TF-004 Use the core Terraform workflow Practice Question
You are a DevOps engineer at a large e-commerce company. The infrastructure team uses Terraform to manage AWS resources across multiple accounts. Recently, they introduced a new module that creates an S3 bucket with a bucket policy. The module is used in several environments (dev, staging, prod). After merging a pull request that updates the bucket policy to grant cross-account access to a new partner account, the 'terraform apply' in the dev environment fails with: 'Error: Error putting S3 policy: AccessDenied: Access Denied'. The team is using a remote backend (S3) with DynamoDB locking. The CI/CD pipeline runs as an IAM role with permissions to manage infrastructure. The module uses 'aws_iam_policy_document' data source to construct the policy. The error occurs only in dev, not staging or prod. What is the most likely cause and the correct course of action?
⚠ Common exam trap
HashiCorp often tests the distinction between policy syntax errors (which would appear in all environments) and IAM permission errors (which are environment-specific), leading candidates to incorrectly focus on policy validation or state locking instead of the IAM role's permissions.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Check the IAM permissions associated with the dev environment's role to ensure it has 's3:PutBucketPolicy' on the bucket.
The error 'AccessDenied' when calling 's3:PutBucketPolicy' indicates the IAM role used by the CI/CD pipeline in the dev environment lacks the necessary permission to apply the bucket policy. The module uses 'aws_iam_policy_document' to construct the policy, which is validated at plan time, so syntax errors would surface earlier. The fact that the error occurs only in dev, not staging or prod, points to an environment-specific IAM permissions issue rather than a policy syntax or state locking problem.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Verify that DynamoDB state locking is not causing the error.
Why it's wrong here
Locking errors would show a different message about acquiring lock.
- ✗
Run 'terraform validate' to check the policy document syntax.
Why it's wrong here
The error is an API access denied, not a syntax error.
- ✗
Check the bucket policy for syntax errors by comparing with staging and prod.
Why it's wrong here
Staging and prod succeeded, so syntax is likely correct.
- ✓
Check the IAM permissions associated with the dev environment's role to ensure it has 's3:PutBucketPolicy' on the bucket.
Why this is correct
The AccessDenied indicates the IAM role lacks permission to set the policy on that bucket.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This TF-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free HashiCorp certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the TF-004 exam.