How to Prompt a HashiCorp Terraform Associate Scenario Coach
Associate practice fails when it becomes a module-builder dump or a 70 percent cut score. Pin Terraform 1.9.8. Stay on the pasted objectives.
The matching generator is the HashiCorp Terraform Associate Scenario Coach (No Exam Dump) prompt. Browse related cards in the PromptDig library (Browse more prompts). When a filled run survives, share the version you actually use (Share a prompt).
Banner practice, not a HashiCorp exam
Coach original Terraform Associate 003-style scenarios from pasted objectives. No dumps, no passing score, no recalled items. Start by filling Inputs, not by asking the model to remember last week's run. If a field is blank, write NONE or NOT IN INPUTS and leave it blank through Generate. The card is built so the model cannot honestly invent a number, owner, URL, or command that you did not paste.
Paste these fields before you hit run:
Exam code I am practicing: [Exam]
Pasted objective headings I will honor: [Objectives]
Terraform CLI and provider versions in my lab: [Versions]
Backend and features I actually have (state, cloud, workspaces): [Stack]
Topics I want this session (from Objectives only): [Focus]
Facts I may use (resource types, backend name): [Facts]
What I must not request (dumps, real exam wording): [Refuse]
How many scenarios: [Count or 2]
Words I must not use: [Banned]
Time box minutes: [Time]
That inventory is the honesty ledger. Anything that does not appear there is forbidden in the draft. If you catch yourself adding a nice-to-have after the run, you are no longer using the card. You are ghostwriting. Put the extra fact in Inputs and run again.
Map each scenario to a pasted objective
Generate is numbered on purpose. Do not skip a step because the first paragraph looked done. The early steps exist to stop later prose from smuggling claims.
Walk the Generate list in order:
- Banner: practice only, not a HashiCorp exam, not a dump. Quote Exam and Versions. If Exam is not Associate 003, say so.
- Objective map: each scenario to a pasted heading. Reject Focus items not in Objectives.
- Scenario stems: original tasks using Facts, Versions, and Stack. No recalled item. No invented passing score.
- Lab steps locked to Terraform CLI version. If a provider version is unnamed, write unknown. Do not require HCP Terraform if Stack does not have it.
- Practice rubric labeled practice, not HashiCorp. Do not quote a cut score.
- Debrief: common misses mapped to Objectives. No 'this will be on the test'.
- Refuse list: dumps, reconstructed items, Professional exam crossover not in Objectives.
- Compliance pass: quote Banned words, invented backends, module-builder tasks that are not Associate objectives. Cut them.
If a step asks for a version lock, quote the version from Inputs in the output. If a step asks for a refuse list, keep the refuse list in the published artifact, not in a sidebar you delete. Reviewers should see what the model was not allowed to do.
Lock CLI and provider versions
Most failures are the same shape: a missing field gets a confident fill. A conversion rate appears. A Gradle task appears. A flash point appears. A caption appears on a job that asked for slide text only. Your review is to search the draft for numbers, names, and commands, then grep Inputs. No match means cut.
Honor the constraints as hard stops, not vibes:
- Original Terraform Associate 003 style practice. Never reproduce a live or recalled item.
- Never invent a passing score or HashiCorp NDA content.
- Not a Terraform module coding prompt. Not Professional.
- Lock CLI and provider versions from Versions.
- No emojis.
When the card says not legal advice, not certification, not an exam dump, or not a caption engine, that sentence belongs at the top of the output. Deleting it to look more finished is how you inherit risk.
Refuse dumps and Professional crossover
Finish with the compliance pass the prompt already asks for. Quote the banned-word hits. Cut them. Print character counts when the job has a cap. Print word counts when the job has a budget. List gaps as gaps. Five missing facts are more useful than one smooth paragraph.
Tags on the card (terraform associate scenario coach, hashicorp 003 practice, no exam dump) are a reminder of the job shape, not an invitation to wander into a neighboring cluster. If you need a different surface, open a different PromptDig card rather than stretching this one.
Fill the card, then run
Replace every bracket. Run on ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Read the ledger first, then the artifact. If the model invents a commit, KPI, DOI, PEL, bid, or logo, discard the run. Tighten Inputs. Run again. Share the filled card that survived, not the first draft that sounded done.