9.1. Exam Strategy

Pace yourself. With roughly 60 questions in 60 minutes, you have about a minute each. Most questions are answerable in well under that — bank the surplus for the few that need thought. Don't let one hard question burn five minutes.

Flag and return. If a question isn't obvious within ~30 seconds, choose your best guess, flag it, and move on. Momentum matters, and later questions sometimes jog your memory for earlier ones. Reserve the final minutes for flagged items.

Read the whole question, then the whole answer set. The exam isn't trying to trick you, but it does test precision. Distinguish what a command does from what it doesn't (e.g., plan is read-only on infrastructure; validate needs no credentials). Read every option before selecting — the best answer may be the last one.

Watch for absolutes. Options containing "always," "never," "all," or "only" are frequently wrong, because Terraform's real behavior usually has nuance. Conversely, measured statements ("typically," "in most cases") are often correct.

Use elimination. On multiple choice, remove the clearly wrong options first; on multi-select, evaluate each option independently as its own true/false statement and pick all that apply — partial credit is not given, so don't under- or over-select.

Trust your first instinct on concepts you know. Change an answer only if you have a concrete reason, not a vague doubt.