Day 29 of my 30-Day Terraform Challenge was focused on exam readiness.
There was no new infrastructure to deploy today. Instead, I continued preparing for the Terraform Associate exam by taking two more full practice exams and reviewing the results alongside my Day 28 scores.
The goal was simple: use four practice exams as data.
I wanted to know whether my preparation was consistent, which domains were already strong, and which areas still needed one final review before Day 30.
GitHub reference:
https://github.com/mary20205090/30-day-Terraform-Challenge/tree/main/day_29
The Day 29 folder contains my notes and question sets for Practice Exams 3 and 4.
What I Did Today
Today I completed:
- Practice Exam 3
- Practice Exam 4
- score tracking across all four practice exams
- wrong-answer review for today’s exams
- domain review using both Day 28 and Day 29 results
I treated both exams as timed simulations and reviewed the missed questions immediately afterward.
This was less about learning new material and more about checking consistency, speed, and exam readiness.
Day 29 Scores
For Practice Exam 3, I scored:
56 / 57
98.2%
Time taken: 40 minutes
For Practice Exam 4, I scored:
56 / 57
98.2%
Time taken: 45 minutes
Both scores were strong and consistent with my Day 28 results.
The main thing I wanted from today was not just another pass. I wanted to see whether my performance stayed steady across multiple attempts.
It did.
Four-Exam Score Trend
After today, I now have four practice exam attempts across Day 28 and Day 29.
| Exam | Score | Accuracy | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice Exam 1 | 54 / 57 | 94.7% | 55 min |
| Practice Exam 2 | 56 / 57 | 98.2% | 50 min |
| Practice Exam 3 | 56 / 57 | 98.2% | 40 min |
| Practice Exam 4 | 56 / 57 | 98.2% | 45 min |
Across all four exams:
Total questions: 228
Correct answers: 222
Overall accuracy: 97.4%
The trend is encouraging.
The first score was already above the passing target, and the next three exams stayed at 98.2%. My timing also improved compared with the first attempt.
That tells me my preparation is stable. I am not relying on one good practice score.
Domain Review Across All Four Exams
I used the Day 28 and Day 29 results to assess my readiness by topic area.
| Topic Area | Missed Questions | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Terraform CLI and workflow | 0 | Strong |
| Modules | 0 | Strong |
| HCP Terraform / Terraform Cloud | 0 | Strong |
| Lifecycle rules | 0 | Strong |
| State management and refactoring | 1 | Light review |
| Providers and aliases | 1 | Improved after review |
| Variables and configuration | 2 | Main Day 29 review area |
| IaC concepts and Terraform purpose | 2 | Light conceptual review |
The pattern was clear.
My strongest areas are the Terraform workflow, modules, lifecycle behavior, and HCP Terraform concepts. The areas that need light review are not broad weaknesses. They are specific precision topics.
For Day 29, the main review area was variables and configuration, especially:
- custom variable validation
- variable value precedence
What Today’s Review Showed Me
The two questions I missed today were both in the variables and configuration area.
That gave me a clear final review target.
The key reminders were:
- variable validation checks input values
- variable defaults are fallback values
- CLI-provided values have higher precedence than defaults and automatically loaded variable files
- Terraform language behavior and provider behavior are not the same thing
These are small details, but they are exactly the kind of details that matter in a certification exam.
My Assessment
After four practice exams, I feel much more confident about my readiness.
The scores are consistently above the passing threshold, the timing is comfortable, and the missed questions are concentrated in a few narrow areas.
That is a good sign.
It means I do not need to restart from broad revision. I need one final focused review before Day 30.
My final review areas are:
- variable precedence
- variable validation
- state command distinctions
- provider alias usage
- Terraform purpose compared with cloud-specific tooling
Final Takeaway
Day 29 helped me move from general preparation to exam readiness assessment.
The biggest win was not only the score. It was the consistency across four exams.
At this stage, my focus is precision:
- knowing the exact behavior of Terraform commands
- separating similar concepts clearly
- reviewing the few domains where mistakes still appeared
- staying calm under timed conditions
The four-exam trend shows that the foundation is strong.
Now the work is to sharpen the final details before Day 30.
Follow My Journey
This is Day 29 of my 30-Day Terraform Challenge.
See you on Day 30.
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