What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)? What is Terraform's core workflow?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Describing and managing infrastructure using code, replacing manual clicks in cloud consoles.

Core benefits:

• Version control: Infrastructure changes are reviewable and reversible (Git history)
• Repeatability: The same code produces consistent results across environments (dev/staging/prod)
• Automation: Integrates with CI/CD to keep infrastructure changes in sync with application changes
• Documentation: Code is documentation — clearly describes the current architecture

Core Terraform Concepts

Provider: API integration for cloud platforms (aws, google, azure)

Resource: Actual cloud resources being created (EC2, S3 bucket, VPC)

State: A file that tracks the state of created resources (terraform.tfstate)

Module: Reusable combinations of resources

Core Workflow

terraform init # Download providers, initialize backend terraform plan # Preview changes to be made (dry run) terraform apply # Actually create/modify resources terraform destroy # Destroy all resources

Declarative vs Imperative

Terraform uses a declarative style: you describe the "desired end state," not "how to get there." Terraform calculates the diff and determines execution order.