TL;DR: Learn AWS concepts first, then use Terraform to declare a small network, compute service, storage, and database. Understand plan, apply, state, modules, IAM, and teardown before building production infrastructure.
Learn the Cloud Model
Understand regions, availability zones, networking, identity, compute, storage, databases, and billing. Draw the architecture before writing configuration.
Terraform Workflow
Practice formatting, validation, planning, applying, reviewing diffs, remote state, locking, variables, outputs, and modules. Treat plans as reviewable changes, not buttons to click.
Build Safely
Start in a sandbox account with least-privilege credentials, budget alerts, tagging, and a documented destroy procedure. Never commit secrets or apply unknown modules blindly.
The Portfolio Project
Provision a private network, a small service, a managed database, logs, and a deployment role across development and staging. Document what is managed and how drift is detected.