for Teams

Compares workspace-per-environment, directory-per-environment, and account-per-environment patterns. Students select the strategy that matches their organization's risk and complexity needs.

Lesson 1 • Unit Testing Terraform Modules

Teaches the native Terraform test framework for writing unit and integration tests. Students write test files that verify module behavior without full infrastructure deployment.

Lesson 2 • Formatting and Static Analysis

Introduces terraform fmt, terraform validate, and third-party linting tools. Students enforce consistent style and catch configuration errors without deploying infrastructure.

Lesson 3 • Policy as Code with Sentinel and OPA

Introduces policy-as-code tools to enforce organizational guardrails on Terraform plans. Students write policies that block non-compliant infrastructure before it is applied.

Lesson 4 • Integration and End-to-End Testing

Covers deploying real infrastructure in ephemeral environments to validate full configurations. Students design test pipelines that provision, assert, and destroy test environments automatically.

Lesson 1 • Automating Terraform in CI Runners

Covers configuring CI runner environments, installing Terraform, and managing credentials securely. Students produce reusable pipeline templates for Terraform projects.

Lesson 2 • Terraform Cloud and Remote Operations

Introduces Terraform Cloud as a managed platform for remote runs, state, and policies. Students configure workspaces in Terraform Cloud and trigger runs from version control.

Lesson 3 • CI/CD Concepts for Infrastructure

Adapts software CI/CD principles to infrastructure provisioning workflows. Students map pipeline stages to Terraform commands and identify where human gates are needed.

Lesson 4 • Drift Detection and Remediation

Covers scheduled terraform plan runs to detect configuration drift and automated remediation strategies. Students build pipelines that alert on drift and optionally self-heal infrastructure.