What feature stops multiple users from operating on the Terraform state at the same time?

What feature stops multiple users from operating on the Terraform state at the same time?

• A. Provider constraints
• B. Remote backends
• C. State locking
• D. Version control

Answer: (C)

State locking prevents multiple Terraform processes from modifying the same state at the same time. When you use a remote backend, Terraform acquires a lock on the state before reading or writing, and holds that lock for the duration of planning and applying. If another user tries to run an operation while the lock is active, Terraform will wait for the lock to be released or fail with a message indicating the state is locked. This ensures only one operation updates the state at once, avoiding race conditions and corrupt state. The locking mechanism is backend-specific (for example, a DynamoDB-based lock with an S3 backend), and it’s separate from version control or provider constraints, which do not manage concurrent state modification.

State locking prevents multiple Terraform processes from modifying the same state at the same time. When you use a remote backend, Terraform acquires a lock on the state before reading or writing, and holds that lock for the duration of planning and applying. If another user tries to run an operation while the lock is active, Terraform will wait for the lock to be released or fail with a message indicating the state is locked. This ensures only one operation updates the state at once, avoiding race conditions and corrupt state. The locking mechanism is backend-specific (for example, a DynamoDB-based lock with an S3 backend), and it’s separate from version control or provider constraints, which do not manage concurrent state modification.