HashiCorp Terraform Cloud & Enterprise Exam Survival Guide

Window: Global | Org/team-focused Terraform | ~60 Q / 60–90 min

Must-do topics

• Workspaces: CLI vs remote execution, VCS-driven runs, variable sets, run triggers
• Sentinel policies: policy-as-code, enforce before/after plan/apply
• Private module registry: publishing, version pinning, org-wide reuse
• Remote execution: runs in Terraform Cloud agents; drift detection; speculative plans
• Team/org mgmt: SSO, RBAC, org policies, audit logs
• Cost estimation: built-in estimate at plan stage

Top traps (avoid)

• Forgetting that local backend ≠ TFC remote backend
• Mixing up Sentinel enforcement levels (advisory, soft-mandatory, hard-mandatory)
• Using terraform apply locally when run should be remote (policy bypass)
• Not pinning module versions → breaks teams
• Mis-scoping variable sets across workspaces

Time split

• ~1 min/Q; focus on org/policy concepts, not CLI trivia

Last-48h checklist

• Sentinel enforcement levels table
• Workspace states: remote backend, locking, policy enforcement
• Cost estimation demo run
• RBAC roles overview

Quick facts

• Sentinel policies = policy-as-code gate; runs at plan
• Variable sets attach to many workspaces
• Drift detection = nightly check of state vs infra
• Agents allow remote runs inside private infra

Speed tactics

• Map scenario: team/org policy vs CLI → answer with Cloud features
• Prefer managed backend → remote state + locks + logs

Day-of mini-plan

• Warm-up: 3 Sentinel rules, 3 workspace configs
• Pace steady; skip over CLI repetition