Study HashiCorp Terraform 003 Resources and Data Sources: key concepts, common traps, and exam decision cues.
This lesson matters because Terraform configuration questions often ask whether Terraform is creating something, reading something, or wiring values together. Resources, data sources, and expressions answer different parts of that story.
| If the scenario is mostly about… | Strongest first fit |
|---|---|
| managing an object Terraform owns | resource |
| reading information Terraform does not own here | data source |
| computing or transforming values in configuration | expression |
| Trap | Better rule |
|---|---|
| treating data sources like managed resources | data sources read; resources manage |
| treating expressions like separate infrastructure | expressions wire values and logic together |
| assuming every object Terraform references must be created here | some information is only read |